Days 3 and 4 – WI to MN. Visiting my friend Matt in Dalton

Thursday July 26 and Friday July 27, 2018 (full photo album here)

Waking up early in the morning on whichever day of the week it was, because I had already lost all sense of time, I did my best to quickly make it out to the truck in the parking lot of the hotel. Yes, it is admittedly a weird sensation to walk out of hotel and get back into the ultimate camping vehicle, but I was nevertheless glad I had secured a solid night’s rest and a very hot shower to start me off on a long day of driving. The first stop for the day was a suburb of Minneapolis called Brooklyn Center Minnesota; it was located a few hours north west of me. Knowing the sheer number of miles ahead of me on the trip, and having previously been meticulous with the care of my truck, I wanted to to go to a Firestone and use my lifetime alignment/tire rotation/wheel balance package. After rotating the tires and ensuring that the tire pressure was correct while each wheel was still balanced, the Firestone technicians were barely able to fit my now lengthened truck onto the steering alignment rack.To my combination of dismay and self-satisfied sense of proud annoyance, however, the steering rack was not able to lift the weight of my loaded and modified truck, to be able to align the front end. In effect, this means I may need to find a commercial truck shop along the way, where they will have heavy-duty tools capable of aligning the gigantic weight of my trip vehicle. We shall see.

Later that afternoon, after having fed the truck with diesel fuel and myself with truck stop diner food, it was back on the road, heading to Dalton Minnesota. Dalton is the current home of my friend Matt, a pastor with whom I attended Yale. Matt is a Lutheran Pastor who also is the pastor of a small Presbyterian Church in his area, meaning he leads a very busy life indeed. As such, it was even more satisfying to be able to visit and offer him a chance to escape the responsibilities which come with a pair of jobs of that sort. We spend a good deal of time visiting and catching up ourselves; I got to see both of the churches where he works and his parsonage; and I even got to help make sure his new-to-him used car was in great running order. This PT Cruiser or, as he likes to call it, his Pastoral Transportation Cruiser, is black and matches his normal clerical attire. Very satisfying, then, to have also helped to wash and wax this to a brilliant mirror-like shine. We thought it made sense to pose in front of the truck:

I had the chance to finally experience Fleet Farm, a more western Midwestern paradise of outdoorsy gear + auto parts + firearms + a miniature hardware store, all in a Walmart-esque layout …

… and it was a genuine struggle to not buy one of nearly everything. I don’t care for kayaking, though canoeing can be fun – their presentation of canoe gear and accessories was good enough to make me REALLY think for a minute about “well, wait, maybe I could figure out a way to get a canoe mounted onto my truck for this big trip.” I decided against it, but that is some kind of powerful marketing and display arrangement. It was difficult to leave that store, I must admit….

 

After a theater screening of the new Mission Impossible film, which was a fun action and adventure film, we called it a night and got some sleep. The next day, we decided to do some grilling, after earlier in the day experiencing the local bison burger delicacy…

… and that meant a day filled with savory meals, delightful friendship, and fun projects to enjoy in the unseasonably cool 60 degree weather for rural Minnesota in high summer.

We also explored nearby Fergus Falls, which gave me a chance to try out my boating hat on land…

… and I got the chance to check out a delightful local used bookstore + board game shop, with a series of delightful signs like this one…

… before seeing the eponymous Falls:

With the lion’s share of a fun Day 4 behind us, we settled in at the parsonage. Perhaps most important of all, as a pair of Cinema Buffs, we took the time to screen Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves followed by my first screening of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I can certainly claim to have been entertained by both films at times, but particularly in the case of Star Wars, I continue to feel let down by Disney and the way that they have taken this intellectual property empire. Even so, all the better to enjoy with a fellow Star Wars fan who is also coming to terms with the ways in which the modern world have changed the classics of the 1970s and 1980s. Meeting the cat named Marshmallow rounded out my visit to very small town Dalton Minnesota, and helped make me feel even more welcome.

Waking up on the beginning of Day 5, I bid Matt farewell and began to go through western Minnesota to I29, to follow the corridor down through all of the Dakotas to Sioux Falls. I finally encountered a truly big sky with no human beings on the trip, and this made my heart sing:

Although it is against the planned intention of the trip (to be spent in solitude as much as possible)… it was still sweet to spend time with a dear old friend near the beginning of this grand trek. Not yet camped on this camping trip, as I had a set of visits to do up front – but as in many other ways during the months ahead, I was rapidly (and perhaps permanently) sprucing up my ability to roll with the punches in any circumstances. This is one of many ways in which this trip is an invaluable and sweet boon, to my growth as a human being.

Equally sweet was adding another sticker for Minnesota to my map: