Days 31, 32, &33

JULY 9, 10, & 11 Minneapolis, MN

For brevity's sake, I'm only going to summarise our time in Minneapolis; in truth, I spent much of it sitting in front of a computer, trying to get this up to date. When dad and I weren't catching up on journals, the blog, and much needed rest, we spent time with Steve and Chris, and their neighbors, Rhonda and Kelly. All of them are huge dog people: Chris and Steve have two dogs, Riley and Hanna (pronounced Honna); Riley's a hyper dog and Hanna is a cute Rottweiler who just wants to be petted. Rhonda and Kelly have one dog, Murphy, who is amazingly soft. Since neither Chris and Steve nor Rhonda and Kelly have kids, the dogs have filled that role for them.

On Friday, we drove down to North Field to visit the colleges of St. Olaf and Carleton. Just off of appearances, St. Olaf has a prettier campus, but then we visited Carleton in the afternoon, when it was close to 90 outside; that might have affected my opinion some what. Both struck me as very good colleges. That afternoon, as we left Carleton, I asked if they could send me the leaflets they give out at the end of the visit, because I was on a bike, "Of course!" the woman behind the desk said, "Wait, where did you say you were from...?"
"Oregon." I replied.
"And you rode here?!" I only nodded, smiling. For the next ten minutes, dad and I had an enthralled audience, as we told about our trip: everyone in the admissions office, parents, tour guides, admissions counselors, even prospective students, were silent as we spoke, then exploded with questions whenever we paused. By the time we left, we had given everyone a copy of our blog address, and both dad and I felt like celebrities.

That afternoon, I also called my Aunt Kathy's first grade class in Las Vegas (I have been sending them letters all trip, and Aunt Kathy thought they would enjoy having an actual conversation). "Hello, this is Seth." I said when Aunt Kathy picked up the phone.
"Well, hello Seth! You caught us right in the middle of a spelling test." I started to apologize and tell her I could call back latter, when I heard her saying to her class, "Okay everyone, put down your pencils and gather around the phone." They put me on speaker phone, and I was greeted by a thunderous, "HELLO!" from a classroom full of first graders. I told them a little about my trip, and then let them ask questions.
"Have you seen any bats?"
"Well, no, we're usually asleep by the time it gets dark."
"Have you seen any bunnies?"
"Oh yeah, lots!"
"Have you seen any black bunnies?"
"No, most of them are gray or brown."
"How do you get dressed?"
That one had me a little stumped. I figured I shouldn't give some sarcastic reply, which left me stuttering, "Well, ah, I'm in my tent...."
"Just like you do, silly." Aunt Kathy saved me. "Are there any more questions?... No, well then lets say goodbye!"
"GOODBYE!" they shouted.
"Goodbye!" I replied, then hung up, savoring my second dose of celebrity for the day. It's really amazing to see how excited that class got about my adventure. That night there was a big windstorm, so we sat inside, and went to bed around 10:00, the earliest night for our entire stay in Minneapolis. The next morning, we were heading back onto the road.