Alexandria, Minnesota

Leandra has a family reunion this weekend in Alexandria, Minnesota. We were here two years ago for a family reunion and I was slightly ticked the way that she sold it to me. I asked where Alexandria was and she told me "west of the (Twin) Cities." Now when someone says that to me, I am thinking Minneapolis suburb...except that we kept going and going. I finally asked again once we were past St. Cloud and that's when she said we were almost there. In her defense, it was west of the Twin Cities, but so is Seattle. I've learned to do my own research before taking trips.

Present Day.

We left early Thursday morning from Evansville and drove up to Milwaukee, Wis. to stay with the Plutas. I thought I was going to have a dinner gathering with Sinfonians...but I found out that it was on Friday. Whoops!

We had a nice and simple BLT dinner (thank you Barb) and a quick visit to Aunt Holly and the kids (Uncle Tom was sleeping). Came back, shot the breeze and headed to bed.

Friday morning was another early wake-up call as we had an eight hour drive ahead of us. Of course, that is assuming the traffic would be perfect, which is wasn't. We had a major construction back-up by the Wisconsin Dells. Once we got past the cities, we had another slow crawl just west of Minneapolis. (Long story...) Right before Monticello, we were held up by an accident that was cleareed out by the time we got there. Boo.

We made one planned stop at St. Cloud State University to see if I could get an updated alumni list from them. Nice campus, but I didn't really get a chance to look around ecause we were in a time crunch. As far the alumni list goes, I didn't have any luck...but I am going to try again.

We are in Alexandria with the fam. Tomorrow morning, I'll be heading out to get a century done on a "Rails to Trails" route. I was told it is pretty flat so it should be nice and easy...and fast. Hopefully the wind is light. I'm not sure what direction I am going, but the path does run through enough civilization with food and supplies when I need it. I can either double back toward St. Cloud or continue going west into some uncharted territory.

With a long day and flat road....who knows how far I will go.