Chapter 42 - The Twin Cities
August 8, 1999
7/23/99 Spring Cleaning Day. A little late for Spring, but we're out of the dusty deserts and plains at last, and have guests arriving tomorrow for a week's stay. Dust is literally everywhere. Further west, it seemed like the slightest breezed filled the air with a fine dust, that somehow seeped into the trailer even when it was closed up tight. Every horizontal surface felt gritty a few hours after being cleaned. Meanwhile, the outside of the truck and trailer has acquired a collection of dirt, road film, gobs of tar, tree sap, insects, and unidentifiable blobs.
The Minneapolis NW/Maple Grove KOA is a fairly luxurious place - attractive, spacious, well-maintained, and expensive. But it also has one of the shortest lists of park rules of any place we've stayed. There are no prohibitions against clotheslines, outside storage, vehicle maintenance, and best of all, vehicle washing.
Dave celebrated by spending all day doing a thorough scrubbing of truck and trailer exterior, while Helen scrubbed and vacuumed all interior surfaces, including all the Venetian blinds. The latter all got taken outside, where they could be washed with lots of soapy water and blasted with the garden hose.
7/24 Up fairly early by our standards, to make the long drive across Minneapolis/St. Paul to the airport to pick up Andy and Kat Nagel from a 10:11 AM flight. They had been up much earlier (4:45 AM, EDT) to catch the plane in Toronto, after having driven from Rochester, NY to Toronto the night before. Then back to the trailer to kick back and relax.
In the evening, we drove back into the city for dinner and a delightful evening of conversation at Steve and Naomi Staruch's home. We enjoyed seeing their carefully restored pre-war bungalow, too. They were about to leave for a vacation in India on mission work. We hope it was successful and enjoyable. Steve is a friend and fellow singer who moved here from Rochester, NY. He is a classical cellist, sang in Madrigalia with Nagel's and Damouth's in Rochester a decade ago, and now is a member of the Dale Warland Singers and a classical disk jockey at the Northfield/St. Olaf College NPR station ("America's First publicly supported radio station"). Naomi is a banker and also a singer with Dale Warland.
Most of the country is in an extended heat wave. Minneapolis has been, and will continue to be, in the mid-90's, dropping only to the low 70's at night, and with very high humidity. This is perhaps the first time since we've owned the trailer that the air conditioner has been on 24 hours a day for days on end.
7/25 Hot again - We drove to the huge new REI store, where Dave successfully exercised the lifetime warranty on Tilley hats, exchanging his old and fraying Tilley for a brand new one, with no argument and no money. Andy tried on a Tilley and then bought a different brand. I think he already regrets the decision. I could spend all day wandering around this store - an incredible mecca for outdoor equipment junkies. They have a tall rock-climbing wall in a glass tower near the entrance, large enough to have several levels of climbing difficulty and room for several people climbing at once. They also have an entire room devoted to special exhibits, which this month was photos by wildlife photographer Art Woolfe. Eagles in flight over craggy mountain tops, red leaves on a green carpet of mosses, sunrises on distant meandering streams, wolf pups at play, wood lilies nodding in a forest glade ... Good stuff - if we had a place to put it, we'd have bought some.
Then we chose to do mostly indoor things to get out of the heat - the Weiseman Art Museum on the University of Minnesota campus, and the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices. The latter is a repository for every imaginable kind of medical quackery from the late-19th century to the present (and I was surprised to see how much of this stuff is still happening today, in spite of vigorous prosecution by the FDA). Bob McCoy, founder, owner, curator, salesman, and as far as I could see, sole employee of the museum, was on hand to give entertaining lectures about many items in the collection.
Every new bit of technology seems to have been very profitably sold to the gullible public as a cure for whatever ailed them. Most, like the electromagnetic belts, magnetic shoe soles, colored lights, vacuum helmets for curing baldness, and vacuum pumps for enlarging breasts, simply relieved people of their money in a relatively harmless way. Some, like the flasks of radium ore used to "re-invigorate" one's drinking water, probably killed or maimed thousands of people. Occasionally, people come to the museum to actually use one or another of these devices, still believing in its efficacy (the actively harmful items are in locked cases).
Many of these items were developed and marketed by people who actually believed that they performed as advertised. Other products were outright fraud. A very common item with many different variations was a large impressive cabinet covered with cryptically labeled knobs, dials and gauges, and containing a random collection of whatever electronic devices were new and impressive at the time - coils of wire, capacitors, vacuum tubes, etc. - which did absolutely nothing but looked impressive. A medical practitioner typically would buy or lease one of these machines from its inventor. Then, with a patient sitting nearby, would twirl the knobs, watch the gauges, pronounce the patient cured, and collect a lot of money. One of the most interesting of these machines could also be used to cure plant diseases and eradicate all harmful insects from farmer's fields located up to 70 miles away. There were dozens of variations of this kind of gadget.
Only in the last few decades has the FDA had enough power to actually force this kind of thing off the market and prosecute the perpetrators. But new ways of fleecing the gullible appear far faster than the FDA can keep up with. Interestingly, many of the exhibits in the museum are on loan from the FDA. And new devices arrive at the museum almost daily, often mailed anonymously by people who are ashamed to have owned the devices.
In late afternoon, the four of us walked some of the riverfront through the historic area where Saint Anthony Falls (the only significant waterfall on the entire Mississippi) provided power for lumber mills and later, for flour mills. The huge Pillsbury and Gold Medal flour mills operated at least partially on water power until the mid-1950's. A pair of locks allows relatively large vessels to bypass the falls and continue up the river past the Twin Cities (although just another 8 miles up, apparently.) We saw only small pleasure boats using the giant lock.
While we were here, the Corps of Engineers proposed an ambitious plan to replace or rebuild many of the existing Mississippi River locks, making their transit much faster, and supposedly making commercial barge traffic so much more efficient that the huge construction cost will be recovered quickly in cheaper shipping rates. This has, of course, created a huge storm of protests, based on conflicting financial and ecological analyses of the project.
There is a great deal to explore along the river front, but the heat and humidity was oppressive, and we retreated to the air-conditioned truck, and then back to the cool haven of the trailer, where we had left the air conditioner running full blast while we were gone. We subsequently learned that Minneapolis tied the all-time record high temperature on this day, at 99 degrees. And we were out walking around in it! It's very humid too, and the heat index also set new records for several days.
Thank goodness for the Internet and World Wide Web! We were able to effortlessly check the Twin Cities events calendar months in advance from 1000 miles away, discovering a Chanticleer concert far enough in advance to get excellent tickets. This group is the only full-time professional choral group in America, and has been the epitome of excellence toward which the rest of us a cappella singers strive for about two decades. The four of us attended the concert this evening, and Chanticleer was even better than usual, if that's possible. Interestingly, the new Music Director, announced with much fanfare less than a year ago, didn't work out and has already departed. Joe Jennings is out of retirement and back in charge, and a search for yet another new director is underway.
7/26 Today offered a temporary break in the heat wave, so we spent the entire afternoon at the Minneapolis Zoo. Portions of this zoo are really well-done - world class. Other portions are rather poor. Strangely, the "Minnesota Trail" exhibit, containing species native to Minnesota, was one of the worst sections of the zoo - poorly designed animal enclosures, empty enclosures, missing signs, etc. The "Tropic Trail" was very well done - attractive and functional animal enclosures, lush tropical plantings, and orchids blooming profusely. The zoo has several exhibits of nocturnal animals - kept inside buildings with daytime lighting sufficiently dim to encourage the animals to be active, but bright enough so that humans can watch. It was interesting to see the slow loris and the northern flying squirrel actively moving around their enclosure, for example (although "active" is a gross overstatement for the slow loris, whose every motion is glacial. We've lived near flying squirrels most of our lives, but have never seen one in the wild.
The zoo contains a large IMAX theater with 3D technology, and we stopped to rest our feet and see "T-Rex". The photography and the 3D imagery were, as usual, spectacular. Those who remember the dim fuzzy 3D movies of a few decades ago should go see this new version. By using two separate, synchronized, IMAX cameras for the two stereo images, each using the full IMAX 105mm film format, they have achieved nearly the same brightness and spectacular resolution as the familiar 2D IMAX. The advertising claims that if one of the light bulbs used in these projectors were placed on the moon, it could be seen from earth with the naked eye. The 3D effects are very realistic. When an archaeologist in the film spit a rock with a violent hammer blow, and a rock splinter flew out toward the audience, everyone around me ducked to avoid it.
But the weak attempt at plot and story-telling was pathetic. The various producers of IMAX films are trying to make the transition from their traditional "travelogue" format to main stream "story telling" mode - and they haven't quite figured it out yet.
Stopped on the way home to pick up our daily supply of ice and tonic. Didn’t realize this would become a daily pattern for the week the Nagel’s were here – relaxing with a cool one at the end of the day. The slow ice-making rate and limited storage of the small freezer in an RV absorption refrigerator has no hope of keeping up with the ice demand of even two people, much less four.
7/27 Warmer, but still relatively comfortable today. It's supposed to be hotter for the rest of the week, so we did the next of the outdoor items on our prioritized list - first going to the University of Minnesota's Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. This had a great deal of interest to all of us, and occupied several hours. It contains beautifully designed annual and perennial beds, grassy vistas framed by huge old specimen trees, paths through glades and forests of labeled trees, and large research areas.
We drove through a research area where many different types of shrubs have been neatly clipped into formal hedges - row after row of hedges of all kinds and sizes - apparently investigating the attractiveness and durability of the various species in the local (USDA Zone 4) climate. Another area had an acre of small plots of ornamental grass - more varieties of grasses than I knew existed - again investigating their hardiness.
We looked at a very interesting demonstration planting of several identical maple trees which had been shipped and planted with different techniques - bare root, balled and burlaped, planted with enriched soil in a big hole, planted in a small hole, etc. The trees had been planted three years ago, and there are now significant size variations.
Later in the afternoon, we drove to the Eloise Butler Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary, 14 acres of wilderness imbedded in a larger city park, only a couple of miles from downtown Minneapolis. A network of trails leads past many labeled specimens of local wild plants. Tucked away in the middle of the woods is a small Visitor's Center staffed by knowledgeable volunteers who helped Helen identify those few wildflowers that she didn't already know. We didn't see many birds along the trails (not surprising on a hot summer afternoon), but enjoyed watching the antics of chickadees and downy woodpeckers at the feeders, while we rested on the shady porch at the Visitor's Center.
We stopped for a good steak dinner on the way home, getting back just as a thunderstorm came through - cooling things down somewhat, and providing a spectacular sunset as the sun broke through the roiling clouds of the retreating storm. The radio was broadcasting tornado warnings for the entire region, but apparently none actually touched down.
7/29 Yesterday was a rest day, spent hanging out at the trailer. Today, we spent nearly all day touring the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, housed in an impressive 1915 building with a tasteful recent multi-story addition. The items on exhibit were thoughtfully arranged and ran the gamut from Classical Greece and Rome up through the 20th C. Woodcuts from The Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493 were on display. There were many Period Rooms. The Chinese Reception Hall (Wu Family, 1600-1625), and the Scholar’s study (1797) with it’s adjoining garden were especially beautiful with the polished wood, carved screens, carefully selected stones and plants, and subtle lighting that form the elegant peacefulness that are the hallmark of the best Chinese design.
The museum has a huge collection of 20th century American and European Industrial Design which Dave found especially interesting. Among the memorable items: the Robert Gusendorf 1936 presentation drawing of the 1937 Nash Lafayette, a red coupe; the Gerald Summers 1934 Armchair made from a single sheet of plywood – without joints – all one fluid set of lines. I wonder if it was comfortable? An ice gun (crusher) from 1934 was a Buckminster Fuller design as was the Dymaxion automobile.
7/30 While Dave relaxed at the trailer, Andy, Kat, and Helen set off for the Bell Natural History Museum. Although the dioramas with stuffed wildlife were well done, the entire museum feels like a converted University classroom building, which it probably is. Without air conditioning on this hot day, the displays lost some of their appeal. Even the bright, very much larger than life moth and butterfly paintings of Francis Lee Jacques couldn’t hold our interest for long.
The Minnesota Museum of American Art was notable more for the building it was in than the collection, but beware, the only parking we could find in downtown Saint Paul was in a ramp with tight spaces. The 1902 Landmark center is a refurbished federal courts system building with delightful details of beautiful marbles, polished wood, high ceilings, a central atrium with balconies, and copper roofs with fanciful Gothic minarets outside. The collection of American art was dominated by Saint Paul native Paul Manship works, which were donated, en masse, to the museum upon his death. (Rochester folk may remember his armillary Sphere that stands in one of the George Eastman House gardens.)
We were too late to see the Schubert collection of antique musical instruments housed in the same building. It closes at 3 p.m.
7/31 The Walker Art Center is a gem. It shows modern art, which we don’t usually appreciate. But the Art Center is located in a part of the city containing the old mansions and beautiful cathedrals of an earlier more prosperous time. The outdoor Sculpture Garden is adjacent to the Art Center in the heart of this old opulence. The sculptures, all 20th century, were each set in enough space, often within an enclosing hedge, or along a wide path, sometimes under a sheltering tree, so that each could be enjoyed without the distraction of another. We especially liked the two Isamu Noguchi works, one of smoothed granite boulders, the other of metal plate. The Henry Moore Standing Figure: Knife Edge was just plain ugly. We spent quite a while studying the 50’ high Standing Glass Fish by Frank Gehry. The fish, taller than the palm trees nearby, made of plate-glass-like scales was in a reflecting pond in the Conservatory.
The dominant art was an Oldenburg and van Bruggen sculpture/fountain called Spoonbridge and Cherry, 1985-88. A single bright red 1,200-lb cherry is supported on the tip of a 52’ stainless steel spoon lying prone in a shallow pond. The fountain water bubbles out of the upright stem of the cherry and runs down over it, making the red cherry very shiny. Promotional literature shows the spoon with distant downtown buildings hovering over the slight arch in the handle of the spoon.
But the most impressive sculpture was the footbridge (Siah Anajani 1988) that connected the sculpture garden with the elegant neighborhood – across 16 lanes of I-94. "Pink and blue adjacent double arches, one inverted, concatenary cables, and steel girders combine to make a fascinating and graceful structure". Again, this elegantly sorted form of lines was beautifully arrayed against a backdrop of treetops and skyscrapers.
Then we went to the Minn. Science Museum. It had displays on Bears and Art Machines (active mechanisms which superficially appear to do something useful, but in fact are simply cute animations) and a bunch of hands-on educational exhibits, (for example, an interactive computer model of the formation of thunderstorm clouds - greatly simplified from reality, of course, but instructive for children and entertaining for non-scientific adults.)
Based on a favorable newspaper review, we had dinner at the Khyber Pass Afghani restaurant - a cuisine new to all of us, although with quite a bit of similarity to Indian food. Several of the items we ordered were very good, as well as interestingly different from anything we've had before.
8/1 A long drive north to the Runestone Museum in Alexandria, MN, containing various artifacts from a 14th century visitation to this area by the "Vikings". The runestone itself is of questionable authenticity, but there is little doubt that the Norse explorers of that era actually penetrated this far into the interior of North America. A large building out back contained old farm equipment, including the obligatory steam thresher.
Later, we stopped at Munsinger Gardens - a huge and very impressive city-operated floral display garden, on the bank of the Mississippi in St. Cloud. All the many benches and swings placed in shade along the river were occupied when we strolled by. The park was huge old trees and shrubs, mature plantings that had been well taken care of for many years - a pleasure to see in this day of instant landscaping and short-term municipal budget considerations. Back at the trailer, the evening had cooled enough so that we built the first campfire in months, and roasted sausages for dinner.
8/2 Dave delivered the Nagel's to the airport in the morning, and then spent most of the rest of the day running an accumulated list of shopping errands. Finally got to a Goodyear dealer who agreed to replace the bad truck tire under warranty - at a price pro-rated for tread wear. The tire has to be ordered, but should arrive tomorrow.
8/05 Helen went back to REI for maps, a new pocket knife, and some lightweight freeze dried camp meals.
The Normandale Japanese Garden on the campus of the nearby Community College is small, but those two acres are packed with footpaths, two lacquered red bridges, a zig-zag stone bridge, weeping willows, windswept pines, granite viewing steps, three hand-carved stone lanterns, shrines, special rocks, a stream, a waterfall, a lagoon, an island, two shelters, and even two tiny buildings. All beautifully maintained, but just too much.
8/06 I (Helen) couldn’t leave without seeing the Japanese Garden at Como Park, so after a busy day of putting together the dry ingredients for 11 days of meals (2 people for 3 per day = 66 meals) and sealing them in plastic bags, I abandoned all that and drove back into Minneapolis one last time to see it. What a surprise to find an expansive sweep of mature parkland in the center of the city, vanishing into the horizon, apparently. The golf course had graceful arched Japanese bridges over the watercourses with clusters of huge tall trees punctuating the greensward. The boathouse on the lake was a spiffy white two-story structure with screened in porch. People were using this park, its jogging trails, the boats on the lake, picnicking under mature trees. This is what Central Park in New York City and The Golden Gate Park in San Francisco were supposed to be like. The centerpiece, for me, was an elaborate domed greenhouse filled with exotic plants, statuary, and fountains. It was so large that paths wandered around the greenery and I even got lost once in a tangle of palm trees and ferns. This 1915 conservatory with a 100’ diameter dome 64’ high is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The only way into the Japanese Garden was through this conservatory and out a back side door, but the Japanese Garden was staffed with volunteer greeters who were quick to tell of the special features of this garden (the usual waterfall, quiet walks, specially placed boulders, reflection ponds, moon bridges, stone lanterns, and the greenery). A feature I hadn’t noticed in other such gardens was a neatly pruned hedge with a rounded top about the same height as the granite boulder it surrounded and completely encircled, forcing one to notice the similarity of shapes and textures.
I (Helen) lingered in the garden until early evening, and had to find a guard to let me out through the conservatory as it was locked up tight. Although I knew the adjoining zoo was closing, the wide-open gate and the sight of people walking through it and the attractive plantings lured me in to ‘take a quick look.’ All the animals were in for the night, but families were still strolling around, reading the information posted and looking into the empty enclosures! Toddlers were excited at the animal sculptures and the stray birds that flew in, teenagers were closing the concession stands, and people like me were just enjoying the coolth of the evening.An associated kiddie amusement park was crowded with young families spending a pleasant, inexpensive evening.
8/7 We've spent much of the past several days organizing our canoeing and camping gear, purchasing provisions, and poring over topographical maps, planning the route for our wilderness canoe expedition in the Boundary Waters - millions of acres containing thousands of lakes and streams, spanning the international boundary between Minnesota and Ontario. We had initially thought we'd do our canoeing in Ontario this time, but were unable to find adequate maps and guide literature. So we'll stay on the U.S. side - but in a portion of the wilderness we haven't previously visited.
This morning, we hooked up the trailer and headed north, expecting to spend the night in a campground near Ely, Minnesota, and then to store the trailer for 10 days or so while we head back into the woods. We are *not* taking a cell phone or radio into the wilderness with us, and will be completely out of touch with the outside world until about August 19.