Sept. 10 Day 24 Prior Lake, MN (outside St. Paul?Minneapolis)
Today was a travel day, ending with a nice meal in the coffee shop of the Mystic Casino, who owns the RV park. I tried walleye, a popular fish up here. It was a very, very mild fish. The tartar sauces (two types) were excellent. I would recommend eating here.
Staying at Dakotah Meadows RV Park?50 amps, FHU, spacious back-ins on the perimeter, sites narrow on one side on the interior pull-throughs, WiFi $32, with an RV wash with a CATWALK
Sept. 11 Day 25 Prior Lake, MN (outside St. Paul?Minneapolis)
We got up at 5:30 to get to the Fort Snelling State Park Visitors? Center by 8:00. We fought the horrible rush hour traffic, only to fail. The address on its website is for the State Department of Natural Resources offices in downtown St. Paul. They are the people who govern all the state parks. We could see lots of places on our To Do List, but none opened for almost two hours.
We did a frantic search on our I-Phones, and found 2 addresses and 2 phone numbers for FSSP, so we called them. They say that no GPS works and the lady gave me complex directions.
We decided we needed a detailed map of both of the Twin Cities, so we headed to AAA. The lady there was amazing and so helpful. She gave us lots of insider information. After doing a lot of plotting, we decided to move to Apple Valley tomorrow.
We stopped at a Famous Dave?s for lunch and discovered that they will be closing in 2 months because the highway will be usurping their restaurant. They found a new site 45 minutes away, so employees are going to have some hard choices to make.
We chose this park because it has a catwalk RV wash, appeared to be as close to the Twin Cities as Apple Valley, and Dean really wanted to wash the roof and the bug juice on the front. He bought 25 coins @ $1 each. Each coin is good for two minutes of power wash/ rinse/etc. Dean worked hard and the coach is clean! Downside was we didn?t get to go explore.
We ate dinner at the Mystic River Casino?s buffet. It was OK, and $14. However, I wouldn?t go there again.
Staying at Dakotah Meadows RV Park?50 amps, FHU, spacious back-ins on the perimeter, sites narrow on one side on the interior pull-throughs, WiFi $32
Sept. 12 Day 26 Apple Valley, MN (outside St. Paul?Minneapolis)
Dean expertly maneuvered through the many ?Detour? and ?Road Closed? maze that surrounded the Capitol. They are putting in light rail and causing the demise of many mom-and-pop businesses because there is no highway access to them, necessitating going through back roads and residential neighborhoods to get to a frontage road. Road construction is EVERYWHERE!
All of the handicapped parking was taken by Capitol Security and a car with state license plates, but we found a spot that wasn?t too far away. The scaffolding on the front of the capitol is because they are replacing a glass North Star skylight. The current one lets water in much better than it lets sunlight in.
Mimi started our tour by requesting a donation of $5 per person. We usually donate at capitols, but they just have a plastic box with a little sign. Sometimes when we say we want to donate, they don?t know how to make that happen and we even end up meeting the state?s treasurer. The $10 amount was fine; in fact, we have given much more than that. However, this just had a wrong feel to it.
This is their 3rd capitol. The first wooden one burned in 1881 and was replaced by a brick capitol. It was poorly ventilated, and the legislators claimed they couldn?t breathe (cigar & cigarette smoke?).
Cass Gilbert was chosen in a national competition to design the new capitol. He had only designed 1 office, 2 churches, and a few homes for the wealthy, but he went on to design the capitols of West Virginia and Louisiana, as well as the U. S. Supreme Court building. He was meticulous and spent 4 years on the paper designs because he designed EVERYTHING?furniture, flag cases, doorknobs, lights, and more. It cost $4.5 million.
The chandelier is secured in a box while they renovate, but it still sparkles. (Picture 3) It is made of glass beads and has 92 lights. The capitol was the first building in Minnesota to have electricity.
The Governor?s Reception Room is where they greet important guests and do news briefings. It was based on the Venice Council chambers and was meant to impress visitors so they would know that Minnesota was not just a ?backwoods state.? I thought it looked gaudy. Like my home state, Minnesota has never had a woman governor.
A volunteer spent thousand of hours to design this Lego Capitol model (Picture 4).
Each governor chooses an artist to make his portrait, and I had to take a picture of former wrestler Jesse Ventura (Picture 5). He was good buddies with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. They attended each others? weddings and still see each other frequently.
The stars in the floor of the rotunda represent that Minnesota is the ?North Star State?, the furthest north of the Lower 48. (Picture 6) I thought Maine was the furthest north, but the upper peninsula of Minnesota pokes up and beats them.
There are 134 representatives and 67 senators. They work from January through May, earn $31,500 and full benefits. This is one of the longest working sessions that we have seen. At the front of the House chamber is this painting meant to inspire, which reminds the representatives that, ?The voice of the people is the voice of God.? (Picture 7)
This voting board (Picture 8) in the house has been in use since the 1930?s. There are 4 Andersons. Thank goodness they all have different initials for their first name. Our guide told me that there were 3 Andersons on the Supreme Court (now they only have 2), and they have had two governors named Anderson.
The staircase is cantilevered with no visible source of support (Scary!), and the architect used the same plans for that in the Supreme Court in DC. (Picture 9)
The Senate chamber is very ornate (Picture 10), as is the whole capitol (Picture 11). Notice the saying inscribed on the black marble around the wall?s perimeter. There were lots of inspirational sayings painted with orange paint on the walls throughout the capitol. My favorite panel (Picture 12) was, ?Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education without which neither justice nor freedom can be permanently maintained.? (Garfield) I hope that?s not the cat, but perhaps President James A. The second part of the panel reads, ?Education is our only political safety,? by Horace Mann. I liked the sayings, but I thought the orange paint was out of place when contrasted with the overall ornateness.
Surprising (to me) facts that Mimi shared were that Minnesota was part of the Louisiana Purchase (I thought it was too far north) and that Minnesota played a big part in the Civil War. They were the first state to offer 1,000 soldiers and 1/7 of their population fought in the war. I thought they were too busy with developing their state, which was only 4 years old, and that they were needed on their farms. At the turn of the century, they had such a big grasshopper plague that the governor put a penny bounty on each dead grasshopper. That was big money at the time, and there were lots of grasshoppers. Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in Walnut Grove, MN. I thought she grew up in Kansas.
We celebrated Dean?s birthday at Matt?s Bar, a true ?dive? famous for originating the Jucy (sic) Lucy, an ?outside inside? hamburger with melted cheese inside the patty. It was good and messy. The fries were outstanding, but a half-order would have been plenty for us.
Lebanon Hills Campground?Thanks to Lorna & Ned, Paul, and Dave for the tip--$128.55/4 nights FHU, 50 amps, WiFi?If it?s not a busy time, save $7 (I did) by avoiding the ?Reservation Fee?.