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Published: August 19th 2015
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…was another Point A to Point B day...with a teaser of what's to come. We’re coming into some iffy weather now. Yesterday on our way to our parking lot for the night we ran into lots of rain, wind and some very dark clouds. The weather is unseasonable everywhere.
Today the weather wasn’t so bad, but at we were driving through the southern part of Minnesota the windmills in the wind farms we passed were earning their keep. Minnesota is the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” but what qualifies as a lake? We passed a handful of bodies of water and I would count them down…”9,999 more…9,998 more…9,997 more…” Mike called them cow ponds because they weren’t really big enough to be lakes. Neither of us knew if these were part of the 10,000 or not so I consulted my local Minnesota expert.
I texted my friend Dave who grew up in MN.
“Minnesota question for ya…what qualifies as a lake? Any body of water bigger than a mud puddle? I’m guessing it has to have water year round or nearly year round.”
“Well, the answer to that is quite subjective. Generally speaking lakes are at least 10
acres but other factors like depth, ability to support photosynthesis, source of water, stratification of temperature zones, wave creation and type of bed are considered… Actually Minnesota has almost 13k lakes over 40 acres…glad you asked…I’ve tried to work these factoids into a conversation for years.”
So glad I gave him the opportunity. Teri, let me know if Dave was yanking my chain, please.
Because we were almost as far south as you could be and still be in Minnesota, we didn’t see any of the over 13,000. Mike was right…they were cow ponds. They were still pretty...not muddy looking…surrounded by grass…just not big enough.
We crossed the western border into South Dakota and the first speed limit sign we saw said 80. 80!! Yeah, there’s no way we’re going to be driving even close to that. We didn’t really see anybody else going that fast either. Probably closer to 75. Yeah…still no.
The closer we got to our campground in Interior, SD the more motorcycles (ridden and trailered) we saw. The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was last week, but apparently several rally goers decided to extend their stay presumably to skip the congestion of the mass exodus. Smart bikers.
It was bound to happen and we were actually a little surprised it took this long…we got our first ding in the new windshield. The old windshield had a long crack that went nearly all the way across the lower part so before we left Mike had it replaced. We made it over 9,000 before getting the first ding. It’s a small one, maybe we’ll take it to one of those rock chip repair tents you see in shopping center parking lots and get it taken care of before it spreads.
Since we left home, I’ve noticed town and city names that are the same in more than one state. Today I noticed a lot of Washington names: Bellevue (not the first one outside WA), Spirit Lake, Winthrop (really?!?), Aberdeen and there was even a North Cascade Rd…in Minnesota!
Our campground du jour was actually a combo motel and campground. Flat, dirt roads, few trees. We actually had to drive through part of Badlands National Park to get to it. Good thing we had the America the Beautiful Pass. Looking forward to driving through the rest of it tomorrow.
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Tee
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Sounds like some of Dave's poppy-cock crap to me. ;) Glad he could get it worked into a "conversation" though. Have Mike ask him how he busted a house break-in yesterday......