So big they needed "twin cities"

TOP: Amusement park inside mall of america...really big, but it was all chain store stuff, so not very interesting.

2nd: Bob and daughter Sara. She was 6 last time we saw her, and her name then was Katie. She might have been asian also.

3rd: Mississippi River, lock, and stone bridge in downtown StPaul. Pretty cool little area

4th: Best diner in MN...you can never go wrong with a fat guy on the sign!

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Today we finally got to Minneapolis-StPaul after 3 days of long drives across South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota (and a quick touch into Nebraska and Iowa). I was really looking forward to seeing Fargo ND, but when we got there it was really nothing...never even found the wood chipper. Once we got into Minnesota, the roads got really bad...their freeways were the worst of the whole trip (except for PA, which has a 3rd world highway system). Sectioned concrete pavement, hours and hours of thump-thump-thump...I just wanted to put a bullet in my head. Our new car will now need replacement shocks once we get home.

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We tooled around MStP for a few days, taking in the food, shopping, and sights. The Mall of America, which I had good memories of from prior business trips, was really nothing more than a big collection of chain stores...all the same ones that exist in every other mall nowadays. Are there no more local shops in the country?

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Bob lives out on the west side, and has a really nice bike path a block from the homestead. Kathy and I rode every day...really nice to be able to ride without cars around, although I almost buried a deer once.

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We stopped at a Keith's Kettle diner (above...come for the food, stay for the heart surgery). They sat us in the middle of a bunch of truckers who provided the entertainment. They were going off about the "trilateral commission" wanting to take over the world and instill a "New World Order". Kathy asked if that was the same NWO as on wrestling..they didn't quite get the joke. Then they started going off about Janet Reno dating both of the Clintons..like Bill would nail an ugly chick (LOL!). Then they decided that they were going to try to run Larry the cable guy for president so as not to elect a woman, a black, or an old guy. Man, if ONLY there was an IQ test to vote, they would have been screwed. Such is the future of the US (unfortunately).

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Fun city, and except for the 50 below winters I might actually try living there.

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"Twin bellies" Lumpy out