Day 2 - Bloomington to Bloomington

According to Jill (the GPS), Today we drove 561 miles today, and we ended up in Bloomington...exactly where we began. Today was the one and only day with any backtracking, simply because we spent half the day driving north to the Mississippi River headwaters, and the other half driving back. The rest of the trip will always be continued forward progress toward the end of the river outside New Orleans.

On the way to Lake Itasca, we saw evidence of Central and Northern Minnesota's liberal mindsets. Quintessential conservative rural vs. liberal cities. We also drove past some Amish people in a horse-drawn buggy. I didn't realize they existed outside of Pennsylvania or on reality TV.

We also passed many cows, fields, flat plains, and water towers. Each town seemed to take great pride in painting its name on its water tower.




Brian and I took a bunch of photos at the Mississippi River's headwaters at Lake Itasca. The stones behind us are an official river crossing point. We opted for a less slippery plank about 50 feet downstream. The weather was about 45 degrees up there, much less than the 80 degrees in the Twin Cities when we returned.








The Kennedys own Massachusetts. Buddy Cianci owns Providence. Paul Bunyan owns Bemidji, Minnesota. His blue ox Babe was being sandblasted today, but it didn't seem to mind. Bemidji seems to have some steep competition from some other cities also vying for Paul's mythical attention.