Crossing America

Somewhere in Minnesota

November 21, 2005

I'm writing this aboard Amtrak's "California Zephyr" riding from Mt. Pleasant, Iowa to Chicago, Illinois. Scenery boring - except the bridge over the mighty Mississippi. Have just finished most of the Midwest component of my North American railway adventure. After two uncomfortable nights on the train from Pasco (but actually Spokane) I had seven hours to kill in Minneapolis - St. Paul before collecting my rental car. I doddled over breakfast at a Perkins and ambled around downtown Minneapolis, feeling perhaps colder than I can ever remember. It was only a few degrees below zero (C) but it was bitterly windy. Luckily, it seems that everywhere you might want to go in Minneapolis is connected by wind-proof bridges.

Then I drove to Mankato, Minnesota, to meet friends Tom, Chan and Mari. The last part of this drive was tricky because I'd been told to take the downtown exit off the highway. Before I saw any urbanization that looked like 'downtown' I'd left Mankato completely. Hm - need to re calibrate my 'downtown' and 'rural' sensors. City boy!

The rendezvous was to be at the 'Nile' restaurant in Mankato, which I assumed was Egyptian. As soon as I entered and saw the manager's face I knew it was either Ethiopian or Eritrean. She said she was Ethiopian, which was just a tiny bit of a pity because while I can remember quite a few words of Tigrigna, I only knew about two words of Amharic. (At the end, when I asked how to say 'goodbye', she said 'Ciao'.)

I stayed the night at Tom and Chan's wonderfully renovated hip-style house on the Mankato parade route but first zoomed to Mari's house in Mapleton to make portraits of her and her rabbits. One or two of these will be posted when she's given approval.

The next morning I drove to Iowa City, Iowa, to meet Ben and Megan. I've known Ben since we were roommates in Eritrea seven years ago. Megan is very much his better half. Both are wonderful friends and very very funny. It was so great to see them again. The next day was American Thanksgiving and 'we' hosted Ben's parents Jim and Elaine and Ben and Megan's friend José. Mr Hippen is a retired historian and he and I talked on and on about railways and bridges - I could see Ben and Megan smiling at our fit. I learned a lot. José is a visiting doctor from Mexico working at the University of Iowa. Megan's Thanksgiving dinner was perfect and I think a splendid time was had by all. The next day Ben, Megan, José and I saw "Good Night, and Good Luck". Yesterday Ben and Megan and I went to West Branch, IA, and toured the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Museum and visited the Hoover grave. I had known nothing about his first career as a mining engineer (working in Australia and China) or his post-WWI work on European and Asian famine relief. The library definitely supports the view that Hoover was not to blame for the depression but did so in quite a fair way and did not stray from criticizing him in certain aspects. Megan and I both remarked that his pre-White House career made him look (at least as interpreted by his library) much more liberal than one would expect of a Republican.

Last night we collected José and and drove to Merion, Iowa, to see Nick Parks' "Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit". While these films could not be more different they were both very very good.

I was sad to say goodbye to Ben and Megan this morning in Mount Pleasant but it's good to be moving on towards home and Liberia. This train takes me to Chicago and then I'll travel overnight to Albany. The next day takes me to Montréal and finally on the 29th I get home to Ottawa.