Train Travel DC to Red Wing

I recently had to take a business trip to DC. For some admitantly silly reasons, I don’t like to fly in February. I was even less motivated to fly due to recent events with FAA firings and planes crashing.

Sparks

“Bedtime girls,” mother announces.

Up the steep, dark steps we climb to our bedroom. Ours is the tiny bedroom at the top of the stairs in an old farm house. The ceiling matches the steep angle of the roofline. This is no problem for two little girls, but would cause adults to duck their heads when standing anywhere other than the centerline of the room.

There’s a single window centered under the peak of the ceiling. It is covered inside and out by a thick layer of frost. What little light comes in from outside is diffused and is mostly obscured by the mirror mounted to the child sized dresser.

Poll Watching in Rural Minnesota 2024

I’m writing about my experiences and observations as a volunteer, not about my personal views on how the election turned out or why. That’s something that I will do in a future post.

What Does a Poll Watcher Do?

I volunteered to be a poll watcher (it’s officially called appointed poll challenger in Minnestota) for the DFL (Democratic) party in Minnesota. This was a record year for Democratic campaign volunteering, and the number of volunteers for poll challengers more than doubled any previous year.

Is there anything more hopeful than Main Street

I love walking through the business district of small towns and take a careful look at the buildings. Here in Minnesota, many of these buildings are well over 100 years old, and they were clearly a source of pride to the townspeople that built them.

Take a look at the top of these buildings and you’ll notice masonry details like toothing / dentil courses, artistic stone work, and family names added to the building. These towns built elegant and ornate municipal buildings to host public performances and lectures, and you’ll often find a library building that was funded by Andrew Carnegie.

Land Returning to the Upper Sioux

The soon to be former Minnesota Upper Sioux state park will be transfered back to the Sioux community next week, so we took advantage of the crazy warm weather to visit. We weren’t alone in that thought as there were many people out, on what would normally be lovely spring weather.

The State DNR had already closed the offices in preparation for the transfer. I had a severely pulled calf muscle, so climbing hills was out for me. I went to view the former Agency site, while Jane and Penny took a walk through the back trails.