LLWorldTour

One mistake I made on this journey is after leaving the civility and sophistication of Minneapolis I decided to take some smaller highways across the state to see where the real people live. Well, they don’t live out here—it seems no one does! I encountered a quite boring and bleak landscape with not much breaking up the drive except for a few rundown shacks and many, many cows. Moo.
Also, unfortunately for me, the speed limit was a bit slower here. Unbeknownst to me—the cars zipping along on the interstate running parallel to me about 100 miles south were allowed to go 75 miles per hour. Meanwhile, my Podunk road was 65 mph. Coming down a hill and toward another ‘one stop light town’ I hit 79 mph and he caught me. The red and blue lights flashed and I didn’t even jump. I knew he’d got me and there was nothing I could do.

I thought maybe I would get a warning in these parts. Maybe they were nicer here. Well I was right about one thing. I would’ve tried to get out of it, but he completely disarmed my with his sheer ‘niceness.’ This was THE nicest, most polite cop who’s ever pulled me over. I didn’t know how to react. He ended up giving me a ticket for going 10 miles over the speed limit—he shaved off a couple miles so the price wouldn’t go up to the next bracket. Oddly the ticket matched my speed: $79. When he returned my license and handed over the ticket, I figured I had nothing to lose so I meekishly uttered, “But it’s my birthday tomorrow.”
He replied simply, “Yeah, I noticed that.”
Nice, but a stickler for the law, I guess. Even if it was the “day before my birthday day!”

Today began my Willie Nelson drive through our great heartland (C’mon. Sing it with me).
Left Chicago this morning in my lovely white (I would later discover this was great for showing off the dead bugs on the front bumper) Kia Rio rental car. Usually when I rent a car it’s a fun upgrade from my old school, cassette playin’, pre-air bag Honda Prelude. But not today. This Kia is a tin can on wheels, no power nothing! I miss my cruise control. Forgot to request that. Shit.

So 400 miles and 1 taco bell stop later I’m spending the night in the City of Lakes, Minneapolis.
Cool City.
After checking in to my downtown Best Western in the style of some medieval tudor castle (odd, but nice), I trotted up to Nicollet Avenue—the lovely pedestrian street brimming with shops and restaurants. It kind of reminds me of the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, but of course, on a smaller scale. I stopped at the local Irish Pub—aptly named “The Local.” The place looks 100 years old with a carved wood bar and lots of Irish Whisky, but as I found out from the bartender, the place is just 10 years old.
Here, as I munch on my yummy salad with smoked salmon and drink a bass ale, I’m chatted up by each bartender plus the 60+ year old bookstore owner next to me. This is new to me—going to a bar alone. I feel slightly ‘on parade,’ but it was fine and I was happy to be out and about.

On the way home a guy in a car asks me “which way to the Target Center.” Oddly I know the answer and point him in the right direction. If you read the “Who is LL?” page, you know I love maps. So I’d already seen where it was. Once a Chicago Greeter, always a Chicago Greeter.

The next morning I go for a run along the Mississippi River and the Riverfront District. I ran across a bridge and into the Northeast neighborhood. This old Mill District is alive today with bars and bistros all along an old cobblestone road. It was hard to miss the new Guthrie Theater. The 250,000-square-foot theater just opened in June and sits on the banks of the Mississippi River. The building features 3 theaters, 2 restaurants, 11 bars and the world’s longest cantilever bridge extending toward the river.

Pretty Cool and charmingly innovative. I like Minneapolis.

My bottle of ‘bomb infused’ spring water was just confiscated by the flight attendant on my flight from Newark to Chicago. I know, nowadays just uttering (or typing?) the word ‘bomb’ is a no-no, but I’m just reporting the news here, right?
As you may know just one week ago, the British authorities foiled a plot by terrorists to carry bombs on several planes in London. These bombs were a cocktail mix of a sports drink and ‘bomb juice’ (made that up). So, the result of this is the current ban of ALL liquids on all domestic and international flights. This includes your everyday lip balm, shampoo, toothpaste…and, yes, one of today’s most common accessories—the Starbucks cup or bottle of ‘fancy’ water scooped out of some stream in the Maine wilderness (or maybe just some guys toilet).
So, about an hour into our flight, 30,000 or so feet above the earth, I was reprimanded. I told the nice male flight attendant I had bought it after I passed through security (yes, this was a lie), but apparently no liquids are allowed onboard period. Actually, I was well aware of my carry-on hydration secret as I stood barefoot on line at the security checkpoint. I figured I would just keep it in the side pocket of my backpack. I stuck my pack in one of those gray plastic bins and for the heck of it, kind of tucked the bottle out of view, even though I was almost sure the X-ray folks would see it and make me throw it out. But if not, I could keep my bottle of refreshing goodness and no one would get hurt. To my surprise, they did not stop me—either they didn’t detect it or I was racially ‘profiled’ on the spot as a non-threat. Now, believe me, I was glad to keep my water, but disappointed at the ease of which I smuggled such ‘newly labeled contraband’ into the gate area. Good thing I can feel safe with such high alerts and crack security agents watching out for bottle-wielding hydration freaks like me.

#1. I booked my tix for the first leg of my journey yesterday and it turns out I WILL be able to stop in New Zealand (wasn’t sure if I’d go there, although, many people have told me how amazingly beautiful it is) for free since my flight stops there anyway. So I will stay for 10 days! So on my way home I’m reading this book called “Adventure Divas” by Holly Morris—a Globetrekker Host and also a TV producer (yes, I’ve already emailed her. I also emailed the Dancing Matt guy and he wrote me back—but I digress) and it just happens that the chapter I’m on is about her trip to New Zealand! Meant to be.

#2. I’m also very excited about my journey down to Chile and Patagonia. On Saturday I showed my condo to a couple –the wife has traveled around the world twice and her husband, of course, just happens to be from Chile and has tips for me.

I love when things like this happen! Sadly for them though, I did not rent them the place. They had 2 kids. That’s 2 kids too many for my condo.

I just have to mention I went running on the Lakefront Path this morning and was just running along and smelled the fresh cut grass and looked up at the pretty trees and smiled. I smiled while i was running?!?! I know, odd considering I simply despise running, but I truly love this city and it’s nice to have these moments when you feel lucky to be alive and healthy!
That’s my ‘carpe diem’ moment of the day!
LL