Anamosa, Iowa

My month in Anamosa, Iowa was full on. Between helping my sister Sharon with her new abstracting business, helping out with the two girls, and helping Sharon and Jeff sell the beautiful 'spec' home Jeff and his team built, the month flew by.


For at least 10 nights in a row it rained. Sometimes the storms were intense. I stayed outside in a tent at their house, too. The first night out in the tent we had a big storm. The wind ripped the top cover right off the tent, and pulled up all the stakes. I grabbed the blanket and pillow and sought shelter in an nearby shed on the property. After that, Jeff gave me some really heavy duty stakes that would stay put in the soft soil. The next night the wind came again. This time I was determined to ride it out, and in the middle of the crashing thunder and fierce wind, I was hanging on to the tent poles so it wouldn't blow away again. While I was doing this, lightning struck very close by. I learned how close the next morning, when the phones in the house weren't working. The lightning had struck a tree just outside Sharon and Jeff's bedroom, and about 20 meters away from my tent. It did surprisingly little damage to the tree - just a groove in the bark is all the sign that it happened.

Sunrises were beautiful from the tent.

I never needed an alarm clock. Because if the sunrise didn't wake me, 5 year old Kalli did. She would come find me every morning, whether I slept in the tent or retreated to the safety of the porch or couch for the night. We started every day with a cuddle in bed together. Kalli often brought the 'mama' cat with her. So it was quite a group that gathered out at the tent some mornings.
One night as I was leaving the house for the tent, Keisha, their dog, followed me out. I thought she would head back to the house soon. But she didn't. And then the lightning and thunder started, and I was sure she would head back to the house then. To my surprise, she stayed nearby my tent all night, guarding me. She was wet and hungry the next morning, as I unzipped my tent and thanked her for her dedication to me. She guarded me several nights during my stay. Here she is stretching after one of her long vigils outside my tent. Sometimes she would bark, if she heard another animal out there. I could tell by her bark that she was warning whatever it was not to come any closer, or there would be trouble.

All that rain caused the nearby Wapsipinicon River to flood its banks in places. Here are photos of the dam, downstream of the dam, and the state park where we often go to play.


One day we spotted these beautiful tiger butterflies on the butterfly bush by the back door. The one in the center of the photo had more black on it than any of us had ever seen before.


During my stay, the kittens were weaned and we found homes for them. The 'mama' cat has been spayed. I hope the kittens will be, too.

One day at Sharon's office I stepped outside for a break and was surprised to see a huge praying mantis on the sign outside the door. Let me tell you, if this bug had been facing the other way, I would not have put my hand so close to it. I didn't know they could get that large!

Here are Sharon and Jeff in their front yard. We were out taking photos of Jesina, on her first day at school Jesina is in first grade this year, and Kalli started kindergarten.

My sister Sharon is very lucky at drawings and radio call-in contests. This green VW bug was won by her - they get to drive it for a year.

Kalli is a keen gymnast. Within one week of attending kindergarten, she learned how to swing all the way across the overhead rungs. She practiced so much she got blisters on her hands, but it never stopped her. She is now teaching the other children how to do it.

Here is a photo of the beautiful home Jeff and his crew built. It has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and 3000 square feet. It has beautiful views on all sides, like the one here. One day I was at the spec home and spotted this georgeous yellow moth in the corner. I photographed it and released it.

One weekend Sharon and Jeff went camping, and I spent the entire day with the girls at the state park. There is a place where a stream crosses the road, and it is a magnet for all the children. It is dangerous, though, so I station myself on the bank and alert them whenever I see a car coming. When there are teenagers there, they encourage the cars to drive fast through the water.

Anamosa has some lovely historical buildings. This is one of them. The Episcopal Church.

Jesina has some beautiful dresses. I thought this one would be great for dancing tango, if she were a little older.

One morning I told Kalli I would be making pancakes for the family, as we cuddled in bed. Then I went off to the kitchen. A few minutes later she showed up in her chef outfit, ready to help me with the pancakes.

In this last photo Kalli has one of the kittens. The girls played a lot with the kittens, so that even though they were born in a pole barn, they were very friendly and used to being picked up and held, when they were adopted out.

Road Trip to Anamosa

My sister Pat took me from Lake City, Minnesota down to Anamosa, Iowa - my next assignment. We took our time on the trip, following the Mississippi River as long as we could. The drive along the Wisconsin side of the river is especially scenic.



We saw long barges,

Speedboats which traveled as fast as we were; 55 miles per hour.


Locks and dams, scenic river towns, and spots to climb up to the top of the river bluff and have an eagle eye's view over the river. Here is Pat with the Mississippie in the background.

The city of Winona had the most beautiful stone church. It was a Methodist Episcopal church - an interesting combination.

We continued into Iowa, where I had to show Pat one of my favorite small towns - Elkader, Iowa

http://www.elkader-iowa.com/ It is on the Turkey River, and has quite a few historical homes and buildings. This one is my favorite.

The 35W Bridge Collapse

3 Hours after I left the Twin Cities, the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River in central Minneapolis, Minnesota collapsed. It gave no warning before it went, and was bumper to bumper with cars, buses, and trucks during a Wednesday night rush hour.

This was not a bridge I had cycled, as no pedestrians or bicycles are allowed on the bridge. But I have certainly driven over it many times when I had a car! It is right next to the University of Minnesota, where I went to school for many years. I remember being on that bridge in my car and feeling it vibrate at times, since it was a long, unsupported span. It felt like a suspension bridge.

I don't know at this time if any of my friends were involved. None of my family were.

At this time, the story is that it was inspected in both 2005 and 2006 with no serious problems, and that the bridge would not need to be replaced until 2020 or so. So why it collapsed without warning last night, we won't know for a while.


I have seen the video of the actual collapse, and it is clear there were no explosives involved. Unlike the World Trade Center (see http://www.brasscheck.com/videos/911/911mysteries.html if interested).

St. Paul 2

Summer in the City!! And beyond. I have had an enjoyable, productive 2 months in the Twin Cities. I have discovered lovely gardens and houses as I cycled to and from Michele, Rich and their daughter Hannah's house in St. Paul, over the Mississippi River, and on to the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center in Minneapolis. I try to take a different route every day, so see as many lovely gardens, interesting houses, and interesting people as possible during my 20 mile bicycle commute.......

Here is one of my most favorite discoveries: Milwaukee Avenue in Minneapolis, just off Franklin Avenue.

Michele and I are standing in front one of these gorgeous Milwaukee Ave. houses. There are two blocks of them; all built for railroad employees in 1910 or so, and put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Once I discovered them, I had to bring Michele over to see them. I knew she would love them as much as I.

I talked Michele and Rich into letting me stay in a tent in their back yard during the two months I have been there. I borrowed this spacious 4 person tent from my sister Sandy. After the first week sleeping on the ground, I bought an air mattress - the height of luxury!

Michele and Rich have a very private back yard, with train tracks just beyond the fence. No high speed trains use these tracks, but the freight trains come through nearly every night. I wake up and go right back to sleep. Same with the owls, and the other birds. One time a robin started singing in the middle of the night and woke me. It was so dark I had to check the time: 2:30 am!!! He was really pushing the envelope that time.

One weekend I went to a friend's house in White Bear Lake, and a storm came through that evening. The boats on the lake raced for cover. The worst of the storm missed us. I was fully expecting to see a tornado funnel drop from those clouds, though.
In another summer storm, I rode home to St. Paul and wondered what I would find the in the back yard, because I spotted this tree down on a truck, just one block from Michele and Rich's house. The truck didn't appear to sustain too much damage, amazingly. Even the cab was only dented in, as far as I could see in between the greenery.

I returned home to find no damage in Michele's back yard, and the tent I borrowed from my sister Sandy and her husband Patrick in fine shape.

This is the house of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_of_Hiawatha and a garden created in his honor. The close up is of a daylily.

The blue flowers in the path are called 'balloon flowers'.

As a thank you to Michele and Rich for letting me stay with them, I devoted one day or so a week to helping them with projects around the house. Over the course of 2 months I washed all the windows in the house, mixed and laid some concrete, and finished woodwork. Here I am finishing the last of the doors.

I was invited to speak to the St Croix Falls Rotary Club by Warren White, a long time family friend. I had no idea what these conservative business people would like to hear, so I decided to just tell the story of how a corporate executive went to becoming a homeless wanderer, by choice, and then let them ask questions. I didn't get a lot of questions after the presentation. Warren said "They were stunned". I brought along my most inspirational books, and unfurled a Free Hugs poster, and after the presentation, I got a request for a hug, to which I happily complied.

After cycling for a month or so to my volunteer job, I felt ready to tackle a longer ride. So I rode to Hastings to visit Arlene and Bob Wellemeyer. I had Arlene take a photo as soon as I arrived, to document the accomplishment. It wasn't that far - 30 miles. But it took me 5 hours because of headwinds and trying in vain to spot the beginnings of poorly marked bicycle paths which my map said existed along my way. I went through three bottles of water on this very hot day, and accepted Arlene's offer of a nap after my arrival.

One night I met up with other Couchsurfers http://www.couchsurfing.com/ for a Twins game. Andy Stein (pictured here) was one of the couchsurfers who joined in. It was as interesting watching the beach balls being batted around the stands as it was watching the game - at least from the affordable seats way up high in the stadium.

I took a second trip to White Bear Lake, in late July. Here are some photos from that 19 mile trip. The park where I stopped for lunch is right in the center of St. Paul, though you wouldn't guess it. It has birch trees, a lovely landscaped stream, and lots of beautiful perennials.

My purpose for visiting White Bear Lake again was to meet a most interesting couple: Jeff Gacek and his wife Alyn Shannon. I had read about them in the White Bear Press on my previous visit, and just had to meet them! They were successful business people in White Bear Lake, and 18 months ago sold their businesses, and concentrated their time and energy, and money, on helping the poor in Haiti. See http://www.buya.org/ . I have agreed to help them, and am planning on spending 3 months in Haiti next year with their and other organizations they will introduce me to. Right now they are looking for small grassroots nonprofit organizations to promote for free on their web site. So if you know of any, send the buya.org web link their way.



Here are more photos of the interesting sights along my route. Here is that beautiful porch again. Something about this house just stops me every time I ride by it. No other front porch has seemed so inviting. Perhaps it is because there is no railing on the porch - no barrier between the viewer and viewed.


Coming home one night along an alley near the Mississippi in St. Paul, I came across a beautiful garden, with a formal fountain adorned with rubber ducks, with sunglasses, even! I couldn't resist a couple of photos.

Quite often I take advantage of this well-designed bridge build just for us cyclists to cross over the busy Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis. This bridge is a few blocks away from my morning volunteer destination, the MIWRC.

It was on this bridge that I spotted the stenciled notice about the Critical Mass Cycling events every month. Clever way to get the word out!
One morning I stopped in at the Phillips Eco-Enterprise Center along the Greenway, just to see what kind of interesting organizations make their home there. My photo taking was looked upon as very suspicious by the receptionist at the Green Institute. I think I should get a card identifying me as a reporter for some newspaper, so I can alleviate some of those fears people have of me when I take my camera out to document things for this blog. Anyway, it is an interesting list of organizations. If I hadn't been on my way in to my volunteer job, I would have stopped in at some of their offices and had a chat.

Most of the two months I spent with the MIWRC was with the Cherish the Children Learning Center. I helped revise their brochure, and spent a good two days on my bike out delivering the newly printed brochures to appropriate organizations and businesses in the Twin Cities. My deliveries and conversations resulted in a front page article in The Circle http://www.thecirclenews.org/daycare_in_danger.html
Here is one of the more beautiful work of one of the children at the Center.

My most productive work, however, was organizing the files and office of the director of the children's center. There had been 5 directors in as many years, and each one had their own filing system, and all of them were still hanging around in the director's office, and the current director couldn't find anything easily. With an upcoming visit from the Hennipin County Licensing board, we all worked fast to get things in order. When the licensing authority visited the end of July, the number of citations dropped from 15 on the previous visit to 3. It reinforced for me how carefully my assignments are being given to me, even though I often don't sense that guidance. I am where I need to be.

On the last day of my volunteer assignment in the Twin Cities, I stopped on my way in at the Cliquot Club cafe in Minneapolis, (with their beautiful garden) and picked up a latte for Heather, the director of Cherish the Children. We are pictured together here in her nice, tidy office.

I spotted this excellent combination of bright green groundcover and red geraniums, at a garden on Summit Avenue in St. Paul It was my favorite garden of all the hundreds of gardens I passed during my daily commutes.

Here is the front yard of the same garden.

The evening of my last day at the Center I joined the Peace Supporters on the Franklin Avenue bridge over the Mississippi River. This group of mostly retired professors and doctors has been promoting peace for years at this site; every Tuesday evening from 5-6pm, year round. I have joined them several times, and wanted to be sure to get one more visit in before I left the Cities.

While I was there, we heard a crash and saw a motorcycle down on the other side of the intersection, with the rider pinned under his cycle. I sprinted across the road to help him, as did others. He had not been hit, but wasn't paying attention as he came to the intersection, and had to stop so suddenly he ended up laying his bike down on his leg. He got himself out from under his bike just as I reached him, and I helped him to the curb, and he was in great pain - from a broken leg. So we didn't attempt to move him further, I just tried to make him as comfortable as possible until the ambulance showed up. It was very hot at 5pm, and I tried shielding him from the sun with my body as best I could. We helped him get his helmet off, call his wife on his cell phone, and someone moved his motorcycle off to the side and locked it for him. Someone handed me an umbrella, so I used that to at least keep him in the shade. Within 3 minutes a squad car arrived. Within 5 minutes there were 3 squad cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance. Now that's service!!

So, I wasn't able to help out with the 35W bridge disaster the next night, but I was able to help this guy a little bit.

Continuing on my last ride home, I took some additional photos:

This pot of flowers on the stump of a massive tree feels like a memorial to the tree. RIP. The statue of a lady is made from a tree which stood there earlier.
I have never seen anyone put up signs for dog poop. This yard had about 6 of them in the boulevard. If you can't catch the dogs and their owners in the act, I guess this would be the next best approach. I would expect it would work well in this neighborhood of St. Paul.

I love this bumper stickers. Someone after my own heart! You can get it here: http://carryabigsticker.com/coexist.htm

This photo is not from my ride home, but of my sister Sandy and her husband Patrick's cat cage, so their beloved siamese cats can enjoy the summer out of doors without being endangered or lost or catching birds. Pampered and happy pets, those!


Well, my cycle commuting to Minneapolis and my side trips to White Bear, Bloomington, and Hastings racked up a total of 842.8 miles on the bike I borrowed from my sister Pat. Now it is off to Anamosa, Iowa for the month of August, to help my youngest sister Sharon with a new business she is starting.