Fleeing From A Winter Wonderland!
Do I really want to do this?
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I would be driving the rented Soccer Shuttle van back to Minnesota over a quick three day stretch. First, it would be loaded with as much of my baseball card collection as I could possible fit...
Once the van was filled, easily 95% of my entire collection was inside. Along with various other stuff that we managed to cram in before calling it full, and setting course for Minneapolis. So goodbye to a collection of baseball and hockey jerseys, boxes of DVD's and original NoFriendo and SupaNoFriendo, also in their original boxes...
I was about to set out on a fantastic voyage on a pirate ship filled with my most prized Collector Dork possessions... Which brought to mind this cartoon that Danno drew for Wasted Quarter's 5th anniversary, nearly 20 years ago...
We loaded the van in lower 60's temperatures and sun. When I reached my destination, the high temperature for the day was slated to be 0. As in ZERO. Adding in wind chill, it would be approaching 20 degrees below zero...
So yeah, this was going to suck...
Hi reflection of Dave!
And no one wanted that!
Massive thanks go out to Jon and the actual Dave (not just his reflection) for their help in moving all this crap from the third floor with me!
Leaving Colorado would have come quicker had the MLB Network not aired the original Bad News Bears! Which has never once been played on MLB Network even once in the history of ever! So I had to stay and watch it!
In actuality, I tried to take a nap after working all night, then loading the van all morning. Decent sleep was not to be had...
And the MLB Network airs the Bad News Bears HUNDREDS of time a week in the offseason...
The mission for the next few days was simple...
Return the Soccer Shuttle to Minnesota.
Unload it's cargo at an undisclosed Hinterland Location.
Pick up the new, non-deer damaged car.
Cram in as much research/photography in my down time as I can...
Then drive the new old car back to Colorado before anyone notices I'm gone...
To provide awesome musical diversion for the long drive, I purchased this 2 CD set a couple of days before leaving, on it's day of release. Not just a simple compilation of songs, but a two hour listening experience, set up to mimic Dr. Demento's weekly radio show. With Dr. Demento himself introducing the tracks, and giving back story to everything on the album...
Easily one of my favorite musical releases of the past few years....
You should all go out and buy this right, then listen to it as you finish reading the rest of this story...
Go on...
It's worth it...
Did you?
Anyway...
The Leaving Colorado portion of the drive turned out just fine. The weather was decent going up I-76, past the smelly cow pastures and on into Nebraska. Home of the even smellier cow pastures. And Meth Labs. The snow and wind started to really pick up the further I got into Nebraska.
I chose to pull off the interstate in good old Gothenburg, to fill the dam van with gas and deliver a personal heartfelt message to Pony Express Chevrolet... Next to the deer, the leading cause of why I was in snowy cold Nebraska at 11:30pm on a Sunday night, in January 2018...
The snow continued off and on as I made my way eastbound across the Cornhusker State... Nothing too bad...
While checking the weather post pee break, I took a Nebraska rest area selfie... Because why not?
Nebraska was a decent enough drive, but Iowa was absolutely not that... The further I drove into the state, the more snow and wind picked up. Stretches of I-35 North were in a near white out state, the wind was blowing the dam van all over the road.
Just after the merging of I-80 and 680, I pulled off the road at the Casey's General Store in Minden, Iowa. I was hungry since the Denny's in Gretna, Nebraska was closed. This was where I'd planned on eating, checking the route and charging my phone. Which I could have done all in one shot at Denny's. I also wanted to not drive for a few after navigating a white-out for the last 20 miles....
Casey's provided two pieces of gas station sausage pizza, that was far tastier than it had any right being. They also sold me a car charger for the dam van, which I desperately needed, for not too bad of a price...
I got back on the road after about 45 minutes of sitting in a hard plastic booth, watching the blowing snow from the window. This was just before 6am, and I was stalling for the sun to rise.
Between Minden, the merge onto I-35 at Des Moines and continuing the drive north, the drive would alternate between good, decent, okay, bad, poor and GET OFF THE ROAD NOW!!! several times over the next few hours.
I finally pulled off the freeway again in Dows, Iowa, to wait until things cleared up a bit. I bundled up in the van (temperatures were still a few degrees below zero), and the wind was gusting at over 40mph.
When I first pulled over, I debated going into the gas station to buy a pack of smokes. The stress and headache of driving had me so frazzled, I was set to give up on my five months without a cigarette. Then I realized I would have had to stand outside in the elements in order to smoke it, so I opted not to...
After I decided to brave the roads again, I set out north on 1-35 and made it out of Iowa at an average speed of 40mph. A little faster than the wind, that had slowed a little as I approached the border...
Pulling off at a Minnesota rest area, just south of Albert Lea (home of the Spam Museum), to find some on the point anti-Trump graffiti carved in the Men's room partition wall...
This photo does not do the "FUCK TRUMP" justice... Maybe Minnesota isn't so bad after all?
Minnesota's roads and weather improved slightly as I made my way north into Minneapolis. Soon I was unloading the Soccer Shuttle with my friend Trav, in record time. From the point we started, to it all moved inside was just under 25 minutes. I was impressed.
Once that was finished, I was formally introduced to our new old car!
Across the street from where we were going, I noticed the Freedom gas station had been demolished. It had closed in May 2017. I photographed the station, which was fully intact with store furnishings, in October 2017. (Those photos will appear here at some point...) According to my mom, the station was demolished in November 2017. She happened to get a few photos of it's demolition, and gave them to me before I left for Denver.
I love that just one support for the canopy is all that's left... Well, the Car Wash is left. And that's on the right side of this picture....
The next morning, I had a few more photo targets in my hometown that I wanted to visit before leaving for Colorado the next day.
My number one target sits in the parking lot of the 420 Suites...
The former 610 Express Gas Station has been heavily photographed by me over the last five years. Over the last month, demolition prep work begun in earnest, with the removal of the pumps and canopy.
Forced into witnessing the destruction of their home, 610 Express gas pumps are being held hostage, tied together at the corner of the sidewalk, made to watch what happens next...
The Pump and Meter Frost Beater is warming up the frozen Crapids tundra to allow the underground tanks to be removed from the Earth...
I'm now a giant mark for the phrase: "Pump and Meter Frost Beater."
I'm not going into my full 610 Express story today. So I'm only showing a few of my pictures from January 2018 for now. Here is the interior of the 610 Express. The station closed about five years ago, and has been sitting here in relatively decent shape ever since. I'm still shocked that a carton of Marlboro's would have set you back $80 when they closed. I'm sure they are even more now...
While they were never that expensive in Colorado, I guess I'm glad I quit smoking...
Goodbye 610 Express, we'll see if I ever see you again!
A mile or so north of 610 Express, sits the former Foley Foods. Which is now wearing a giant house costume...
After closing for business nearly 10 years ago, the former convenience store has sat empty, caught fire, sat boarded up, almost reopened, and is now undergoing a massive remodel to become a church that will open next Spring.
Further up the street is the vacant lot where a Marathon gas station used to live. That and Foley Foods have also been pretty well covered by previous photography missions, so I'm not getting into too much today...
The same can and will be said for the former Top Shop Grocery...
The building had last operated as Top Shop, but was known as Tom Thumb for a good portion of my Crapids life. Top Shop briefly re-opened as Her Oriental Market for a few months in 2017, then closed just a few months later.
Not staying open long enough to even remove the former Top Shop sign...
More updating previous photo missions...
Oak Park Plaza has pretty much completed their massive renovation and is now a lot less crappy and a lot more boring... The lettering has been removed from an old Oak Park Plaza sign, so I'm betting this will be ripped down soon.
The former Go For It Gas has now been demolished. That was one of my favorite abandoned local north suburban gas stations... It was actually torn down in the Summer of 2017, so this vacant lot is not new to me, and I took better pictures of it last October.
Before we knew it, the time to return to Denver was upon us...
We held off on the drive back until Wednesday morning, because it was about 25 degrees warmer than Tuesday. After loading up the new old car, we hit the road out of Minneapolis a little after 2pm.
610 crosses old Highway 10...
Then crosses a partially frozen Mississippi River...
Until crossing Highway 169, which we need to drive south on to get out of this frozen hell...
Highway 169 cuts through the western suburbs of Minneapolis, such as Plymouth. Home of the former Four Seasons Mall, which closed in 2012. There was a city/legal kerfluffle involving WalMarts purchase of the land in order to build one of their UberCenters on the property. This plan never came to fruition, WalMarts sold the land, and a deteriorating Four Seasons Mall has been sitting empty for the last five years...
I knew nothing of any of this until I Photoshopped this picture and looked up it's story once we got home...
And that's why I like doing stuff like this!
Another abandoned building as seen from the passenger seat of a car doing 75mph down the highway on our way out of town...
The New Hope water tower... A distinct Highway 169 landmark to me...
A poop tanker hauling a porta-pooper while crossing the Minnesota River. I openly cheered the successful taking of this picture...
A Minnesota location of a nationally known web printer... This may become important some day...
Grandstands for Canterbury Park, Minnesota's horse racing facility...
I like roadside electrical jungle gyms...
And crappy roadside motels....
This odd and bright conglomeration of bright yellow buildings is known as Minnesota's Largest Candy Store. It is too large to fit in the picture. Also, we did not stop...
One of the last times I drove by this now abandoned nursery, it was open for business... Now the roof on the greenhouse portion has been destroyed by the elements.
The batteries in my camera died as we drove into St. Peter, Minnesota. So I missed out on a cool abandoned restaurant that I'd intended on getting a picture of as we drove by. By the time my camera was ready to go, I was able to snap this former Shell Station that has been closed for at least 2 years.
I've eaten at this Arby's in St. Peter when it was Hardees, but never when it was Arby's...
Set a ways back from Highway 169 in St. Peter, is this long closed KFC building. Which has the sign broken out of the "steeple" and the rest of the windows boarded up. If I had to guess, I'd say this place has been closed for a while, but the parking lot looks freshly plowed....
There's some good scenery between St. Peter and Mankato, MN. This very old and very collapsed house along the highway ranks high among them. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a decent picture as the camera wouldn't focus in time, at 75mph...
The hills and trees look a lot nicer when covered in snow...
As do old farm buildings...
Mankato, MN is home to one of the last remaining Happy Chef restaurants that I know of... Happy Chef had a really cool statue out front... Or am I thinking of some other failing family restaurant chain? Either way, there is no statue in front of this Happy Chef...
So it's an Indifferent Chef...
The Mankato BP station has long been a favorite snacks and gas stop for me...
But not today...
The Mankato Kwik Trip was our snacks stop of choice today... We did not need gas...
They serve top notch Angus Beef Jumbo Gas Station Hot Dogs that are of superior taste and quality. Although my cold beverage of choice was sourly bad...
I really wanted this picture to turn out... The sign for the Mankato Vintage Mall is really cool! However a leaning electric pole jumped in the way at the last second and ruined this shot...
Leaving Mankato, just before Highway 169 breaks off and goes south, I found this vacant office building. The interior walls have been removed, leaving just an interior web of studs and 2x4's. I do not remember what business operated here previously....
Now that we have rid ourselves of that pesky Highway 169, we are left with just Highway 60. Continuing on Highway 60 will take us all the way southwest to Worthington, Minnesota. As a companion to driving, much of the drive has railroad tracks running parallel to the road. This gives much more to look at along the way than just traffic and farms...
Like delivering material to refineries!
Or sitting lonely and rusting!
What strikes me about highway 60 is the sheer amount of nothing all around, that is suddenly interrupted by giant trackside facilities such as this one. The visual is a really cool contrast.
In my 20 year history of driving between Denver and Minneapolis, I've stopped at the Watonwon Rest Area a bunch of times. I've taken multiple naps in it's parking lot and several dumps in it's toilets. On one drive, I freaked out upon waking from an early morning nap to a van load of imitation Al Queda standing very close to my car. This took place during a late September 2001 drive to Minnesota, so the heightened xenophobia has to be understood...
Weathered barn in Butterfield, MN.
Mountain Lake, MN in the setting sun.
Over the last 20 years, I've watched highway 60 go from predominantly 2-lane, up to predominantly 4-lane highway, from Worthington to Mankato. The last stretch of 2-lane road, spanning about 7 miles going into Windom, is finally getting the upgrade to 4-lanes. As you climb the hill over some county roads leading into Mountain Lake, the lanes condense for two-way traffic, allowing construction of the new road.
Parts of the new road are level and already paved.
While other parts are grated gravel beds. This shot of County Road 28 cutting through a frozen pond, is one of my favorite images from Highway 60. The level of the water with the roads around it, has created a memorable landmark on this drive.
By the time we were approaching Windom, it was getting too dark for decent road pictures. In the distance, a falling apart barn decomposes under some light snow. If this picture was in focus it would be very powerful. However, this is just a muddy mess. Cool, but a muddy mess...
The Phat Pheasant Pub, Windom , MN. I have no ties, just liked the name...
The Windom Super America... I've bought gas and made cell phone calls from here!
Not so many years ago, there was a very small and old Dairy Queen that stood here. It was demolished and rebuilt as this characterless box. Which is very sad because this Dairy Queen used to feature an intricately detailed neon sign that had some of the most character I've ever seen from a fast food chain... I'd like to think that ended up in a private collection, and not smashed to bits and placed in a landfill...
Casey's General Stores are making a big push into Minnesota over the last few years...
As Laura and I were driving through Windom, it had gotten too dark for the camera to focus if we were moving at any rate of speed. Just outside the city limits, I put the camera away for the rest of the drive.
One of the last pictures that turned out, was of the baseball (and football) stadium at Island Park.
So I've wrapped the story back around to baseball once again!
*********
Due to darkness, I took no more pictures between Windom, MN and Englewood, CO.
Even though the cards are gone from Honkassland, there will be new baseball card material coming to Four Baggers soon...
I've scanned over 1000 album pages of story ideas to choose from before my 67 full albums went away for safe keeping...
We'll see what comes up next!
*********
As I was preparing to put this story online, I recieved some really sad news.
A longtime friend of mine, with strong Coon Rapids ties, had recently passed away.
Goodbye Karen,
You were a great friend, wise voice and very supportive of my writing for 25 years.
You will be missed greatly.
I have made the ride from Chicago to Denver twice (3 trips total as one was to drop a car and fly back). I have no clue how you have survived that many rides through Nebraska. Dear lord that is a wide state with a whole lot of booooooooooooooooooooring.
ReplyDeleteAnd I salute the bathroom writer for his fine contribution to our national discussion.
Nebraska usually hadn't bothered me in the past, but turned heel with a vengeance over the last year. The whole reason we had to make the drive stems from hitting a deer, then the mess caused by a car dealer and insurance lizard...
DeleteI would love for Nebraska to go back to boring!
In regards to appropriate bathroom graffiti, dilly, dilly...
You are an AWESOME writer, and even though I was there with you the whole way from Coon Rapids, MN, to Englewood, CO... I just learned *A LOT*!!! Nebraska totally SUCKS and is officially my worst state EVER!!! Most importantly, though... I am *SO* very sorry about Karen. I'm really glad I got to meet her! She was definitely a sweetheart... I love you, my Beloved Dood! I will *ALWAYS* be here for you. <3 xoxoxo
ReplyDelete