Day 24 Minnesota History Center, St. Paul

I am sitting in the cafe of the MN History Center to write this. This is a big place! No wonder they charge $15 for a copy of a death certificate. They have to pay for this somehow. It is huge and new and modern. Lots of information online, a big room full of microfilm readers, and they are new readers, maintained and work well - not always the case in older libraries.

My car got the once-over from the local policeman last night in Long Lake. Luckily I had waked up just before he decided to look me over, so I just laid still, as opposed to being startled awake. I was prepared to talk to him if he knocked on a window, but I am not even sure he knew I was there. First the cop car search light, then he got out and used a flashlight. Just before he left he hit the car or made it rock a little. It took me a while to figure out what he did. Then I knew. The sliding door had not closed entirely tight, but it was locked. He evidently shoved at it to see if he could make it close which of course he couldn't, and then he drove off. And I dozed off again.

Minneapolis-St. Paul is a huge city and I hated having to tackle it but I needed to go to the History center and there are two cemeteries here, one of them Fort Snelling where a couple people are buried. But except for a frustrating time trying to get out of the city last night, to the place where I parked (probably not the best spot but I was so tired of driving I did not care)I have managed okay.

I had a wonderful chat with Bruce and Charlotte Douglass yesterday at Charter House, a senior citizen house connected to the Mayo Clinic by a skywalk. Bruce took me to lunch right there in the Supportive Care Unit, where he currently is. Great lunch, sliced pork, mashed potatoes and gravy, an WHOLE ear of corn on the cob (not just one of those 3 inch segments), a dish of fresh pineapple. And when I thought that was it, they brought out pumpkin chiffon pie with a cookie crumb crust. I feasted, did not even need more than a snack for supper. Charlotte is a fan, says she reads every copy of the Douglass Digest I send out.

Tomorrow I will visit Carol McGrath.