20090825 – On the Road Again

20090825 – On the Road Again

I resumed the roadtrip today, heading West with a due date in Olympia of 9/16/09.

After a visit with a friend in Becker, MN I headed generally North and West toward Rockville, Cold Spring, and Osakis, MN. This route, from Becker, took me through some towns that I was familiar with from earlier days, although I had few specific memories of any of them other than that they were hometowns for some of the people I went to school with in Onamia, and later Hastings and Fort Wayne.

I chose this route to check out the Catholic churches in Rockville, etc. I was looking to identify the locations of some of the pictures that had been puzzling me from the Rice Picture Box. I found the church in Rockville without any difficulty, but it did not match any pictures I was puzzling about. Cold Spring remains a puzzle. I found a Catholic church downtown, but it was not of the right vintage. I suspect the one from the early 40's has been rebuilt. In Osakis I had to search a little, since this is a bit bigger town. And I hit the jackpot. The pictures were of the Immaculate Conception Church there and of the associated garage and pastor's residence.

After that, I headed to Lake Carlos State Park, near Alexandria, MN, For the night. The park lived up to my expectations from earlier visits to MN State Parks. The entrance station was staffed, the park was clean and well maintained, and the bathroom/shower was attractive and clean. No fooling around with tokens or quarters for the shower—that is included in the entrance fee. The park was less than ½ occupied on this weekday. I chose a relatively isolated site, although that did not matter much since the sites all have visual barriers and feel nicely private.