Relative Something

My journal entry for Monday, June 16th contains the words ‘storm’ or ‘storming’ three times for the one day: “storm coming;” “storming intensifies;” and “still storming.” It was also the first indication of illness for me, as I awoke that morning with a severe and entirely unwelcome sore throat.

It was our off-day from riding and we were in Luverne, MN. I don’t think there is a better place we could have been for our break from riding on this trip, despite Luverne seeming to be the epicenter of the repeating waves of rain soaking thunderstorms inundating the region. The Chamber of Commerce and people of Luverne treated us like royalty.

Sunday night’s dinner was at Blue Mound Banquet Center and included live music. Transportation shuttles were made available to us day and night by Luverne Trolley LLC. There was the drive-in theater party room, and the following night a meeting room at the GrandStay hotel for watching USA in the World Cup. A handful of us met there and ordered pizzas delivered from The Pizza Ranch while flooding rains poured down outside.

We started the morning with a breakfast at Vinnie’s, a place that is deceiving from the outside, and thrilling on the inside, with walls decorated by album covers from my youth and metal lunch boxes hanging from the ceiling. The menus hang on a spring-loaded chain overhead and the breakfasts were home-style-cooked diner delicious. After a walk to a drug store for supplies, we visited “Those Blasted Things” gift shop to check out the rocks and gems, where I got Rich and Mel to pose with the buffalo statue out front.

I was particularly thrilled by the Rock County Courthouse Square gallery building that contains a superb military museum on the upper floors and a gallery of Jim Brandenburg’s photography on the lower levels. Just down the street from there we took a tour of The Hinkly House, built in 1892 by the Mayor at that time, and spectacularly restored and maintained as a National Historic Site.

With the convenience of the Trolley service, we were able to navigate the crazy, intense weather and still take in at least that much of what Luverne has to offer. I was happy to be able to return to the school between a couple of our excursions in time to tighten up the tie-downs on the rainfly of my tent just before one particularly wicked, rotating cloud formation rolled into town at full force.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.