Going here and there - before snow hits.

I know that it really has been a long, long time since my last blog entry. But with me being back to work as well and some georgeous fall weather out there, there was just enough time for occasional postings on the German edition of this blog.

Some of you know that I was a trained secondary school teacher back in Germany, with both math and history as subjects (yes, the German teaching degree requires the equivalent of a double master and some educational studies from a university). I am still in the process of evaluation, but the catholic school system in town was able to hire me based solely upon my German degree.

Now I am part-time teaching: algebra as advanced level math in junior high. And I really love being back in the field that I was trained for. Love the kids, too. Love to have adjusted to the different classroom management, style of instruction and administration. Well, honestly, I am still learning, everyday. At least my mind doesn't have to work 120% all the time in class anymore - it felt that way in the first weeks, learning names, math vocabulary, ways to explain complicated things, ways to understand the sometimes twisted junior high mind. But as you notice, this is worth a posting on its own.

There have been blizzards in Minnesota at this time of the year before, so everybody is anticipating the first serious snow fall of this season (with the last one being just six months ago ...). So Alex and I decided to go to Lake Superior as a weekend trip once more before the snow hits.

We had already been up north in June, so therefore we stayed at the uttermost southwest corner of the lake this time, meaning Duluth, MN and Superior, WI. I had the feeling that all hotels in Duluth are at the lakefront and you pay for the view - so we stayed in Superior over night. There is a saying in German "Wenn Engel reisen ... (ist das Wetter traumhaft)" - when angels travel (the weather is great) -, so have a look at some impressions from the Ocean of the Upper Midwest.

Wisconsin Point - a reddish sandy beach (red because of the iron)

Between Wisconsin Point and the mainland

SS Meteor - the only whaleback ship existing in the US

Duluth, Aerial Bridge. Connecting "Minnesota Point" (Duluth's "Long Island") and Canal Park (the historic harbor district).

Duluth Harbor Lighthouse

Lakewalk in Duluth

That was the last weekend in October. But the tourist season had already been over at that point - the museum ship (SS Meteor) was closed for the season, so were other shops and you noticed more locals than tourists (easily to distinguish as some wore light jackets, if at all, and others were bundled up). 

As Minnesota is famous for its fall colors, I also want to share some impressions from Frontenac State Park, located on the bluffs above the mighty Mississippi.

While Rochester already lost most of those beautiful colored leaves, the Bluffs seem to be a little more protected. Since we have had three days of fall last year when driving north as part of our move from Houston, TX to Minnesota, I really embraced the fall colors this year. I honestly felt like a child again, walking through all those both pretty and crunchy leaves ...

Waiting for snow ... Though we'd still like to spend a part of the weekend outside of town, it is hard to tell how long this is going to be possible ...

Monumental Memorial Day weekend

I guess we must be finally americanized to make a ten hours one way trip at Memorial Day weekend. But to be honest, driving a US highway is much calmer than driving the German Autobahn. 10 hours would be equal to a trip from Hamburg to Munich without traffic jams and speed limits on the left lane at about 160km/h (=100mph). Something very unlikely I would never do. Because even at 160km/h on the left lane, somebody would be faster ...


However, here in the US we drove from SE Minnesota to Western South Dakota where our friends and us had both rented a cabin in the Black Hills. And we did some major sight seeing!

Our first stop after checking in was - of course - Mount Rushmore.  Overseas, this mountain carving is as much an icon of the United States as Lady Liberty in New York. We also heard a lot of foreign languages on the terrace and the President's Trail. I was also surprised by the variety of license plates in the parking lot. The only state I remember not having seen was Hawaii. ;)

Mount Rushmore - unfinished rock carving

Afterwards, we checked the map to see what also to do before returning to the small and rustic cabin. To our surprise, the world's largest mountain carving in progress, the Crazy Horse Memorial was just 15 miles south! What started as a one man's vision in 1948, is now continued and funded by a non-profit organization. Offers of financial support from the U.S. government have been turned down at least twice ... Therefore, it still is a lot of work to do before the carving looks like the model. The head alone took 50 years to complete!

Crazy Horse Memorial - unfinished rock carving 2 - but work is in progress

One day, it should look like that ...

Because we celebrated camping to much on Saturday, our Sunday started late ... We had late lunch at this lake and picknick spot in Custer State Park - such a beautiful place!

Nature at its purest, Custer State Park

 Afterwards, we continued our monumental sight seeing to Wyoming. You might know the Steven Spielberg movie where this impressive butte or monolith was featured prominently in. Its official name Devils Tower was caused by a wrong translation, the most common Native American name would be Bear's Lodge.

Devils Tower, Wyoming - a "rock pimple"

On Monday (Memorial Day), we packed, returned the keys and hit the road again. But we left the I-90 in Wall (but did not stop at Wall Drug Store though it was advertised along the interstate since we entered South Dakota) and took the scenic loop through Badlands National Park. Wow!
The sun was shining brightly, we had bottled water in the park - but I somehow felt drying out while taking those pictures of the several viewpoints featured along the road.

Badlands National Park, but could as well be on Mars

Badlands National Park - striped mountains

green + yellow + red + brown = bizarre

On the next weekend, we are planning to explore more natural beauty at the north shore of Minnesota at Lake Superior.

Five hundred miles

Well, we were close to 500 miles on our way to San Antonio and back. Just a little tour to visit the – as we were told – most beautiful city in Texas and a little taste of the roadtrip we have to expect when transferring ourselves to Minnesota. However, heading straight west, we were driving into the sunset …

While Alex was driving all the way to San Antonio because I am used to be a little dizzy after torturing my adult pupils with German articles and plural forms, I was allowed to be the one behind the wheel on the quite empty highway I-10 on our way back. We allowed me to do so despite the lack of insurance with me driving (a German DL and twelve years of driving means nothing for our insurance company) – now heading east through the middle of nowhere and some German sounding towns and villages along the highway. We mostly passed trucks and surprisingly, the splendid speed limit was 75 mph = 120km/h, my favourite pace even on German highways.

In spite of being eight years old, our car has a feature called cruise control – which even works! But not being used to it, it was really an odd feeling when the car itself takes over controlling the speed, especially when accelerating. But I got used to it quite fast and would not want to miss it again – above all on our way to Minnesota! Well, you always have to be prepared for hitting the brakes, but being able to move or even cross your legs while driving is definitely a huge plus!

My first highway experience showed a lot of similarities to Germany. Some truck drivers being in a hurry and passing every other vehicle on the road. Or what we call “Elefantenrennen” (literally: elephants’ race) when two trucks are kind of dueling while one overtakes the other and you get stuck behind them for miles … Refreshingly, there was the big difference that no(!) car overtakes at high speed on the left lane. Really: no one! Nothing like in Germany as Tom Hanks reported his experience in an interview: “No matter how fast you go on the Autobahn, someone is always faster – and passing as a lightning!” On I-10 everybody seems content with chugging along at 70 to 75 mph – or is afraid of the fines …

However, the biggest and most confusing difference was that only orange signs of Road Work Ahead and „left lane closing“ were the only thing announcing – well: road work. In Germany, the speed limit would step by step have been put down to around 40 mph ahead of the lane closure – but nothing like that happened here. Nothing. Nada. I spend half an hour(!) after passing the roadwork making jokes about coming to terms with the – in my opinion – missing regulation of the speed limit. Well, the road work was about renewing the blacktop; one could see that easily for three reasons:

1. Our lane had already been beveled and driving was quite noisy;
2. The left lane was currently being fixed by mills and coned off – with single cones standing dangerously close or in our lane;
3. The shoulder on our right had already been renewed causing a two inch high edge on the lane.

I was driving through this continuously talking to myself how surreal the lack of a speed limit was in this situation. Imagine someone driving through this at the speed of 75 mph … But somehow in this case the US relies on common sense to drive carefully.

This leads me to the question if we Germans lack common sense …