Minnesota, home of Prairie Home Companion, where the men are handsome and the children are all above average.
I did have an idea from time to time to take pictures of all the variations in signs of leaping deer and elk (and moose in Canada) that one sees on the side of the road. It didn't really sink in as a powerful admonition until I saw a large buck deer leap across my lane about 300 yards ahead of me (if I have that kind of distance right -- far enough that I wouldn't hit him, but close enough that I could see his antlers and colouring clearly. I hit the brakes gently while I watched him land and then duck between the front and rear wheels of a trailer truck (not a real large one, but big enough). I think the deer thought it could just slide through, but the truck was going about 80 mph and hit it with its rear wheels, shunting it to the right side of the interstate. Bits of it flew off. Aggg. I saw it land with a thump golden tail wagging down on a white rump. Then I was past.
The next exit was to Owatonna, where I was checked into a Comfort Inn. I rather breathlessly reported the deer to the innkeeper. She called 911, but they said they had to transfer to the state troopers who put her on hold. They never came back on. As I continued driving I noticed many for deer remains along the side of the road or being picked up in pick-up trucks -- probably about 20-25 from that point on. But, "my deer" was the largest I'd seen.
This was kind of a nice Inn, but it had deer and buffalo heads on the walls of the foyer above a rather nice stone fireplace. It's hard to put that sort of a visualization out of your mind. Though I did have a very good dinner at a steakhouse nearby. It was a stopping place for hunters.
I managed to get them to let me stay until noon as I was only a few hours from Minneapolis. Getting back on the highway was hard as I kept seeing the deer leaping out. As with getting a speeding ticket in Manitoba, I used the reminder to come back to the road.
I took a snooze break at a rest stop that had an amazing number of perky squirrels and a memorial to some kind of invention for processing cloth.
I dawdled and dawdled on my way to the lawyer's house. I drove up and down his road and found a great view of a pond with absolute clear reflections of trees in autumn glory with a yellow low sun in the sky. Gad. Couldn't find anywhere to pause my car to take a pic. Oh well.
I got there at almost five on the dot. Randy wasn't home. His wife and two children were though. Susan, two-year old Sophie and four-year-old Ben. Randy didn't want me to put any photos on the web, so I'm honoring that and being a bit vague about my visit.
He was absolutely right that his wife was a marvelous cook. She's made a hobby of watching cooking shows and turning out gourmet meals. We had a kind of Mexican, black-bean, corn, vegetable medley the first night and an amazing polenta, blended with cheese and other mysterious ingredients to go with a savory roast chicken. I actually had seconds. Their house was very white and clean -- lots of books, a huge Leggo set for the children that had it's own table. The house was built by someone who valued his privacy. There were no windows along the curvy white concrete front (looked rather 50's, 60's modern). Windows in the back overlooking the Minnesota autumn. Pumpkins in front of the door.
The house was the quietest I've ever been in. For example, in the morning I would usually have heard the children whose rooms were right down the hall from mine, but I heard not a sound. I decided that I was probably imposing somewhat, though there was no hint of that in their demeanour. A friend of theirs had said that he'd come back on Monday so I could stay Sunday evening, but I decided not to let that happen as he had to get to work in Minneapolis and was staying rather further away. Randy and I had good conversations about Clarence Darrow and he gave me a copy of the readings he'd assigned for a class he taught on Darrow. We promised to keep in touch.
I was starting to feel somewhat antsy about getting back to Canada before winter, so left that Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment