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On the Mill tour, surprisingly good considering how little is left of the place.

Remnants of the old mill water power system

After dinner we walked by the river and found a parked Roll Royce to gawk at.

24 Nov 20011 Steve and Maria with some TG dinner waiting in the buffet behind them.

Back in those days we would slam a scuba tank on just about anyone and toss em' in the drink and Maria got the full treatment

On the bow of Carys boat

Maria posing on the dive platform used by Mark (The Shark) Spitz during the 1972 Olympics at the Swimming Hall of Fame in Lauderdale

Maria and Sister Gipsi hanging out on the bow of my old boat "Jaws"

Here are a few pics from the old days.

You know how time and distance seem to separate us. Many a year passed with almost no contact. Then over the winter break in 2010 Maria along with her husband and parents visited Florida and we all got together on the beach. Instantly it was as if the years had never passed.

Cary outdid himself organising a big BBQ at John Lloyd park on the beach. What a feast.

25 Nov 20011 Only after it was mostly destroyed by fire did they decide these abandoned flour mills were historic and should be a museum

And it would be cool to return on day when the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" is taping. I am not a big fan but it would be something to see once. They do it at the Fitzgerald theatre in down town St. Paul.

26 Nov 20011 We also took a tour of a man made "cave" formerly used as a mushroom farm and currently housing a nightclub and that lead to the St. Paul Gangster tour. I never knew that St. Paul had been a haven for Gangsters in the days of Al Copone and Ma Barker. The head cop had a deal to offer. No crime in the city and you can stay here safely (with a pay off). That arrangement eventually broke down but there are books written about it.

Wabasha Street Caves

On my way to the dining car I passed through the lounge car which also looked promising as a place to hang out on long trips.

30 Nov 20011 After bidding a fond farewell to Steve and Maria it was time to move on to my next stop. And here I have to talk a little more about travel by train.

I decided before I left that I would travel be train where feasible and St. Paul is going toward Chicago (stopping in Milwaukee) is one of those places.

The ride as usual was pretty smooth and this car had electrical outlets so I pulled out my netbook. I discovered however that it does not take much of a shake to make it hard to type and use a mouse. I could have done it but it required extra effort and so was not relaxing.

Now we jump to 22 Nov 20011 at which time I fly from Durham NC to St. Paul MN. I am ready to just chill out for a while. We do a little light sightseeing as Steve and I tour the historic James Hill house in St. Paul during the days prior to Thanksgiving

On another day this is Maria on a pedestrian bridge over the Mississippi

The "Wings" actually move depending on weather and sunlight conditions but I believe it's a slow process. I did not see them moving but I did notice the hydraulic cylinders on each of the "ribs" and read about it later.

The man at left is actually one of those very realistic statues

2 Dec 2011 After all that highbrow stuff I decided that I must visit the Harley Davidson Museum located in Milwaukee. Now I never owned a motorcycle, never even rode one. But I like techy and mechanical stuff so, why not.

Bikes on display range from the sublime . . .
(Go Speed Racer)

... to the ridiculous

And Yes it IS a Harley

On the other hand, maybe this is more my speed.

This Army model has a few accessories you don't often see Perhaps they will catch on.

And finally here I am standing next to the oldest Harley in existence. It's origin is a bit cloudy but many of it's parts were stamped with serial number 1

Check out the belt drive and the pedals on this old bike

Heidi showed me a couple local bars including this one with a decor from some type of time warp. The place is called "At Random" and has been around for umpteen years unchanged. No beer or wine served, only speciality drinks that are kind of like alcoholic milk shakes.

There is this nice coffee shop across the street (not Starbucks). Also lots of nice independent restaurants on this street. I like the Italian grocery store. Lot's of imported Italian brands and locally made versions of Italian food there.

It should come as no surprise that they have a lot of motorcycles on display here.

This is but a fraction.

Sorry to disappoint you but I did not get a tattoo in Milwaukee. I did check out the window of the tattoo parlour on the street. I guess the owner was a Star Wars fan.

1 Dec 2011 Milwaukee has an art museum in which the building itself is a work of art.

Now I am going to talk about Art, a subject I know very little about and maybe in fact that's a good thing, because I heard about an experiment having to do with art. It went something like this; Two groups of students were shown some art posters and invited to take one, anyone they liked. The only difference between the two groups is that one had to explain why they chose a particular poster and the other group did not have to explain anything, just pick the one they liked. An interesting result was that the two groups tended to make very different choices. But an even more interesting result came a few months later when the students were contacted and asked if they still liked the poster they had chosen. The group that did not have to explain still liked the poster they chose. The other group, which had to explain and made a different choice, no longer liked the poster they picked.

The moral of the story (for me) is; sometimes it's best not to think too much, particularity with something subjective like art. To paraphrase Yoda "Enjoy or enjoy not, do not explain"

Put another way, the guy who said, "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like" may have been on to something.

I heard about this experiment on a program called RadioLab. One of the most incredible shows on radio IMO. You can download the full episode for your MP/3 player or listen on line here.

A Program about CHOICE

The brief bit about choosing a poster is 43 Minutes into that episode. They call it "The Perils of Introspection"

Okay, Time for a break

Next Up Click Here for Dispatch 5b Chicago

If you want to go back to Dispatch 4c then click here

22 Nov 20011 After Durham I was faced with a bit of a dilemma. Thanksgiving was getting close; it's not a good time to travel. When I was working steady the weekends and holiday were my friend, something to look forward to and make the most of. Now the situation seems almost reversed, holidays and weekends are like an enemy. On weekends it tends to be a case of too much or too little. Things you might want to do could either be more crowded or closed. And we all know how travel is around big holidays. Even weekends can be problematic, often bus service is more limited. When I left Germany we intended to take a bus to the train station and on to the airport but discovered too late that the bus did not make our stop on Sunday. It was a nice taxi ride anyway but expensive.

So there I was with Thanksgiving approaching. I was pretty much done with all the people I planned to see in the Eastern part of the country. I had been thinking about touring the North East but I have no contacts in that area and I thought perhaps I could save it for a time when I have a travelling companion.

So it was that I sent an e-mail to a couple of old friends who used to visit our gang in Florida back in the 80s, Maria and Gipsi to ask what they were up to for the holidays. It turned out that Gipsi and her husband were visiting his family in India. But Maria and her husband Steve were up for company and made me welcome. It's great to have friends.

During the ride they announced meal service in the dining car. At first I was inclined to ignore it. I figured it would be dramatically overpriced and lousy food. But I was ready for lunch and decided, why not, even if it is a bit more that a regular restaurant how much more could it be. Worth it I decided, just to see what dining cars were really like, as opposed to movie images

As expected the dining car was not as ornate as the one you see in movies but it was still ok. One thing I did not expect (but looking back it makes perfect sense) is that not everyone gets their own table. When I walked in the maître d' immediately seated me at a table with three other people. Across from me were a couple, I believe it was their first time on the train, next to me a woman who frequently rode this route. It was a very pleasant conversation though not a particularly memorable subject. The food, well I just had a hamburger, it was a pretty good hamburger, yes slightly overpriced, I got out for about 10 bucks. But where else can you watch the countryside rolling by like that as you eat your meal. Maybe it was just the novelty but I enjoyed it very much. There is simply no comparison to a cramped airline seat where you barely have room to move your elbows.

And so it was that I made my way to Milwaukee. In Milwaukee the Greyhound station is located right in the Amtrak terminal. It figures that they would do something logical like that in a place I did not need it.

1 Dec 2011 In Milwaukee I had another couchsurfing host YEAH!

She lives in a very cool (i.e. very walk-able) neighbourhood, well served by the local bus. She is a boutique owner.

This is the type of business we are talking about when we talk about buying local and patronizing local businesses. It is sadly the kind of colorful owner operated business that is being cannibalized by places like Wal-mart. Maybe we should think more about the high cost of low prices. More power to you Heidi!

Still 2 Dec 2011 The final place I'll talk about in Milwaukee is the Pabst Mansion. This is a mansion build by Captain Frederick Pabst, founder of Pabst brewing. It's a beautifully restored mansion not so far from the Harley museum. The web site was a little misleading, indicating a guided tour. I rushed a bit to get there on the hour only to discover that there really was no guided tour, just a short speech and they handed you a guide book and let you wander while they were there to watch and answer any questions, which was fine, but I rushed for nothing. The place was beautifully decorated for Christmas. The beef I had was restricting photography. They said this was just as all museums do. Well, I have been to a lot of art museums by now and I know first hand that most DO allow photography of permanent collections as long as you use no flash. They do restrict in special exhibits which I guess have copyright or other agreements. To me that's a good reason to pass up extra fees for special exhibits, and I sometimes do. In these big cities the permanent exhibit is typically better anyway. The Special Exhibits are to bring in locals who have seen the permanent collection and want to see something else. As a traveller that may not apply to me unless the special exhibit is really special like King Tut or something.

Here at the Pabst they restrict all photography, which left me a bit sullen. If you follow that rule it's not worth the 10 bucks to get in. I amused myself and cheered up by sneaking a few anyway. You might want to visit the nearby Milwaukee public museum instead.

Dispatch 5a 22 Nov 2011 - 19 Dec 2011

Saint Paul with Maria and Steve

&

Milwaukee

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