A Voyage of Discovery: Betsy and Bubba on the Road

I arrived in Winona, Minnesota, in time for a pre-lunch bike ride with Taff Roberts, our old friend from Newport. Taff and Anne were married in 1989, and some of you were involved in the great potluck we threw at Eisenhower House for that wonderful autumn wedding. I remember some great dances with Benj, he was two at the time. They moved to Winona about a year later, and few of us have been able to wrest ourselves away from our East Coast umbilical cord to see them. Anne teaches art at Winona State University, and they have a lovely Victorian house about two blocks from the University. It’s a wonderful and welcoming house. Winona has lovel wide streets, lined with trees, and spacious sidewalks. Behind their house is an alley, and Bubba and I parked Maybelline II in the alley behind their garage and camped there. Bubba was warmly received by Wrigley, their Welsh Corgi (Of course Taff would have a Welsh dog!) and the two of them played for three days, with occasional skirmishes on food issues.

Taff and I took off on bikes and he took me for a short tour of Winona. There are two universities, Winona State and St. Mary’s; both are very integrated into the life of the community, and there are wonderful lectures, concerts, etc. that are well attended by community residents. There is a lake in town, only a five minute walk from their house, and a bike/walking/skate path that goes around the lake, as well as a building available for functions.Spring was busting out in Winona, and lilacs were just opening. I’ve been meandering through the seasons, and, in Winona, am back to where I was in Gettysburg Easter weekend, with early spring upon us. But it was warm and lovely. We rode over to the Food Coop that Taff has been involved with since he came here. It’s a wonderful coop with great produce, organic and health food stuff, and a little gathering place for lunch.

Anne had an Art Club cookout for her students and colleagues in their garden, followed by our attendance at Gareth’s 8th grade band concert. The middle school is a beautiful new facility a few miles from their house, and band is a huge deal there. In a school with classes of about 300, there are probably 150 students in the 8th grade band, with great depth of numbers in each section. They even had a bassoon player. And the quality of their work was, I thought, exceptional, more like what you’d expect to see from college level students. The band teacher was about to retire, and obviously had a great deal of affection for and skill with the students. It was a pleasure to be there.

On Friday, Taff took me out for a couple of real treats. First, he drove me out into the country, to Wiscoy, where there are two intentional communities: folks dedicated to a less consumerist and healthier lifestyle, many living off the grid, and quite a few involved in farm politics. One of the interesting issues was the development of a major confined production hog farm in the vicinity. We met Taff’s friend, Jim, who has been involved nationally and internationally in organic standards development; he was a chief vocal opponent of the project. He believes that the sinkholes and karst soils in the area will cause the hog waste to infiltrate into the ground water. His vocal opposition has led to threats to his position at the University.

In the afternoon, Taff rented kayaks and we went paddling on the Mississippi. Not out there in the current (runs about 8 kt, Taff said), but in this interesting backwater that’s part of a National Wildlife Refuge. I was there at the perfect time while the river is high in the spring, so we paddled through areas accessible only at this high water stage, through what looked like the forest primeval, into a heron and egret rookery. We sat in our kayaks and watched them building their nests. We also saw one of the largest turtles sunning itself on a log that I’d ever seen. Only yards from the railroad tracks, major commercial shipping on the river, and a highway, we were witness to a remarkable sight.

Anne was gone for the day to Milwaukee. She has an extraordinary opportunity to study and travel in China for the month of June and went to attend an orientation for the trip. So we went out to dinner with four friends of Gareth’s, along with the parents of two of the kids. He teaches biology at Winona State, and had gotten the position after being turned down for a job he’d applied for at Warren Wilson College. Sarah’s loss is the Roberts/Plummer family’s gain. She is from Louisiana, he, from Italy. They and their kids were great to spend an evening with. We went to a little hotel across the river in Wisconsin, and I had my first wall-eye. It’s time to learn that not all fish comes from the ocean. We came back to Taff and Anne’s house and saw a computer slide show of the Winona Earth day parade, featuring a flock of giraffes made in Taff’s back yard. They were wonderful! The heads and necks were of papier-mache, and the bodies were giraffe’patterned sheets covering two kids each, who had on white suits painted in giraffe pattern as well. The kids, were, of course, thrilled to see themselves, or at least their legs. I guess they were quite a hit in the parade. These construction projects have been an annual event. Last year was Peace doves. Now they’re discussing a wooly mammoth for next year!

Saturday was wet and raw. Anne took me to the studio and galleries at the University. They lit the wonderful little fire in their kitchen, and we spent the afternoon and early evening playing Boggle and eating pizza, my contribution to the day. Sunday, as they headed off to Quaker meeting, Bubba and I loaded up and hit the road again.

I drove up a road that parallels the river. For the first 30 miles, there were lots of these little back eddies off the river that were full of bird life. Apparently there’s a flourishing eagle community along the river, I spotted one as I drove along. On both sides of the river, limestone bluffs rise up, pockmarked with holes occupied by cliff swallows swooping out for an insect snack. Closer to Minneapolis-St.Paul, the land becomes more rolling and rises up from the river.

In Minneapolis, I turned away from the river, and passed by the Mall of America without even a moment’s temptation. The land continued to change throughout the day. West of Minneapolis, we moved into open farmland. As we approached Fargo, the land was perfectly flat. Clumps of trees looked like islands rising out of a sea of farmland.
West of Fargo, the highway stretched out for miles through farms of corn and soy, now on a very large scale. Highway exits are miles and miles apart, gas and bathroom stops require planning and timing. We drove on for hours, wanting to make some distance, and stopped for the evening at Bismarck, North Dakota. Sprng has barely reached us here, folks. It’s a cold and wet rain, not 50 degrees, and I’m glad to have that down comforter and warm dog. Most of the campgrounds hereabouts aren’t open yet, and the one I’m in has few visitors in this bleak weather. The host/owner is from Montana, settled here, and is waiting for his wife to fly back from Miles City, but the weather is, as he said, “too soupy”. A good description. Some snow is forecast for Monday night!

We spent a quiet night outside of Kansas City and drove north and east. Iowa was quite a surprise.Much of the middle of the state was what I expected, with my provincial prejudices: flat, mega-farming, blah. But the southwest and northeast corners are absolutely lovely: rolling hills, farms on a smaller scale, immaculately clean towns and apparently flourishing businesses in those little towns. I spent the afternoon driving around the area where Ellen Walsh and Emma Deutsch, two of the farm volunteers, are from, in the northeast corner of the state. Bubba and I went to dinner at Ellen’s folks’ restaurant, the Irish Shanti, in Gunder, Iowa (try to find that on the map, you Rhode Islandahs). Ellen’s folks were most hospitable, although on their way out for the evening. They met in Alaska, he’s from Massachusetts, and they came back to the area 30 years ago and settled, since that’s where her mom’s from. Her dad still sounds like he’s from Massachusetts! A friendly and pleasant evening out,, check out their website, www.thegunderburger.com. You can’t take the Irish out of a Boston Irishman!

Although Bubba had to wait in the van while I dined, I couldn’t resist ordering a ribeye steak that I split with him. He was thrilled with the bounty, if not so much with waiting outside.

We spent the night at a county campground in Elgin, Iowa, Ellen has since e-mailed me that it was family land, given for conservation. It’s a gorgeous spot, on the banks of the river and used as a canoe launch, next to a farm field, and full of bird life. Coyote life as well, I suspect, Bubba and I thought we heard one at night. We had a lovely stroll by the river at night and through the cornfield in the morning. I stopped for breakfast in Decorah, an unusual outing, and further indulged Bubba with a strip of bacon, before we drove on into Minnesota.