November 25
We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. ~ You know who
I’m taking a break from “trying to catch up” due to a plethora of current events. We made our first visit in “decades” to downtown Minneapolis for the high school football state semifinals to see our undefeated Alexandria Cardinals play. It was my first visit ever to the Vikings’ stadium – it will also be my last (don’t get me started). The visit was mostly highlighted by pre- and post-game fine dining with friends followed by more such dining the following morning. We hustled back that next day to catch Fire and Rain, The Music of James Taylor, by our friend Anthony Miltich in Fergus Falls that evening. The next afternoon featured the high school’s performance of Mamma Mia. The kids always hit it out of the park. On Thanksgiving Eve, I joined high school classmate, Little Mayo, for lunch at AJ’s in Glenwood, continuing our ongoing monthly tradition. For Thanksgiving, we picked up Jami and Danny for our holiday repast at the Shooting Star Casino on the White Earth Reservation and then on to Itasca State Park for an overnight at the Mississippi Headwaters Inn. We returned to Alex for all of the day after Thanksgiving activities downtown. ~ Me
I wish the women would hurry up and take over. ~ Leonard Cohen
Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous “I don’t know.” ~ Wislawa Szymborska
November 12
The Americans are, of all modern peoples, those who have pushed equality and inequality furthest among men. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville
[Outside at the winery in the 2nd week of November?]
Wine … offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than possibly any other purely sensory thing which may be purchased. ~ Ernest Hemingway
[The regular crowd shuffles in . . . ]
Wine is sunlight, held together by water. ~ Galileo Galilei
[We were here for our quarterly wine pick up only to also discover Anthony was playing . . . ]
Anyone who tries to make you believe that he knows all about wines is obviously a fake. ~ Leon Adams
[Long our local favorite, Marquette . . . ]
November 16
Aging is an extraordinary process whereby you become the person that you always should have been. ~ David Bowie
[The American Association of University Women’s annual book shindig at the Garden Bar . . . ]
Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age. ~ Pope John XXIII
[OK, a couple of guys crash the party . . . ]
November 17
That’s why I love road trips, dude. It’s like doing something without actually doing anything. ~ John Green
[On the road again, early morning heading SE on I-94 to The Cities . . . ]
Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life. ~ Jack Kerouac
[We lunched at Umbra Minneapolis, kitty corner from the Viking stadium . . . ]
A road trip is a way for the whole family to spend time together and annoy each other in interesting new places. ~ Tom Lichtenheld
[We were joined by monthly alum lunch partner, Little Mayo. We all gave Umbra big kudos . . . ]
“Driving is boring,” Rabbit pontificates, “but it’s what we do. Most of American life is driving somewhere and then driving back wondering why the hell you went.” ~ John Updike
A tourist is a fellow who drives thousands of miles so he can be photographed standing in front of his car. ~ Emile Ganest
[The reason for the road trip . . . ]
Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey. ~ Babs Hoffman
I love being on the road. I love that lifestyle, traveling city to city, rocking out and moving on to the next place. ~ Caleb Johnson
No road is long with good company. ~ Turkish Proverb
Sometimes all you need is a great friend and a tank of gas. ~ Thelma and Louise
[Blechhh . . . ]
If you’re on a road trip, you need driving music. ~ Edgar Wright
[The Mpls skyline from the stadium . . . ]
I love road trips. You get into this Zen rhythm; throw the sense of time out the window. ~ Miriam Toews
[The field of play (if you can bivouac through to get to your seats) . . . ]
Road trips required a couple of things: a well-balanced diet of caffeine, salt and sugar and an excellent selection of tunes—oh, and directions. ~ Jenn McKinlay
[The Cards (black and red) warming up; Mpls through the stadium windows . . . ]
The road goes on forever and the party never ends. ~ Robert Earl Keen
Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn’t block traffic. ~ Dan Rather
[The opening kickoff. Our kicker, Daniel Jackson, created a bit of stir in the broadcast booth (as I understand it) when one of his later kickoffs hit halfway up on one of the goalpost uprights . . . ]
Well, we’re not in the middle of nowhere, but we can see it from here. ~ Louise, Thelma and Louise
Road Trips: Because they’re cheaper than therapy. ~ Unknown
[Kickers warming up at halftime . . . ]
Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death. ~ Hunter S Thompson
[Cardinal basketball center, Grayson Grove (who will be a Gopher next year), leading the cheers in the student section . . . ]
Now, on this road trip, my mind seemed to uncrinkle, to breathe, to present to itself a cure for a disease it had not, until now, known it had. ~ Elizabeth Berg
Sometimes the most scenic roads in life are the detours you didn’t mean to take. ~ Angela N. Blount
Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. ~ Zig Ziglar
[Quarterback Chase Thompson (12) hands off to Andrew Flaten (28). Receiver Evan Kludt (7) was an early star in the game as the Cards jumped out to a 23 – 0 lead. We eventually lost 42 – 30, largely (in my opinion) due to losing 3 of our 4 wide receivers (including Kludt) before and during the game . . . ]
Road trips are the equivalent of human wings. Ask me to go on one, anywhere. We’ll stop in every small town and learn the history and stories, feel the ground and capture the spirit. Then, we’ll turn it into our own story that will live inside our history to carry with us always. Because stories are more important than things. ~ Victoria Erickson
[We fine dined that evening with our old entertainment partners in Alex, Karin and Dave, at Biaggi’s in Maple Grove. It was another big hit . . . ]
The road is there, it will always be there. You just have to decide when to take it. ~ Chris Humphrey
[They had recently moved from Alex to Plymouth, and they hosted us overnight in their new home . . . ]
November 18
When you come to a fork in the road; take it. ~ Yogi Berra
[The morning drive from Plymouth to Longfellow Grill in Mpls . . . ]
When you go on a road trip, the trip itself becomes part of the story. ~ Steve Rushin
[The Basilica of Saint Mary, a Mpls landmark . . . ]
There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars. ~ Jack Kerouac
[At Longfellow Grill on the Mississippi . . . ]
To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, To gain all while you give, To roam the roads of lands remote, To travel is to live. ~ Hans Christian Andersen
[Having a nosh with the internationally-renowned Basketball Dan from Woodbury and brother Cam from Mounds View . . . ]
On the road again, Goin’ places that I’ve never been, Seein’ things that I may never see again, And I can’t wait to get on the road again. ~ Willie Nelson
[Leaving Mpls, probably should have been the lead photo at the top of the page . . . ]
According to the map, we’ve only gone four inches. ~ Dumb & Dumber
[Back home in time for another road trip . . . ]
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time. ~ James Taylor
[On the road to Fergus Falls as passengers with Deb and Paul, usual entertainment partners. An unseen avian bomber left a deposit on the windshield as we motored along I-94 . . . ]
I don’t read music. I don’t write it. So I wander around on the guitar until something starts to present itself. ~ James Taylor
[At the Fergus Center for the Arts with Anthony setting up in stage . . . ]
I don’t take compliments very easily. I think most musicians suffer from low self-esteem to some extent. ~ James Taylor
[After dinner on stage behind the curtain, we settled into our seats for the performance . . . ]
I find it a lot healthier for me to be someplace where I can go outside in my bare feet. ~ James Taylor
I don’t think anyone really says anything new. ~ James Taylor
[Michael Burgraff, executive director, addressed the assembled masses . . . ]
Music is like a huge release of tension. ~ James Taylor
[The star of the show and master guitar tuner . . . ]
Certain things in life are more important than the usual crap that everyone strives for. ~ James Taylor
Though ‘Fire and Rain’ is very personal, for other people it resonates as a sort of commonly held experience… And that’s what happens with me. I write things for personal reasons, and then in some cases it… can be a shared experience. ~ James Taylor
I have a love-hate relationship with the Grammys because I don’t see the music world as a competitive sport. ~ James Taylor
November 19
To succeed in life, you need three things a wishbone, a backbone and a funnybone. ~ Reba McEntire
When I made a breakthrough as an actor, people started to say, ‘Who’s that bloke with the funny name?’ They advised me to change it, saying it would never be put up in lights outside theaters because they couldn’t afford the electricity. But I would never contemplate changing it. It’s who I am. ~ Pete Postlethwaite
[The Performing Arts Center at Alexandria Area High School . . . ]
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different. ~ C. S. Lewis
I love being funny! I started in the theater when I was 9 and, believe it or not, always played the funny part! ~ Robert Knepper
A melange of funny, straight drama, television, movies, a little theater here and there wouldn’t hurt. So if I can keep doing that, I’ll be a very happy person. ~ Mary Tyler Moore
At the School of Visual Arts in New York, you can get your degree in Net art, which is really a fantastic way of thinking of theater in new ways. ~ Laurie Anderson
The National Association of Theater Concessionaires reported that in 1986, 60% of all candy sold in movie theaters was sold to Roger Ebert. ~ David Letterman
Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else. ~ Will Rogers
The three theater peeps I would love to dine with are Mel Brooks, because he is so funny; Stephen Sondheim, because he is a god-like genius; and Ethel Merman, to compare notes on fabulous belting. ~ Nancy Allen
From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere. ~ Dr. Seuss
The avant-garde theater is fun; it is free-wheeling, bold, iconoclastic, and often wildly, wildly funny. If you will approach it with childlike innocence — putting your standard responses aside, for they do not apply — if you will approach it on its own terms, I think you will be in for a liberating surprise. I think you may no longer be content with plays that you can’t remember halfway down the block. ~ Edward Albee
I was a theater guy growing up and I wanted to be Al Pacino, and I think I just looked and sounded too funny. ~ Charlie Day
My only regret in the theater is that I could never sit out front and watch me. ~ John Barrymore
The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life. ~ Oscar Wilde
November 22
I just go with the flow, I follow the yellow brick road. I don’t know where it’s going to lead me, but I follow it. ~ Grace Jones
[On this date, we must always begin with the Gophers’ No. 1 fan, Uncle Dick, who would have been 102 on this day . . . ]
Pleasant road trips require yummy snacks, good music, fun chatter, and oh—reliable directions! ~ Jenn McKinlay
[AJ’s in Glenwood . . . ]
I climb behind the steering wheel… I drive off immediately without once looking back. It’s a long journey but it leads to freedom. ~ Corinne Hofmann
[Lake Minnewaska in the far background . . . ]
Oh the places you’ll go! ~ Dr. Seuss
[Nice sports bar motif . . . ]
Some roads aren’t meant to be traveled alone. ~ Chinese Proverb
[We’re a lot younger than we look . . . ]
The open road is a beckoning, a strangeness, a place where a man can lose himself. ~ William Least Heat Moon
November 23 (a/k/a Thanksgiving)
I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it. ~ Rosalia de Castro
[Itasca State Park is just about a perfect 100 miles north of Alexandria . . . ]
The freedom of the open road is seductive, serendipitous, and absolutely liberating. ~ Aaron Lauritsen
[I don’t understand why some people somewhere (and they know who they are) would disapprove of living in Minnesota. I mean, this is the typical traffic in the state . . . ]
Get your motor runnin’, Head out on the highway, Lookin’ for adventure… ~ Steppenwolf
[Approaching Sebeka on the road north . . . ]
Not all who wander are lost. ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
[And then there’s Menahga, home St. Urho, the beginning of Minnesota’s coniferous forests . . . ]
I take to the open road. Healthy, free, the world before me. ~ Walt Whitman
[Said conifers . . . ]
Look at life through the windshield, not the rearview mirror. ~ Byrd Baggett
[We are now in Itasca State Park . . . ]
In 1903 the Wright brothers invented airplanes, because in 1902 they took a road trip across the country with their family. ~ Bill Engvall
[Where we stayed . . . ]
The only impossible journey is the one you never begin. ~ Tony Robbins
[They called him “flicker, flicker, faster than lightning” . . . ]
Look for chances to take the less-traveled roads. There are no wrong turns. ~ Susan Magsamen
It’s not too much food. This is what we’ve been training for our whole lives. This is our destiny, this is our finest hour. ~ Lorelai Gilmore
[And now, a short tour of the Inn. Our room (#1) . . . ]
If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it’s really like making a large chicken. ~ Ina Garten
[The entry room (lobby?) . . . ]
I can’t cook a Thanksgiving dinner. All I can make is cold cereal and maybe toast. ~ Charlie Brown
[A double kitchen, available for guests. When this was a hostel, we had two Thanksgivings here, with turkey and all the fixin’s . . . ]
Overeating at Thanksgiving is a case in point. It’s a national tradition. ~ Eric Samuel Timm
[The living room . . . ]
Turkey: A large bird whose flesh, when eaten on certain religious anniversaries, has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude. ~ Ambrose Bierce
[The dining lobby . . . ]
A lot of Thanksgiving days have been ruined by not carving the turkey in the kitchen. ~ Kin Hubbard
[All the rooms . . . ]
Good mashed potato is one of the great luxuries of life. ~ Lindsey Bareham
[We were heartened to learn we were only .2 miles from the swimming beach . . . ]
Hope my relatives are getting along with the professional line sitter I hired to hold my place at the front of the Thanksgiving food line. ~ John Lyon
[Lake Itasca . . . ]
It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a little emotional scarring. ~ Friends
Thanksgiving is a time to count your blessings, one by one, as each relative goes home. ~ Melanie White
[Along the shores of Lake Itasca the wind chill was . . . well, chilly . . . ]
For those of you who cannot be with family this Thanksgiving, please resist the urge to brag. ~ Andy Borowitz
[There are no TV’s here; but there is WiFi . . . ]
The Thanksgiving tradition is, we overeat. ‘Hey, how about at Thanksgiving we just eat a lot?’ ‘But we do that everyday!’ ‘Oh. What if we eat a lot with people that annoy the hell out of us.’ ~ Jim Gaffigan
[On the way to Thanksgiving dinner, gotta love the traffic . . . ]
A new survey found that 80 percent of men claim they help cook Thanksgiving dinner. Which makes sense, when you hear them consider saying ‘that smells good’ to be helping. ~ Jimmy Fallon
[Shooting Star Casino in Bagley . . . ]
I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage. ~ Erma Bombeck
[Ruthie & I had the basic Thanksgiving dinner, Jami had a salad, and Danny . . . see below . . . ]
Thanksgiving is so called because we are all so thankful that it only comes once a year. ~ P. J. O’Rourke
[The casino is on the other side . . . ]
The turkey. The sweet potatoes. The stuffing. The pumpkin pie. Is there anything else we can agree so vehemently about? I don’t think so. ~ Nora Ephron
[Danny’s entree was so over the top I can’t find it on any online menus. It was basically a half pound hamburger wrapped top and bottom by grilled cheese sandwiches. No, he did not finish it here . . . ]
An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day. ~ Irv Kupcinet
[As the sun sinks slowly into Lake Itasca . . . ]
I’m looking forward to seeing pie this Thanksgiving more than members of my own family. ~ Damien Fahey
[Settling down after eating . . . ]
Thanksgiving is America’s national chow-down feast, the one occasion each year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty. ~ Michael Dresser
Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie. ~ Jim Davis
November 24
Cooking tip: Wrap turkey leftovers in aluminum foil and throw them out. ~ Nicole Hollander
[Leaving the Park, heading for home . . . ]
Thanksgiving Day, man—not a good day to be my pants. ~ Kevin James
Pie makes everybody happy. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson
Thanksgiving: Bringing out the best in family dysfunction since 1863. ~ Unknown
Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often. ~ Johnny Carson
[End of the National Route . . . ]
You can tell you ate too much for Thanksgiving when you have to let your bathrobe out. ~ Jay Leno
[Home in time for Christmas at Fort Alexandria and the lighting of the lights on Broadway. We began our stroll around the Legacy of the Lakes Gardens . . . ]
Thanksgiving—when the people who are the most thankful are the ones who didn’t have to cook. ~ Melanie White
After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations. ~ Oscar Wilde
I’m from Canada, so Thanksgiving to me is just Thursday with more food. ~ Howie Mandel
People who love to eat are always the best people. ~ Julia Child
Even though we’re a week and a half away from Thanksgiving, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. ~ Richard Roeper
There is no such thing as fun for the whole family. ~ Jerry Seinfeld
Turkey for me, turkey for you. Let’s eat the turkey in my big brown shoe. ~ Adam Sandler
I haven’t even finished eating all of my Halloween candy! ~ Sally Brown
Nothing says holidays, like a cheese log. ~ Ellen DeGeneres
[Walking through Fort Alexandria on the way to Broadway . . . ]
Every Thanksgiving I bring the champagne, because in my family we all know what our strengths are. ~ Gloria Fallon
[“They say the LED lights are bright on Broadway” . . . ]
I love spending Thanksgiving surrounded by all these great friends I met in the Best Buy parking lot. ~ John Lyon
[This is the initial lighting of the lights for the season . . . ]
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! It’s the day you forget about all the fighting and division in the world and just focus on all the fighting and division in your family. ~ Jimmy Fallon
I love Thanksgiving traditions: watching football, making pumpkin pie and saying the magic phrase that sends your aunt storming out of the dining room to sit in her car. ~ Stephen Colbert
You can’t have Thanksgiving without turkey. That’s like the Fourth of July without apple pie or Friday with no two pizzas. ~ Joey Tribbiani
My cooking was so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor. ~ Phyllis Diller
[Our actual sightlines . . . ]
Thanksgiving, the day where there’s never enough food. You can’t just have a turkey. No, there has to be a roast beef or a ham too. Or both. It’s the only day we have mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. ~ Lewis Black
[Apparently the symbol of an upcoming holiday . . . ]
You know that just before that first Thanksgiving dinner there was one wise, old Native American woman saying, ‘Don’t feed them. If you feed them, they’ll never leave. ~ Dylan Brody
[To the best of my recollections, this is the first year a parade has been added to this annual event . . . ]
November 24
Thank you, the day after Thanksgiving, or as the makers of sweatpants call it, ‘the busy season.’ ~ Jimmy Fallon
[The arctic blast of the last couple days has put the ice back on Lake H2Obert, I believe this time until April . . . ]
We all have that one friend who is either on a road trip or planning a road-trip or thinking about a road-trip or talking to people who are on a road-trip or posting quotes about road trips. ~ Crestless Wave
A bend in the road, is not the end of the road….unless you fail to make the turn. ~ Helen Keller
Hit the road, Jack! ~ Ray Charles
Up Next: Back to catching up (or, there are two home girls basketball games this week) . . .
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