Minnesota (21-23 May 2007)

In my quest for Huck Finn, I continued following the river road up into Minnesota. Admittedly it was a little dark by this point, but I still hoped to find my childhood hero. Unfortunately my hopes lasted about as long as the light. I gave up at about 10pm and headed instead to my hotel at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. Not to be beaten, however, I found out that there was a bike trail right by my hotel which followed the river road, and so set off the next morning to continue my Huck hunt. Twenty miles of cycling later and I'd failed to find the Finn (or catch the Twain)*. It was time to hit the Mall of America.


Now, I have to say, when I first arrived at the biggest mall in America and looked at the store directory, I was a little disappointed and wondered who had done the measuring and concluded it was the 'biggest'. But having walked around and observed that a large part of the mall consisted of a big Ferris Wheel, an indoor rollercoaster and a huge mass of other entertainment type stuff, I can kind of understand how this mall got its reputation. I’m sure Phil would love it..... especially as it puts the Dallas Galleria and its ice skating rink to shame (see this three-year-old blog post and also this grainy photo. I think he's bought a new camera since then).

* Pun courtesy of Phil.