I just had the most delightful experience here in our overnight stop of Albert Lea, Minnesota. Earl and I went to a “Green Mill Bar and Restaurant” for dinner, where I ordered, in a very gruff voice, “a tall Bud Light”.
The server carded me. She actually asked me for my I.D. to make sure I was old enough to drink the brewski. I was a little surprised and, just like my college years, got nervous about showing a New York State driver’s license because we were in Minnesota, afraid I wasn’t going to get any beer. But she accepted it with no worries.
I feel so blessed. Here I am almost 38 years old and I’m being carded. Talk about an ego boost!
Today we left Deadwood, South Dakota (or as I like to refer to it as “So Dak” to be a complete geek) and headed eastward with plans on getting home this weekend. South Dakota and Minnesota along Interstate 90 are both, for the most part, very flat.
That’s not a bad thing. I love the wide open spaces in this part of the country. But it does make the drive a little less interesting than it could be.
Our only tourist stop was in Wall, So. Dak., at a place appropriately called “Wall Drug”. This depression era drug store literally took over half of Main Street in the tiny burg of Wall and begins announcing itself along I-90 about 200 miles away. Earl and I had a delicious lunch there and we did a little shopping in the souvenir area. There’s a ton of stuff to look at and quite a few places to take your typical tourist trap photographs. If you stop by, be sure to ask for your free glass of ice water. They’ll even fill your thermos or jug for you.
After Wall, we crossed into the Central Time Zone and continued eastward, finally calling it a night in Albert Lea, Minn. (population 18,000 or so). I have my PowerBook hanging out the window, trying to capture some wireless internet from an adjoining hotel as for some reason I can’t get onto the network here. Of course, Earl jumped on our hotel’s network without a problem, so I’m probably overgeeking something.
Tomorrow we continue our journey east.
