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Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
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Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 6 - July 4 - Independence Day
Bloomington, MN to Wisconsin Dells, WI
Miles traveled: 410
Local Music:
Kubla Kahn, MN based upbeat rock-pop group with a good horn section.
Victoria Vox and her Jumping Flea, 10 bonus points to everyone who knew that the phrase "jumping flea" is the literal translation of the Hawaiian word "ukelele". Dad would love this one, one of the tracks even has a kazoo solo.
The Mall of America. It's hard to describe and a little surreal to be in a mall large enought to contain it's own theme park, and it's own aquarium. (And probably it's own ecosystems.) I browsed for a while. Spent a good bit of time at the Lego store and the NPR store, but eventually all I bought was Mall of America postcards from the MOA gift shop, and some Wisconsin cheddar and a cheese-head hat at one of the specialty shops.
Now, if I can only remember where I parked...
The SPAM museum is an amazing place. It it you can learn about how SPAM was responsible for the US winning WWII, about how the Hormel SPAM Girls were the premier musical group of the 40's, and even about the famous Monty Python "Spam spam spam vikings and spam" sketch. Oddly, there was no mention anywhere in the museum about junk email.
Crossed the Mississippi for the first time on my way over to the Wisconsin Dells. It's still clean enough this far north to go in for a swim, and since it was so hot that my car's AC was struggling, and since I spotted what looked to be a public beach when I was crossing the bridge, I stopped for a dip. And I wound up staying for over an hour.
Got to Wisconsin Dells with just enough time to find a hotel, get checked in, and get out to the middle of town for the fireworks.
