Jackie and I said our goodbyes to Ashley and Tristan. The skies were very cloudy, and it had rained heavily last night. Time enough before leaving for some goodbye pics. Here’s one:
Jackie and I left somewhat late this morning, Tuesday. As my per my routine, I mapped out the route both on Google maps (with website camp pages off line) and Garmin. We have not had much success with using the Garmin for even the most general kind of north/south, point-to-point directions. The Garmin has this quirk of ignoring the straight north/south highway to highway destination points. Instead it seems to look for the shortest or the quickest route which always includes “back” county roads with a right turn then a left turn and then another right turn, weaving us through these county roads to our point of destination. It may be one way to our destination, but it just does not feel right to me.
Our route took us southwest through La Seur, St Peter, Mankato, and St James, finally connecting with interstate at highway 90. Spring showers along the way kept the temps down. The smaller interstates go through theses small towns, so we get a chance to see some of the local downtown areas, back neighborhoods, and many older buildings, especially midwest style churches.
I always have to confirm the directions with a paper map. At one point, seemingly close to our turn-off west to the Adrian City Campground, I wasn’t paying attention and missed the turn off. We drove twenty miles into Iowa before I finally sensed that I was no longer in Minnesota, but in Iowa instead. Oh God, Iowa. The problem with the Garmin, the best that I could judge, was that it did not or could not recognize the newly built rounabouts, which by themselves, if you are not used to them, can be very confusing. These traffic circles were in the city of Worthington, Minn., where highway 60 is supposed to “intersect” with highway 90 west or at least that’s what the Garmin and the paper map shows.
The signs on the roundabouts are very confusing, and I was only looking for highway 90 junction, but I just did not see anything having to do with highway 90 and how to connect with it. So I just guessed and finally found a sign for the highway 90 junction. Lost almost an hour trying to get my bearings and re-navigate, but we finally arrived in Adrian, Minn. at a beautiful little city campground.
Call and Response 