After a too-long hiatus to focus on the high school football and basketball seasons, I'm back to chronicling my travel adventures. So where were we?
Oh yeah. Nebraska. After Sunday's Storm Chasers game and Runza experience, I actually got to bed early for once with my longest driving day of the trip looming.
Rather than take the most direct route from Omaha to Minneapolis, I was going to do my typical zigzag thing, seeing different counties and states. I spent much of the morning dancing back and forth between Interstate 29 and US Highway 75 along the Iowa-Nebraska border, which was far more scenic than I expected. While much of those states are dedicated to cornfields, the area overlooking the Missouri River was actually quite pretty, with changes in elevation and vegetation.
After straddling the border beween the two states, I dipped into the southeast corner of South Dakota for lunch, eating at Bread & Circus Sandwich Kitchen in Sioux Falls, yet another place recommended by Guy Fieri. Their Vietnamese fried chicken sandwich made for a solid lunch, quick but not filling.
South Dakota has a reputation for being an extremely conservative state, but Sioux Falls didn't give off that vibe at all. If you want to see the really red parts of South Dakota, you'll have to head west.
I didn't have time to head west, though. After lunch, I made my way northeast, entering Minnesota for the first time on Interstate 90 and then heading to Minneapolis on US Highway 169. I stayed at the Millennium Hotel in downtown Minneapolis, a 20-minute walk from Target Field.
Target Field is neat because it doesn't quite take after the same characteristics of most new ballparks. Instead of brick, most of the stadium is made of local limestone. I really appreciated all of the local food options in the ballpark, especially since it wasn't advertised as being locally sourced for the sole purpose of saving the planet. It's just a way to show off great local chefs. One interesting note: Unlike a lot of newer parks, Target Field lacks a main entrance rotunda, or any sort of main gate at all. The entrance that would be closest to a main entrance would be Gate 34, numbered for Kirby Puckett, which is located in the right field corner. It leads right into a lawn area and, most importantly, a bar with more than 20 taps, including lots of great local beers.
Everyone knows how cold it gets during the winter in Minnesota. There's nowhere near enough discussion about how miserably hot and humid the Minnesota summers are. For my three days in Minneapolis, gametime temperatures were 89, 91 and 80, which doesn't sound all that bad by itself, but it was also unbearably humid, especially on the third day. Hopefully the fogginess on this photo can help represent the humidity.
The game itself was as good as you could ask for, especially considering that both teams were under .500 and the Twins had just traded Nelson Cruz, though there was a Star Wars bobblehead of him available for fans with special Star Wars Night tickets. Miguel Cabrera hit his 495th career homer to tie the game at 2 in the sixth, but homers by Josh Donaldson and Brent Rooker in the bottom half put Detroit in a 5-2 hole. The Tigers got one back in the seventh on an Eric Haase homer, then tied it in the ninth when Robbie Grossman hit a pinch-hit two-run shot off Alex Colome. Gregory Soto issued three walks in the bottom of the ninth but escaped a jam to send the game to extras, and Minnesota's Caleb Thielbar got through the top of the tenth without allowing the Manfred Man to even go past second. With the Twins giving up the DH and running out of bench players, Kenta Maeda pinch-ran as the Manfred Man in the bottom of the 10th and scored on Max Kepler's two-out single for a 6-5 walkoff win.
States visited: Iowa, Minnesota (first time), Nebraska, South Dakota (first time)
Counties collected: Blue Earth County, MN; Burt County, NE; Clay County, SD; Cottonwood County, MN; Dakota County, NE; Harrison County, IA; Hennepin County, MN; Jackson County, MN; Le Sueur County, MN; Lincoln County, SD; Minnehaha County, SD; Monona County, IA; Nicollet County, MN; Nobles County, MN; Plymouth County, IA; Pottawatomie County, IA; Rock County, MN; Scott County, MN; Sibley County, MN; Thurston County, NE; Union County, SD; Washington County, NE; Watonwan County, MN; Woodbury County, IA
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