Como Park, Maze Trail, Dakota City and more…

After our initial appointments for our annual checkups at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester we both discovered that we needed further tests. I had two punch biopsies of moles taken off my body both of which had to be sent for testing.  Sharon also had a polyp to be biopsied after her colonoscopy. It seemed to take forever to hear the results but we finally got good news we were hoping for and were cleared to leave….

While awaiting our results we stayed at Dakota County Fairgrounds in Farmington, MN which was the perfect location. Not only was there plenty of space at our water and 50 amp electric site (for $25/night) there also was a cool historical village called the Dakota City to explore adjacent to the RV park.

We took many strolls around Dakota City checking out each of the restored buildings and marveled at how well they were displayed to project the time era in which they were built. Some from the late 1800’s and others from the early 1900’s made for some whimsical walks. They do give tours, for a small fee, two days a week and the tour guides dress in era appropriate clothing.

My favorite building was a early 1890’s house that was meticulously landscaped and had an exquisite garden outback with beautiful ripening heirloom tomatoes. Eggplants were fruiting and lettuce, cucumbers and pumpkins were in the ground waiting for their turn. It was very, very tempting to pick some of their tomatoes but we fought the temptation and left them for others to enjoy..

Lastly, in the park, there was also a rather nice hiking trail or maybe a better wording would be a hiking maze in the prairie beside the park. These mowed trails through the neck high grass and wildflowers interconnected allowing one to wander around for hours taking in the sights of the prairie. A few garter snakes and a leopard frog were spotted as well as some sparrows and goldfinches. It really was relaxing and pleasant to wander through the maze of trails…

   

We did make one last excursion back up to St. Paul to see the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory. This was another free, donations accepted facility.  It is interesting how many of the communities in the northern states have set aside land to take care of injured wildlife by providing homes for them in these community zoos. In these zoos we noticed there were regular “zoo animals” as well. This one was nice and well attended.

Our favorite exhibits were the monkeys and apes as many of them were carrying their babies around with them. After leaving the zoo we drove over to see the Minniehaha Falls. It really was quite a beautiful waterfall right in the middle of town. We had to pay to park to see it but the money spent was well worth the attraction.

Another day while waiting for our results a blog reader, Jim Stein drove over to meet us.  He and his wife have a new Winnebago Motorhome and are excited about traveling full time in August.  It was really fun getting to know Jim and we hope to meet again perhaps this winter in Arizona.  What a treat it was to have this nice visit.

We needed all these distractions until we finally received our release from the Mayo. We were so relieved and more than ready to get back to traveling. Now we plan to head further west and see what adventures lie in wake for us On the Road of Retirement…

NOTE: We are now sitting for a few days in the Mel Rieman COE Campground in North Dakota…