Day 14: Minneapolis/St. Paul

A taste of the art of Minneapolis.

Seeing old friends with whom you have a Facebook connection is a strange and new experience. Anna and I were good friends in high school, but she moved with her family back to Minnesota after her first year of college and I hadn't seen her since. We've managed to stay in touch even before Facebook, but since the advent of social networking I know when she's read a good book and she's seen pictures of my wedding. Catching up is a process of relating all the things that we're careful not to post to the whole world. It's a new kind of reunion.

In addition to catching up on the last decade or so, Anna presented me with a pile of writing I'd given to her when she left for Minnesota. All sorts of goofy stories and poems. I had no memory of most of the stuff and was a little surprised that Teenage Amy had been so prolific. I was not surprised to discover I'd written an entire poem about lint. Man, was I a weird kid.

Anna acted as our Minneapolis guide and we set off to visit The Red Balloon, an excellent children's bookstore in St. Paul, where we played with puppets and signed some books.

My career takes me to some very cute places.

Anna and an owl.

Marnie, Barb, and Susan at The Red Balloon.

After visiting the store we went to lunch and ran around the Walker Sculpture Garden, and then headed over to Wild Rumpus, another children's bookstore in Minneapolis.

Having had a not-so-stellar store event the previous day, I had braced myself for more disappointment, but when we approached Wild Rumpus the first thing we noticed was this.

You know a bookstore is going to be great when the bookseller has taken the time to draw your characters and put them in the store window.

You know it's going to be really great when one of the store cats is taking the time to read your book.

And you know it's going to be ridiculously awesome when the person who recreated your characters took the time to color in the backs of their heads. I LOVE WILD RUMPUS.

There aren't enough good things to say about this bookstore, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Along with my comments under the pictures.

Tiles signed by authors and illustrators.

AAAAAAAHHH!! BRIAN FROUD!!! I can never meet Brian Froud, I'm too much of a deranged fan and there's a strong likelihood that my love will terrify him, just like it terrifies David Wiesner (I'll save that story for another day). But Brian Froud!!!

The ceiling of Wild Rumpus. The pictures don't do justice to the crazy awesomeness/awesome craziness.

Wild Rumpus is big on the store pets. I've seen a lot of bookstore cats, but cats were just the beginning of the Wild Rumpus menagerie...

Harriet the Tarantula (they found out she was a she after they'd named her.

Wild Rumpus co-owner Collette and one of their three hens, Ethel.

Is that terror you see in my eyes because I'm holding onto a live chicken? A little. Meet Carl Sagan, the hen.

Wild Rumpus employee Drew with a ferret whose name I think was Baby.

With a bookstore like this supporting my event, what kid could resist coming?

I gave my book talk for a great group of readers, their parents, and Ethel, who may or may not have been flattered to be inspiration for my art.

I don't know if I did her justice.

The Popularity Papers brings sleepy romance to the kitties of Wild Rumpus.

Wild Rumpus has definitely made it on my growing list of Best Bookstores Ever. Today we head out to visit a friend in the wilds of Wisconsin, and then tomorrow we head further east to Chicago. We've been on the road for two weeks and we have four more places to visit. Onward!

Day 13: Minnesota

The picture of the Welcome to Minnesota sign came out a little blurry--this is from the Welcome Center. There were actually two posters to accommodate all the different languages.

We left Mitchell bright and early this morning to head east to Minnesota.

And by "bright and early", I mean "eerily foggy and early."

Our first stop in Minnesota (besides the welcome center) was in Blue Earth.

Blue Earth, MN.

Why did you go to Blue Earth? You ask. Here is why we went to Blue Earth.

He's jolly. He's green. He's rather large.

Ho ho ho.

After taking a bunch of inappropriate photos of Atticus with the Jolly Green Giant, we were back on the road, heading to our next stop, Austin, MN. Why did you go to Austin? You ask. This is why we went to Austin.

Yes, there's a museum.

Yes, the town of Austin totally supports its Spam Museum.

Behold. Behold the museum dedicated entirely to canned meat.

After watching a short movie called "Spam: A Love Story", we took the opportunity to run around the museum taking ridiculous pictures of Atticus.

Mark lifts Atticus (and a crate full of Spam).

This photo kind of weirds me out. Please feel free to post your own interpretation/reaction in the comments section.

Yeah. We put Atticus in a fake fridge with some plastic ham. We actually felt kind of bad about this, but not bad enough to not do it.

Confession--I've never actually tried Spam, and although I had the opportunity, I didn't try Spam at the Spam Museum. I bought some postcards, a gift, and a souvenir flyswatter in the museum store but I wouldn't try the free Spam chunks that museum employees were offering me. I wanted to, I really did, because if ever there was a time to try Spam, it's at the Spam Museum, but I just couldn't do it. The ghost of that hamburger in Omaha haunts me still and I wasn't about to get adventurous again.

Onward to Rochester, home of the internationally reknowned Mayo Clinic and this water tower made to look like an ear of corn.

All water towers should look like something other than a water tower.

The book event was to be at a Barnes & Noble in the evening, but we couldn't resist visiting a different Barnes & Noble first--it's located in what used to be an old theater and it's really neat looking.

The enchanted land of Readsalot.

Some events are wonderful because the booksellers are really fantastic at getting the word out (Puddin'Head Books!!! I love you Puddin'Head Books!) and some events are great because the kids who come out are really into the book (Kids Ink! Carolyn the Greatest Reader Ever!) and some are fantastic because old friends come out of the woodwork to support the book (Cover to Cover!) All events are amazing because Ohmygawd, there is my picture, there is a pile of my books, and they're on sale at this bookstore! That never gets old.

But some events...sometimes, because it's parent-teacher night at school, because I don't know anyone in the town, because because because just because, some events don't work out so well and I find myself alone behind a big pile of my books making desperate sad eyes at anyone who gets near to my signing table, and yes, that's what happened tonight. But I still signed a heap of books for the store to sell later, and met a really nice teacher who bought my book for a friend.

Oh Amy, you say, you must feel so discouraged. Not really, no, because every author I've spoken to has told stories of going through exactly the same thing.

Tomorrow, Minneapolis! I get to see my friend Anna for the first time in over a decade and visit not one, but two independent bookstores, Wild Rumpus and The Red Balloon. I can't wait to see what's in store for me there. Besides (ohmygawd) a pile of my books.

Day 12: South Dakota

The Amazing Flying Atticus Phanaticus.

What's there to say about Mt. Rushmore that hasn't already been said? What picture could possibly be taken that hasn't already been taken and made into a postcard?

One with Atticus, of course.

Most people who see us toting around Atticus seem to just think that we're some weirdos with a strange green alien doll, but then there are those times, usually when we're at a big tourist destination, when someone will see us posing him and a huge grin will break over their faces. These are the traveling Philadelphians. They know what's up and it fills them with joy. Such is the power of the Phillie Phanatic.

Atticus and the Presidents.

Atticus leans on Gutzon Borglum, the creative genius behind Mt. Rushmore.

Atticus federally misbehaves.

After we'd had our fill of the presidents (as a native of Long Island, my favorite is Teddy, although I'm a little in love with Lincoln) we headed towards Wall, SD. Wall is a little town about an hour from Rapid City that is known for Wall Drug. Back in 1931 Ted Hustead and his wife Dorothy started a drug store in Wall. Business was terrible--Wall had a population of only 326 people and they were all poor--until Dorothy got the idea to put signs on the side of the road advertising free ice water. All of a sudden motorists came in droves and Wall Drug was a smashing success. Nowadays it's a tremendously schlocky tourist destination with famous signs that pop up all over the world, advertising the wonders of Wall Drug. Here is a small sampling--





So of course we had to go to Wall Drug. It was every bit as silly as we expected it to be, and more.

Wall Drug.

Our next stop was at the Badlands. For astonishing rock formations with such a scary awesome name I expected to me more frightened, but no, I'm still more unnerved by Wyoming than anything else. The Badlands seemed (in their own weird way) to be kind of friendly. Something about the sedimentary layers make them look like they were drawn by Dr. Suess. Mark took about a million billion pictures, but here's just a small sampling.

Atticus and I gaze upon the majesty of the Badlands.

Atticus salutes the Badlands with his nose-tongue.

The Badlands. Okay, maybe this part was a little spooky.

But look at these friendly formations! They looked like scoops of rainbow sherbet.

Some really weird-looking buffalo.

After we left the Badlands we were back on the open prairie.

Driving art photo.

Driving driving driving. The Great Plains are enormous. You get the idea.

We passed back into the Central Time Zone and pulled into Mitchell, SD. Mark (who planned most of our travel itinerary) picked Mitchell because it seemed like a good midpoint between Mt. Rushmore and the destination of our next book event in Rochester, MN. He also chose Mitchell because of this.

The Mitchell Corn Palace. Every year since it's formation in 1892 the people of Mitchell redecorate it with new corn murals. It also houses a basketball court.

2010 Corn Murals.

There was a hallway of photographs of all the past Corn Palace designs. PLEASE DO NOT MISTAKE THE PEOPLE OF MITCHELL FOR NAZIS. Truth be told, I like the older Corn Palace designs more than the new ones, when they focused more on adornment and less on mural art. With the exception of this one.

And then, to our great surprise, after a day of driving we were right back where we started.

Corny ending.