Monthly Archives: September 2008

Check it out we went to Mystery Cave, too!!!
Oh man caves are great. And Mystery Cave is great. And the hiking in the park is great. And the fall colors were great. But how about the cave, you ask? Didn’t I say it was great? I totally did.
This old park ranger dude guided our group around for our $10 1-hour tour. He was outstanding. A treasure. Maybe a little thin in the geology know-how, but maybe that’s just me being picky. Also: the jokes and stories and cultural and historical know-how more than made up for it.

And I could go all introspective here and talk about how super insignificant million year old caves make you feel, but I’m too excited to post these pictures to do that now.
Would I recommend a Mystery Cave tour? You damn right I would.
Forrestville / Mystery Cave [dnr]
Mystery Cave [wikipedia]

This time of year, as the karst landscapes of southeastern Minnesota slowly give in and surrender to autumn, it starts to feel silly to spend even a single evening fussing over the tomato plants in the garden with their way-too-green promises that you know won’t ever come true. It’s been a good run, really. The hail damage from the spring storm beat them back pretty bad, but they held on and pumped out fruit right up until Labor Day. BLT’s again? Yes please. But now the sun is low in the sky, and the neighbor’s tree shades the garden for most of the day, and you shrug your shoulders and give in and surrender to autumn, too. And you pull the plants and you turn the dirt and you load your bikes in the car and you head southward to see the shallow streams and the valleys and the bluffs and the cows and everything else that’s great about the driftless area of our state.

Park at Fountain. It’s downhill all the way to Lanesboro and you don’t have to really pedal at all. You roll through the woods and over bridges and through pastures and farmsteads and you smash a camera to your eye to remind you of the life you’ve been living. And everything smells dry. And it’s so so quiet. You stop by a bucolic field to drink some yuppie Vitamin water and stare at the cows and even though they’re 100 feet away, you swear you can actually hear them thinking about how they’re glad they don

She’s a riot.