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Jason, Martin (& Co) Across the USA!
Having made it past the farms of Iowa and having covered more than 900 miles in the past two days we make it to Minnesota! Along with Anisa's buddy Aaron we head out on a trip in Anisa's car to pick up a friend of hers from the local airport. While initiallly confused by the amount of people in the car, an indecisive search for apple pie leads us to spending five minutes in a hookah bar before ending up sharing salads and cakes in a late-night cafe and generally taking the micky out of each other's accents.
Stay up late chatting and trying to eliminate bees with increasingly extravagent schemes involving cups, sprays and anti-bug bombs before heading off to bed safe in the knowledge that we didn't need to be up and about for anything before lunchtime the next day!
No-one surfaces until after 11am and breakfast is an ill-fated attempt at fried eggs. Still weary from our bee-murdering antics we pop outside to discover that a mere four bees are lying dead or dying on the patio. We head back inside suddenly remembering the eggs we had set away cooking and ate the strange results along with some rather sugary baked beans.
Spend the afternoon at the Mall of America in nearby Bloomington. Disappointed by the lack of dvd/music shops but the mall is cool to explore anyway. Having made various purchases and tested the food court we catch the tram back into Minneapolis to meet up with Anisa and Aaron for 'Pasta Night', a large group of people Anisa knows (and quite a few that Jason does too!) who gather weekly for large amounts of pasta. Lots of new people to meet and all ask about where we're from and how we've ended up in Minneapolis. Accents (mine) lead to a couple of interesting quotes and comments. "Monty's such a cool name," true, but it ain't mine. Or "You sound just like John Lennon," cheeky...
A large part of the group heads into Minneapolis to watch 'Snakes on a Plane' at the cinema and we join them. Drink and popcorn portions are immense! Afterwards we head back to the MoA to collect the car on the way to Anisa's where we pass the small hours watching the original Turtles film before falling asleep on the floor.
The following day starts off in a pretty lazy way again. Long lie-ins and fiddling around on the computer. In the afternoon we head off to the Minnesota State Fair but struggle to find a way in. When we finally manage to park the car and get into the Fair we're deluged in a sudden downpour. Aaron becomes stranded in a Port-a-loo and the rest of us take shelter in the pig barn. When the rain dies down we push on through the animal displays and find the food area where Anisa had promised us we'd find all varieties of edible goodies, and all on a stick! She was spot on, you could have anything from alligator to spaghetti and meatballs, all provided for you on a handy stick! We worked our way through various mini-donuts, chocolate covered funnel cakes and various other sugary delights. As Jason had dropped behind in the quest for a pure sugar rush he still had need for cookies. After searching the fair and we spotted the cookie house in the distance just as we noticed the sky had turned pitch black at only 5pm. This didn't deter Jason in his quest for cookies until we looked past the end of the grandstand and noticed the galeforce wind blowing the horizontal rain along. We took shelter in the shadow of the grandstand until Jason could wait for cookies no longer and made a mad dash towards the cookie house. He shortly returned utterly soaked but carrying two huge bucketfuls of cookies.
On the way back to Anisa's we call in at Minneapolis airport as yet again the car is claiming that it needs an oil change. "0% oil life remaining!" We're given a new Impala, this time an upgraded model with a larger (!) engine and leather seats. As we set back off we inadvertantly discover that the rear-view mirror also acts as a communication device. When we press the wrong button we end up politely explaining to the unexpected voice in the mirror that we were merely experimenting and didn't actually need rescuing at that moment in time.
Finish the night with shopping at Blockbuster and watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Decide on an early night before hitting the road again the next day...
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