The Baseball Trip 2012 / Day 3

Saturday, July 28

We are only 30 miles outside of Minneapolis, but we cannot find a diner for breakfast.

Random observation from Randy:
"You can tell America is going to hell..there are no more diners."

We tried to find one in Northfield, a sizable town, but it fancies itself too cute for diners. It is an arty town with several colleges and coffee houses, but no damn breakfast joints! No, I don't want a cruller. Nonetheless, Northfield is the site of the Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, the bank heist perpetrated by Jesse James and his gang as portrayed in fiction and moving pictures. Here is what the bank looks like, as if you can gain any historical context from that whatsoever.

Go see the Phillip Kaufman movie.

Northfield is also home to Malt-O-Meal, and I can prove it:

Oh yeah, we travelled along the Mississippi river. Here's a couple of shots I took while dodging the motorcycles.

Favorite town name: Shakopee, MN.

For several reasons, one of which is that Canterbury Park, the horse racing emporium, is located there. Since we had some time to kill before the ballgame, Randy and I took in the first four races at Canterbury. Here is what Canterbury looks like:

I like the Knights of The Round Table motif.

So I'm not really a big player. I decided I would play the first race and if i won anything I would allow myself to continue. I took the fastest horse that was listed with some finishing power and put 5 bucks across (win, place, and show) on it. I then coupled it with the favorite on a $2 box exacta (picking the first two). My fast horse was called Cassidilly, the number 4 horse. Here he is:

Cassidilly

Cassidilly finished 2nd and the favorite won. Bingo, $120.00.

I did the same thing with the seven horse in the second race: same results! However, the favorite went off at such low odds that the exacta paid only $13.00, so my total on both bets for that race was only $40.00. Hey, I'll take it. Here's my seven horse in the second race in the paddock (forgot his name!).

Unfortunately, I lost the 3rd and 4th races...but I ended up ahead $100.00. Yes!

Here's a photo of the winner getting hosed off after the race:

After the races we shot into downtown Minneapolis for the Twins game. We were sitting in the left lane waiting for the light to turn when we saw a bicyclist laying in the middle of the street in the right lane. Didn't see him fall, but he was out cold for two minutes. The a couple of bystanders helped him out, and I guess he was okay. I should have taken a picture of him laying there, that would have been cool.

Random observations from Randy:

"The airport is right over there. That's why those jets are only a few hundred feet off the ground."

"There was no pie shelf. You can't open a breakfast joint and have no pie."

"Look at those guys fishing under the railroad bridge. Nothing like fishing under a bridge."

The Twins walloped the Indians, 12-5. Good for them. The lady at the ticket window said she was surprised her machine spat out some good seats at the lower price we asked for. "They're row WC," she said. I asked the usher where are seats were, because the rows are all in numbers. "Oh, WC," he said. "That's wheelchair." So we enjoyed great seats with out handicapped friends.

Here are some photos from the stadium and surrounding area:

Wow. That's alot for one day.

Another favorite Town Name: Norwood Young America, MN
Favorite Sign: Reform Street, straight ahead.