Thoughts of a Kiwi in Minneapolis - on Vacations

I actually had a Friday off recently to go to the world famous North Shore of Lake Superior and stay in the Lutsen resort. Lake Superior certainly is superior in size. My best basis for comparison would be Lake Taupo in New Zealand - and it lends us a useful measuring stick. At anyone time, from any vantage point on the shore of Lake Superior, from horizon to horizon you can view about 2% of the lake area.

You can view about 80% of Taupo at one time using the same rule.

I use the term 'resort' loosely - imagine a cross between the Merimbula Beach Motel (Lonely Planet Accommodation Guide review "mostly harmless") and a poorly kept Cobb and Co restaurant. Resort? Last resort perhaps.

We did have a good time with friends (yes, we made some at last thanks to Noah and Lesley!) and engaged in ski-lift mountain biking. The nearby ski-field opens up in summer with some of the chair-lifts converted to bike carriers - 10 minutes up and 4 down. Spectacular, even if the 'mountain' is about the size of Mount Victoria in Wellington.

Funnily enough our friends are largely foreigners, and their tales of dealing with the Minnesota way of life are as hilarious as our own. A Scandinavian couple arrived in March last year wearing summer clothes, having scoped in an Atlas that Minneapolis was about the same latitude as France just North of Bordeaux. There was 20 inches of snow on the ground.

Clearly some geography in their medical and dental training would have been useful - a climatic map of the world illustrates that the urban center with a climate closest to Minneapolis is in fact Moscow.

We are off to Colorado for the 4th of July weekend. Not much chance of fireworks there I suspect, but once again the mountain biking should be spectacular. Colorado is reeling NOT from the economic effects of the recent forest fires, but from the economic effects of the forest fires being sensationally over- reported on every tv channel news program for the last month.

Less than 1 % of the total area of state forest has been affected (which in turn is a tiny percentage of the whole state), and significantly more area burned in Sydney over summer than has been affected in the entire state of Colorado. Meantime tourists have been ringing to ask if the Denver airport is still open given that the whole city has been burned down ...

US travel is still badly affected by 9/11 (the shorthand for September 11, 2001) and the recession to the point of it being a dying industry. Imagine what 500 Boeing 737's look like lined up on a shiny windless desert plain and you get the idea of the reduction in planes in the air since 2001 (and whole airlines in some cases). In some cases airlines have moved back to older, smaller aircraft and cheaper pilots in desperate attempts to get the economics of a full plane. An older Northwest small plane recently lost its landing gear at Minneapolis airport as it came in to land, causing further ructions among fliers.

I was told a lovely tale by a fellow traveller (wonder if the FBI keyword filtering picks that phrase up when this gets screened in Washington?) about hard landings. Its probably an urban legend but a good one just the same!

The story goes that a pilot has ka-thunked his plane onto the runway so hard that luggage spills from the racks, cabin crew are heard to shriek and passengers are all left rubbing their rosary beads. As the last travelers trudge past the pilot and chief steward at the exit door, a little old lady who has observed that no-one has dared give any feedback, stops to speak to the pilot.

"So, did you land this plane tonight sonny?"

As the pilot opens his mouth to offer a sweet reply, he is swiftly cut off by the little old lady ...

..."or were we shot down??"