land’o’lakes

Back to Minnesota, to my aunt and uncle’s house. Here, I get to play with Bobbi, the black lab/chow mix, and Bauer (as in Ed E. Bauer), the giant chocolate lab stud dog with the gifreakingnormous head. There are also two cats, Bonsai and Squishy (who only has half a tail) and a spastic black bunny named Thumper. For awhile, Bauer traps Squishy between his huge paws and licks her until she is sticky and rumpled-looking. Everyone takes pictures.

We eat at this funny little placed called the Fort Saloon. Brandon and I order Diet Dr. Peppers, and after discovering that they taste funny, we look on the bottom and see that they expired about two years ago. Since we are the only people there, we have full command of the jukebox. We order fried/breaded cauliflower, which my college friends used to call “Smurf Brains”.

I eat about a gallon of Pebberner, the Danish pepper cookies that my mom’s family makes every christmas. This sustains me through two more days of driving, aaaaaaall the way back to Illinois.

Oh, and if you should get a chance, stay at Microtel. Damn, those hotels are nice.