state line sign

the day began at my hotel in west des moines, iowa. I got breakfast the nearby mcdonald's and I was back on the road shortly thereafter. but I thought it was odd when I entered Minnesota there was no state line sign. granted, I wasn't on the interstate, but I was still expecting one. I did pull off to the side of the road and got a picture of the county road sign which said 'Faribault county' about where I expected to see 'welcome to minnesota'. I made a change from my typical route as I wanted to find another cemetery, this time near buffalo center. this was much farther off I-35 than rowan. I got off at the Hampton/clarion exit so I could go through Belmond, where I understand my dad was born. it also meant going past the rowan cemetery again. of course this meant more photos of the welcome signs and other things that caught my eye. I really liked the one in buffalo center as there was a buffalo on it. I think I had seen it online and it got me interested in finding it. it was time for lunch when I arrived in buffalo center, and I knew there wouldn't be many options there as it is a town of just under one thousand residents. but they have a casey's convenience store, so I had a chicken sandwich there. as expected, no problem finding the cemetery outside of town, I was aided by finding the location on google maps. I found out there was two cemeteries next to each other, and this saved me some time as I knew not to look at one of them. I found both relatives that are buried there, even though I had a picture of just one of the tombstones that I found online. I got photos of those two, as well as others with the same name. some were next to one of the two I was looking for. this was the parents, and one set of grandparents, of my great-grandma. all were immigrants from Germany, though not at the same time. according to my online research, the grandparents arrived more than a decade earlier. as I recall I spent nearly an hour there as one of them was harder to find than the other. but I didn't want to drive all that way and miss out on one that I knew was likely there. I found out it was in a different row, after deciding to just walk the rows. when I crossed into Minnesota I was still a little off my normal route. I got onto I-90 and it was 25 miles to albert lea, which is where I finally got onto I-35 again. I wanted a drink and got a bottle of Coca-Cola at a Hy-Vee gas station in Faribault. the entrance onto I-35 wasn't the one I use in albert lea, it was just a mile north of it. and it didn't appear to have any services right there, so I kept going for a while. I was listening to the twins-red sox game once I was finished listening to the CDs I brought for the drive this weekend, 8 in all. it didn't take long to unpack once I got home, the typical 'dirty clothes and cheap souvenirs' as I like to travel light with just the duffel bag. but I still had to get caught up on chores and errand running. the first one I did was go to the grocery store. then it was doing laundry, and I called my dad back when I was there. finally it was doing dishes. it meant not going to the performance venue tonight. but not a big deal to me when I still had some stage time this weekend after the baseball game.