gravity rail swing

 i went to new ulm for oktoberfest and of course this meant seeing german park. i noticed it has a 'gravity rail' swing now. there was an older couple interested in it, and the lady went on it a few times. then i decided it was my turn. i screamed like lt. dan in 'forrest gump' when i was on it, so i liked it. there was some mallets for music nearby, a xylophone and some pipes. i found the brick i had bought, needed to make more than one attempt to find it. plenty of leaves had fallen on the path, so the second time i looked at each one. it was near the end of the walkway, close to the street. saw the brewery for the first time in a while, bought some small souvenirs there. this included an edgy greeting card, an anniversary patch, and a bockfest button. i had some superman ice cream at a german-style ice cream place as well. other things i bought were postcards and buttons at a cramped place about 10 blocks from the middle of town. i got popcorn from the museum's popcorn wagon. i had lunch before getting on the road, a little godfather's pizza. 

i still did my errand running in the morning. this included going to dump change into my savings account at the credit union, i do this quarterly. there was also getting groceries at aldi. i decided that one thing on my list could be moved back a day. then i got on the road at midday and arrived in new ulm in the mid-afternoon. visitor center was open, one employee of this place said they recognized me from previous visits. the glockenspiel added a performance for 6pm, so i saw that one. and i still made it over to sleepy eye to see the linus statue. only there long enough to take a picture then i drove back to new ulm. i ate at the hotel in the evening, german food of course. and saw the costumed narren in the ballroom on the dance floor. downtown in the afternoon i heard the band play 2 lady gaga songs, 'shallow' and 'bad romance'. of course the driving also meant listening to the radio a lot. early on it was public radio visiting the moth hour for storytellers in houston. when i was driving back home in the evening i found a story about grant's tomb from kmox st. louis. i was getting tired and stopped at a gas station in jordan, at first i was just listening to the next segment. during this time i kept seeing the 'wolf' sign from the ford dealer across the road. when it was done i got out and walked around a little, then resumed my drive. when i got home i went inside to find a bag for all of the things i had acquired in new ulm. during my walks i found 1 dollar 16 cents.