A new season for Bemidji

Once in a while I get a rare weekend with no races or other athletic type distractions and get to go do more normal people kind of stuff. The weekend of November 7th may not exactly fit into that category, but it was at least something different. Since I'm quite delayed in my blogging but still want to get some of these fun events cataloged for future amusement and for my few readers I'll try my best to put dates on what is going on.

So anyway, Eva happened to have a free weekend with no school, on call, or clerk duty responsibilities so we decided to head North to Bemidji for some camping and to watch A Prairie Home Companion. I had heard snippets of the show from time to time in the past, but when Nate and I started carpooling up to Sunday rollerskis it would always be on the radio on our way home, so I've kind of taken a liking to the show. Plus Garrison Keillor is retiring at the end of the year, so it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

This is Eva, for anyone who reads this and hasn't met her

The original plan was to head up to Bemidji Saturday for the show then camp and hang out Sunday before making the trek back down to the cities. I found out a few days before however that our last set of rollerski time trials would be on Sunday the 8th, and I wanted to be able to participate, so instead we headed up Friday, camped Friday night, and explored Bemidji on Saturday before going to the show and driving back Saturday night.

I have skied at Bemidji state park, and know there is camping there, but I had never been to nearby Itasca state park, which is the headwaters of the Mighty Mississippi river. When I floated the idea by Eva she seemed pretty pumped about it. Her Grandma had fun stories about crossing the Mississippi river up at the headwaters, and it is only a short detour from a long trip.

The weather was pretty spectacular, kind of like the weather we are having now in December, but even warmer! Neither of us has cold weather sleeping bags, but we made do quite nicely by bringing a down comforter to toss over our sleeping bags. One of the nice things about car camping I guess; heavy, bulky comfort items are no problem.

It was pretty late by the time we made the drive up and set up camp, so we pretty much went right to sleep. The next morning we were off on a quest to find the headwaters. There is a pretty cool placard carved into a tree trunk, some rocks marking the edge of the lake, and a small log bridge crossing the river.

One of the smaller bridges crossing the Mighty Mississip

We headed in to Bemidji for lunch at the Keg n' Cork and took a bit of time to go pay Paul and Babe a visit. I make a couple trips to Bemidji every year, for the Chippewa Triathlon in the summer and the Minnesota Finlandia ski race in February, so it was fun to see Bemidji in the fall.

Paul Bunyan and Babe

We picked up a couple snacks at the co-op in town and got snazzied up for the show. A Prairie Home Companion is even better live than on the radio. I had never been to a radio show live before and it was quite engaging. Before the show started Garrison wandered around the auditorium singing the national anthem, some patriotic songs, and various hymns. It was fun to see how few people play so many different characters on the show. I think my favorite part was seeing the musical guests. The music itself would not have been especially interesting to me if I were hearing it on the radio, but seeing the obvious skill of the musicians live gave me a much greater appreciation for it.

The next morning I headed to Afton for time trials and additional skiing. Nate managed to hold me off in both the classic and skate time trials, so I was a bit disappointed in myself there. My times were pretty close to where they were last fall however, so hopefully that bodes well for the ski season ahead, since I had a pretty good season last year.