Early in January, but admittedly after most new year’s resolutions were written on the first, I decided to tack on another: visit all 87 Minnesota counties in 2010.
Not counting the county where I live (Dakota), the county where I work (Hennepin) and the county where St. Paul resides (Ramsey), I visited my first county on Jan. 31. With four weeks of the year already gone and only 48 remaining, the goal will need to be revised:
- I want to take my time and really visit each county. No fair touching my toe across the St. Louis County line and motoring on to the next one.
- Unfortunately, Sunday turned out to be a day when not a lot was open in Wabasha County. Therefore, I’m going to need to travel on Saturdays or weekdays — and unless I take a sabbatical, I won’t have the necessary days in one calendar year to devote to this project.
- While I thoroughly enjoyed meandering east on 60 without a plan, taking turns randomly whenever a road looked promising, I’d like to do some planning so I don’t miss the good stuff like the giant prairie chicken or a great hole-in-the-wall ice cream shop. And planning takes a lot more time than jumping in the car and taking off does.
So while the goal remains the same, the timing will change. I’ll still visit all 87 Minnesota counties; it’ll just take a little longer than I originally planned. No timetable will be set, unless it starts to drag on and on for years on end.
Note: Yesterday, long after I decided to start this road trip, and indeed after I completed the first leg (details to come), I learned that gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton is also taking an 87-county journey, although his will be a lot quicker than mine!
87 Counties 