Page 25 - USA ROAD TRIP SUMMER of 2000

our socks off. Those flowers were as big as dinner plates and of

every color but black. Fabulous! Also had an interesting bathroom
experience. Ask in person some day.

The nice retiree who manned the front gate asked where we were
from. When we answered Florida, guess what he asked? Right!!

“What are you doing up here?” We said we were enjoying his
beautiful state. He gave us a cute, devilish grin and invited us to

“winter over with us once or twice”.

Then it was off to the MALL OF AMERICA. YES – it is HUGE!!

Opened in 1992, it covers 78 acres, has 520 stores (we missed

going into one or two), with 12,000 employees and 2.5 million
square feet of retail stores. In the middle of the four-story

complex is an amusement park with a full sized ferris wheel, a
roller coaster, and several other horrible looking rides. Not the

place to visit after partaking of any of the forty some places to eat.

We shopped till we dropped. Then with feet ablaze, we retired to
one of the movies houses in the Mall to see “The Patriot”. They

were preparing the populous for the winter by air-conditioning

down to the 50’s. Never been so cold in a movie in my life. Pretty
good movie though. Ate at a fast food emporium and then drove

back out to the boondocks for the night.

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