What a beautiful day in Minnesota ! Clear blue skies and bright sunshine all day. So I went exploring the countryside in the morning, driving North up I-35 before heading East along Highway 18 to Rutledge and then North through Willow River, Sturgeon Lake, and Moose Lake. The countryside was forests punctuated with lakes, with what little housing there was being wooden shacks rather than brick. I stopped by a lake in the absolute middle of nowhere - the place is just vast ! A very good place for a bit of quiet reflection.
I then re-joined I-35 North and had lunch in a rest area, where I chatted with the caretaker. The weather patterns in Minnesota seem similar to those in England - like us they had heavy snow last winter which lasted until Easter with a blazing hot March in 2012. I then arrived in Duluth at just after 2. A man in the car park thought I was trying to steal the car ! This was because the car opens automatically when the key is near it, so to check that it's properly locked I leave the key a distance away and then check that the doors won't open. Just another of my little paranoias ! Another feature of the car to baffle me was that I had great trouble finding the button to open the petrol cap. It's tucked away in a fairly obscure place inside the passenger door.
Duluth is the most beautiful town as well as being Bob Dylan's birthplace. It's right on the Western extreme of Lake Superior and has hills behind the main street. I went down to the waterfront and then back to the main shopping street (Superior Street), which runs parallel with the front. I found a record shop and bought Dylan's "Another Self Portrait", plus the latest Van Morrison and the first two Rodriguez albums, having heard a track of his on the radio the other day. I spoke to the owner for a while about the music scene in London and told him about Bevis Frond.
Then I walked on and found another waterfront view which was really lovely. I asked a lady there to take my picture (always a good intro line here - wonder if I could use that back in England) and we got chatting. London accents really do the business out here. Then I returned to the car and drove back down I-35.
My music on the drive North was mainly Van Morrison - "Down The Road", "Pay The Devil", and a bit of "The Philosophers Stone". All this was great - Van is a big favourite of mine and has had such a long and consistent career. The music is very carefully-arranged and yet sounds spontaneous - that's what good musicians can do. And I do enjoy his lyrics - he uses commonplace language and has an unforced empathy for the working man. As I came into Duluth I heard a bit of Blood, Sweat, and Tears' first album.
The way back was nearly all Beatles - "For Sale", "Rubber Soul", and "Past Masters". I don't listen to them that often as I'm so familiar with their stuff, but they are simply irresistable. Together with Dylan, they changed millions of peoples' lives, including my own. They tore into America at the start of 1964 and, by April, had the top five records on the singles chart. The freshness and sheer bounce of their early stuff swept us all away back in 1963 and still stands tall due to the innate quality of the songwriting and the power of the vocals. They kept growing and growing throughout the 1960s and very rarely made a duff track (I hate "Here, There, and Everywhere" though). It was great last year that Dylan closed his latest album with a tribute to John Lennon - the two cultural giants of the post-war era.
Just at the end of the journey I played a bit of Terry Reid's "River" - a welcome slice of blues/soul after all that Beatle-pop.
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