Celebrating the Midwest

 Joining thousands of others, we are going north to the family cabin/lake home to celebrate the Fourth.  We will get out the water skis and fishing poles, grill meat and enjoy time together around the fire in the evenings.  There will be children, dogs, motor boats, fireworks and guitar playing.  Nothing out of the ordinary, just honoring a timeless tradition of spending time with family in the great outdoors.
Our family has been coming up here, driving on the back roads across the Minnesota farmland, for over 20 years. I barely notice the miles of corn and beans, but appreciate the big skies and open country. We drive through the small towns of New London, New Ulm, Belgrade and

Montevideo, reminding me that I am not the first European or South American to come this way. Most of the drive is remarkably similar, with small farms and trees breaking up the flat farm land.  But you can, like me, take a wrong turn to Sleepy Eye and come across peacocks crossing the road, and watch whole flocks of pelicans land on one of the many pond-sized lakes.  We find the landscape soothing and are not surprised by the oddities.

To truly appreciate this part of the US you only really need three things: the first of these is a credit card. You will be rarely asked to pay cash; handing over cash makes doing business awkward. Most people would rather bill you later and get a check in the mail.  But a credit card is enough to give people the reassurance needed to make things happen.  Jon was able to rent a car with only a credit card.  He had misplaced his wallet and had no ID or driver's license.  Come to think of it, I'm not sure how he was able to board the plane after we returned the car.

Second, you need a car or some sort of vehicle. They are easy to come by and no one would dream of depriving you of your own mode of transportation. This was shown to us in a quite dramatic way while on a family road trip through South Dakota.  Our van broke down in Mitchell and we found we had no cell phone service. Jon went to the nearby Walmart to buy a phone, and got talking to an employee who new someone at the local car dealership. They agreed to open up for us the next morning, which was Sunday. We barely had time to worry about what we would do overnight, because a stranger quickly understood our plight, hooked up his truck and towed us into town to the dealership. He was off so quickly we didn't even have time to properly thank him.

As promised, the dealership opened Sunday morning, and sold us a car, asking for nothing more than a personal check.  We were on our way!
The third requirement needed to truly appreciate the midwest is family.  I married into a family where two Jahnke brothers married two Jacobs sisters. And due to the number of their siblings, few people in the area are not related to a Jahnke or Jacobs. This makes everything easier as everyone treats you like family.

I have run out of gas before on the side of the road and felt stranded for only a short while. Then somebody stops and asks where I am going. Of course they know Ron Jahnke, they used to play ball together! He drops me at my door and my car is rescued by another relative soon after.
But if you are feeling the urge to explore the great Midwest, and you have a credit card, don't let the fact that you don't have family here put you off.  I can put you in touch and you will be well on your way.