another 1,500 miles

If you read the news (http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/05/26/severe.weather/index.html#cnnSTCText), you would probably agree with me that I didn't choose the best time to travel to Iowa and Minnesota.

Although the weather was fine during my trips to and back from Iowa, our ride from Minnesota to Iowa yesterday was an adventure. The tornado was always ahead of us, which was much better than it running after us, I guess. We had to make stops constantly to avoid catching up with it since it was moving slower than our speed.

It got pretty scary when the dark cloud was right on top of us, I felt the strong wind pushing my car, and hails of 1~2 cm diameters started to strike from the sky. There was nowhere to hide, since it was in Iowa. You know, they only have farms and farms on both sides of the highway. I decided to pull over the car anyway. There happened to be a house by the highway. So I drove into their front yard and hid the car under their trees. Luckily no one came out to shoot us. We waited 15 minutes for the hails to pass that area.

Other than that, we did quite a bit fun stuff. Had a lot of food. Walked by a few lakes. Shopped at Mall of America. Took a cruise on Mississippi River. Watched "Indiana Jones".

the cute service building in the rest area near the border between Iowa and Minnesota

one snapshot of St Paul

one of the lakes in Minneapolis