November 5

It’s an annual event – meaning it comes around once a year.  By our host’s, Basketball Dan, a long-time resident of Woodbury, recollection the first one was in 1976.  So the first one just happened to coincide with the year the “Great One” and I were in attendance for the championship game crowning the last NCAA undefeated men’s basketball champions, the Supervisor’s very own Indiana Hoosiers.

[After a two-hour adventure down I-94, you know you’re entering downtown Minneapolis when the Basilica of St. Mary looms in your windshield.]

[Then you know you’re crossing the Mississippi when the Witch’s Hat looms in your windshield.  On such a beautiful day, it was destined to be our first stop.]

[I had not been here in years, though at some point in our existence the Super and I visited together.]

[The Super trudging up the steps.]

[And here’s why you go here.]

[And panning just a bit right is “The Bank,” where our Gophers were soon to take on the Purdue Boilermakers.]

[Absent the telephoto.]

[After circling the tower, we have returned to find “perspectives” in view finder.]

[And now in the “P” mode, which always seems to provide a blue light special look.]

[The big, black monstrosity in the left center is the Vikings’ Stadium, a $1.1 billion homage to commercial sports.]

[And the Gopher Stadium . . . we have new stadia everywhere!]

[This is the US Bank Stadium, the Gophers’ is the TCF Bank Stadium.  I think I got that right.]

[Just a gorgeous November day . . . and why I had to make this stop.]

[And since we were here, we decided to go from Minneapolis to St. Paul via University Avenue, again something I hadn’t done since the Age of Aquarius.]

[The Capitol, a McDonald’s, and the Green Line.]

[We crossed over I-94 here  at the Cathedral of St. Paul and took the interstate the rest of the way to our destination.  After now numerous trips to Europe, we have become acutely aware of cathedrals.]

[Downtown St. Paul]

[Once you pass Ruth Street, you’re just a stone’s throw from Basketball Dan’s (well, if you  have a really good arm).]

[We have arrived at the Great One’s at the appointed hour . . . noon-ish.]

[When Dan first moved to Woodbury, shortly after the age of the dinosaurs, there were miles and miles of empty fields between him and any signs of urbanity.  Now Radio Drive, the commercial street just two blocks from his home, is 14 lanes wide!  They have Ubers to take you from one side to the other!]

[A 30-pounder!!  More about that as we progress.]

[Suzanne renders unto Caesar (that’s Caesar, a/k/a, the Great One, on the left) the turkey.  She and husband Mike seem to make this august event on a regular basis all the way from Boise, Idaho.  Go Broncos!]

[The lead, and only, chef mops his brow as the partisans begin to dig in.  Suzanne and Hans work on the final demolition of the bird.]

[Libby fluffs up the mashed potatoes.  I remember the “es” from President Bush!]

[Dan sets the table with assorted fixin’s: two kinds of cranberries, a sweet potato casserole, a corn casserole, I believe four kinds of dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, the “bird,” and four different pies!  Dig in!]

[His work done for the moment, he settles in to watch whatever college football games are on the two TV’s (in the past there have been three TV’s but at our respective ages we can then no longer comprehend everything that is happening).  Our ranks were somewhat depleted this year as the Big Ten, or its TV corporate owners, changed the Gopher game starting time from 11:00 to 2:30.  We have people who are still season ticket holders. Those who were here all have multiple years on Medicare and discussions ranged about what it’s done for them.  We learned, for example, that our host, with severe osteoporosis, will need help hefting a 30-pound turkey next year – this year we triple-teamed it to get it out of the oven.  And he was delighted to have an invited work force to flip his mattresses.  It’s happening to all of us.  So, until next year . . . ]

Turkey: A large bird whose flesh, when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude.  ~  Ambrose Bierce

Up Next:  It’s a surprise . . . even to me.