MILAN

While I was having breakfast, a gentleman asked if he could sit down and visit. He had noticed my backpack and was wondering what I was up to. I explained and he mentioned how his son, Steve, had done something similar a few years ago. Steve and his brother-in-law, Ryan, had biked across the US and had also done similar trips in HI and Australia. He then introduced himself as Mr. Billy Thompson. He asked if he could offer me a ride to Montevideo, but with one stipulation; we must stop in his hometown of Milan first. I agreed. What a pleasant decision this would be.

We set out after coffee and had a wonderful conversation throughout the entire trip. He spoke of his family, his town, careers, retirement, history, his love of the area, and his chosen profession as a documentarian. Once we arrived at his museum in town, this would become most apparent.

He took me on a tour after introducing me to his daughter, Ann, who was a teacher all over the world with her husband, Ryan, and now is the proprietor of the Billy Maple Tree's art studio and gift shop. Billy showed me all the glorious items he has collected and created. What a fantastic museum, gallery, studio, and history lesson. There are so many amazing stories he shared with me, they will have to be put into a separate medium; a book, perhaps?

After a tour of the shop, museum, and town, we headed down the road towards Montevideo. Along the way, we took in State Parks where I picked up a new walking stick, an organic grower's garden in Watson and learned the sordid details of how the town is trying to illegally force him to stop (potentially due to his Pakistani ethnicity; there is no legal merit to the case), MN's largest cottonwood tree (34 ft in circumference), and then stopping to visit Mr. Dale Pederson.

Dale runs a business, Stony Run Woods (www.stonyrunwoods.com) and met us in his woodshop. We looked around for awhile and he then invited us to have a seat outside on his willow furniture and offered us some homemade apple cider, if we were interested. Of course! We were thirsty and that cider tasted so delicious on a hot summer day. We visited for awhile and talked of his business, my journey and of how Mr. Pederson's brother had retired from the Marines and chose to work for Pheasants Forever in the area which improves the grasslands for pheasants and other wild animals. Now, this sounds like the first "something" I would prefer to do rather than continue to work for the government.

After our visit, Billy drove me to Montevideo and we went to City Hall for a permit to use the park for camping. They needed $20 for me to pitch a tent and Billy and I both found that ridiculous so he offered to take me to Granite Falls. We left and after a short drive arrived. There was only one problem, no place to pitch a tent close to food and drink. Everything in Granite Falls is located on Hwy 212, so I made the decision to stay in a hotel for the nite, update my blog, and it is always refreshing to sleep in a bed.

After all the encouragement I received from Bill, his family, and Dale, my journey is starting to develop into something tangible. I cannot say that I will be staying in MN at this moment, but it does have promise. Milan, MN is definitely the finest place I have yet visited. It will take someone extremely special to compete with the man I met today, Mr. Billy Thompson.

Photos on Facebook here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=104983&id=672758511&ref=nf