Road Trip

Margaret, the harp,was ready to come home. We had dropped her off at Hobgoblin Music in Blaine as it was a shorter drive and hoped to pick her up there. Unfortunately the repair shop is at the main store in Red Wing. Rather than wait for someone to drive her back up to Blaine we decided to go down and get her. Red Wing is a small city located on the near the Mississippi River a bit south of the Twin Cities. It is home to Red Wing Shoes and Red Wing Stoneware, two products familiar to many people who live in this state. We drove there yesterday. It was a gray early spring day. There were still spots of snow on the ground. We drove though Hastings, another town on the river. We drove past fields of stubble waiting to be plowed and planted with this year's seed. We drive though rolling hills as we neared Red Wing. Even though it was gray and the trees were bare and not a spot of green was to be seen anywhere C and I both though it was a lovely drive and would get more beautiful during the spring, summer and fall seasons. We approached Red Wing. Like many small cities, the first thing you run into is the large chain stores and restaurants. We found the road that would take us to Hobgoblin, but decided that first we needed to eat lunch. We passed many restaurants on the way in. None of them was quite what we wanted. We wanted to go downtown. Red Wing has a downtown area. C and I both grew up in places with a defined downtown area where most of the business is done and prefer that to the vast malls that dot the suburbs near where we live. We also prefer to shop and eat at places that are owned by local people as opposed to chains. We drove around looking at places to eat. There were several choices. C wanted to eat someplace with a view of the river. We decided to eat at the St. James Hotel. The St. James is a lovely place. It reminds me a bit of the St. Paul Hotel, but is not quite as grand. We walked past several shops selling women's clothes and a little coffee shop. We were headed to the Veranda, which was just what C was looking for. We were seated near a large window which gave us a view of the outdoor seating area and the river beyond. C had Beef Stroganoff and I had a Rachel sandwich (a Reuben with turkey instead of corned beef). I had ordered chips with my meal and was surprised when I saw orange coloured fires next to my sandwich. Instead of chips I had been given the latest food craze, sweet potato fries. The waiter offered to bring me some chips instead. I declined. I never had sweet potato fries before so I though I would try them. They tasted all right. They had some grains of coarse salt on them which went well with the slightly sweet taste of the potato. It was strange to eat fries without catsup. We were both pleased with our meals. We took at short walk to the depot behind the hotel. It is a real working depot with train tracks outside. The river was high and moving fast. The depot had sandbags piled around it and more sandbags were piled around a transformer nearby. It is spring and flooding is a real worry this year. We drove out to Hobgoblin to retrieve Margaret. Hobgoblin is located in a large barn outside of Red Wing. I got to go into the shop which smelled like fresh sawdust from all the harp pieces that had been cut. They tuned her up, dusted her and the carrying bag off and sent me upstairs. Upstairs they have instruments, books of all kinds as well as CDs and DVDs. I saw several harps and they let me try out a small floor harp. It was lovely, but too much harp for me right now. I did find a potential second harp. Like Margaret it is a 22 string lap harp, but made of cherry wood which looks and sounds a bit different. It also had levers on every string so it can be played in a variety of keys without retuning. They found some lesson books for me and C found a few books as well as an effect pedal for his guitar. There is an outdoor stage near the barn that houses the store and workshop. This year a bluegrass festival will be held out there. C is very interested in that. It was a good trip and I think we'll be making it a few more times.