Memorial Day

Not wanting to be on the road during the holiday weekend, we're spending the time in Rochester, MN, home of the Mayo Clinic. (And for MCMers, I didn't look up Dr. Tang.) It's pretty amazing that one of the world's best hospitals is located in a small town of about 68,000. Not much for tourists to see here, so Saturday we drove 78 miles north to Minneapolis and the Mall of America, now the second largest mall in the country since the two in King of Prussia, PA joined up. We walked the complete circuit on all three levels and didn't buy anything.

We decided to go to a small town to see a Memorial Day Parade, so this morning we went to Eyota, MN (pop. 2800) to see their parade. The Dover-Eyota Senior High School Band followed an American Legion color guard a few blocks to the high school for an indoor ceremony. Not much of a parade, but I find Memorial Day rememberences moving regardless of where they are held.

Even small-town America has the kind of problems found in more densely populated areas. Saturday afternoon a drunk driver tee-boned a van loaded with six local folks and visitors about a mile east of Eyota. Four dead, two hospitalized. And of course, the drunk wasn't hurt.