By Kristina Petron
Well, this year it was a bit more like a bi-athlon. Our trip had to relocate to White Water State Park due to another group of alternative school kids who misbehaved. Because of those kids we could not go white water rafting this year. I think it is very unfair.
Anyway, the trip included Pauline and Merlin for the teachers and Jeana Doescher, Andrea LaDouceur, Jessica Johnson, Justin Ponter, Andre McDonald, and Kristina Petron for the students. I believe that the group worked very well together. There weren’t really any big arguments.
Our first day we went to Mystery Cave near Preston MN. It was very interesting. We learned all about bats, stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, and how each was created. Our tour was about an hour long and very interesting.
On the second day we woke up early, ate breakfast, packed our lunches and off we went. We biked 36 miles that day. We began at Lanesboro then biked through Walen, Preston and our destination was Rushford. In Rushford there was a big auction that people came to from all over to go to. That is where we had our first encounter with the Amish. Everyone seemed to be intrigued by them.
The bike ride was on a beautiful trail along the Root River, until it started to downpour. I have two pieces of advice for anyone that plans on going on this trip, no, make that three. Bring a rain jacket, water proof everything, and make sure your bike seat is soft and comfortable. By the end of the bike ride I thought that my butt was broken and I was soaked.
That night it rained so hard that we got flooded out of our campground early in the morning. The river was flooded every where. There were even highways closed due to the flooding. Since we couldn’t go bike riding we decided to find more Amish people but first we went to breakfast at Del’s Cafe. After breakfast we drove for about an hour, maybe longer, to a town called Harmony. There was an Amish market in Harmony. Jessica and Jeana were excited to see the studly Amish men, but when we got there there wasn’t one in sight. We later learned that it was Ascension Day. None of the Amish work on that religious holiday. I’m not really sure what Ascension Day is, but I think it has something to do with Easter. After that we decided just to go home.
Overall, our trip wasn’t that great because of all of the rain, but I would still recommend it to anyone because I can see how it would be a lot of fun with no rain.