And then the cops came, and I ran

Hello,
I'm still in Minneapolis and it's 2am.

My Aunt Karen just moved to Iowa (it is somewhere in the upper 20's of the
number of times my Aunt Karen and Uncle Bob have moved) and was kind enough
to drive up to Minneapolis for a little air conditioned hotel sleeping, lots
of eating at restaurants and an excursion to the mall of america with me.
My aunt karen sort of inspired me to go to the mall, since she is an
excellent shopper - it is almost an art form to watch her - while i am a
sad, sad slacker with no shopping agenda. Highlights of the MOA - riding
the roller coaster, and taking a break in the middle of the day to watch a
movie at the cineplex in the mall. A big public thank you to my aunt for
totally taking care of me for 2 days, it was a great vacation from my
vacation.

I met a cool girl while we were biking through Stillwater, MN named Rachael
who kindly offered to take me out one night while Melissa was in Philly. We
went out for good Vietnamese food with her friend Claudia. Both were
extremely cool. Later that night they asked if I wanted to go swimming in
one of the lakes (they have 10,000 of them you know). I said sure, if
that's what the Minnesotans do, then why not. We went to a place called
Hidden Beach which was really amazing with a full moon overhead, completely
still water and someone had created a campfire on the beach. Around 11:45
we decided to head home. While we were walking out of the woods to the car,
we noticed a police car pull up. Then another and another until there were
5 police cars and one big ole police van. The first policeman came up and
asked us where we were from. I responded with a big smile "North Carolina!"
You see i have lived enough places that I can be "from" about 3 places and
i judge the audience to determine which answer to use. To any officer of
the law I have learned to always say North Carolina. The reasoning is two
fold - 1. b/c my license and car's plates say i'm from Carolina (long
story) and 2. b/c if I am north of the Mason Dixon line the officer
immediately thinks I'm really stupid, feels sorry for me and usually lets me
off easy. So, in true form this policeman asked as a follow up a little
slower than he asked the first question, "What are you doing all the way up
here?"
"I'm biking cross country," I responded cheerfully. His face began to look
fatherly stern as he said, "you know you're not supposed to be swimming
after 10pm, see that sign?" I replied with my best surprised, "oh!"
"Yeah," continued mr. policeman, "we're going down to the beach right now to
arrest everyone." All I could muster was, "for real?" And he assured me
that yes, they were going to arrest everyone for...swimming. No mention of
public drunkenness, no possession of drugs, no disturbing the peace, just
swimming after 10pm. I wonder what Jesse The Body would say to that. Well,
being that I am an extremely lucky individual, we were able to walk away
laughing instead of facing a ride in the paddy wagon.

Just like all of the other cities, I could stay here for another week.
Well, except for the fact that it is so freaking hot. Luckily the hostel
that we are in has a free internet connection (even if it is hot as Hades on
the second floor), b/c I cannot sleep right now due to the heat. It's
Minnesota! What's this 108 degrees with the heat index stuff? Don't worry,
we drink lots of fluids and take lots of breaks when we are biking and it is
this hot.

Hope everyone is doing well.
Cheers,
leigh