25 More Days before I leave for Wisconsin and "The Lake"

Lesson 7 in How To Talk Minnesotan.....A Visitor's Guide covers the subject of cars and Minnesota. I don't know much about cars. What I do know is that it's pretty much a universal truth that if your car breaks down while you are on vacation, it will cost you big bucks to fix your car. This is a given. I'm not going to even ask how much my parents had to pay for their car repairs from their recent trek back to Wisconsin. I do know that they left for Wisconsin from Henderson, Nevada on May 4th. They were towing a little Suzuki SideKick behind their Ford van. I know that they discovered that they needed to replace the battery on the SideKick on the second day of their trip in the tiny little town of Santa Rosa. New Mexico, I think. I know that they had to have the alternator in their Ford van replaced in Minneola, Kansas. Population 700. This also meant that they had to have the battery replaced on their Ford van. I know that they arrived safely in Wisconsin on May 7th. Amazing! Usually you can expect at least a three day delay because you have to replace or rebuild your transmission near Albuquerque. It is almost inevitable that you will have some kind of car trouble while you are on vacation. It is also almost certain that if and when you have car problems, it will usually be in an area where there is no cell phone reception. Again, I will not ask how much said repairs cost. I am assured from Lesson 7 in the book that said repairs would have been costly in Minnesota. I'm pretty sure said repairs would have been costly in Nevada. And I know that said repairs would have been costly in Arizona. I also know that said repairs would have taken a lot longer in Arizona. However, please note that once you finally arrive in Minnesota or Wisconsin, Minnesotans will want to discuss every detail of said repair woes. Do not be startled if you are asked to "pop the hood". Be prepared to discuss every little detail.

I thought about Lesson 7 a great deal. Where it is accurate for the most part, I find that since the book was written by a man it tends to lean toward the male perception. When my sister was asked the make and model of the new truck that my daughter had bought (a fully loaded, four-door Dodge Ram), she replied...." I don't know. It's blue." (Cars just aren't that important to my sister. She's very smart but she prefers to delegate that responsibility.) Where, I may know the make and models of all the cars that I've ever owned, I really don't care too much as long as they keep running. I do know that while the men are outside in the driveway hovering over the "popped hood", the women can usually be found inside discussing some new "hot dish" recipe they invented or someone else had the bad taste to serve at the church potluck.