Goodbye Mankato

   We have moved on from Mankato.  It's a nice town. It has all of the amenities. Lots of shopping.  lots of parks.  A couple of colleges including MSU.  Minnesota State Mankato.  We visited the campus.  It was weird.  Both R and I graduated from this institution, but it wasn't MSU.  It was Mankato State.  I recognized a couple of buildings but that was it.  It has been nearly 50 years and the changes have made this a different school.  It felt like we were on a foreign campus.
    Getting back to Mankato, it was where I grew up.  The town is still here but, like the MSU campus, many changes have been made.  In the sixties, Front Street was a viable active retail area.  I remember "Crazy Days"  when items were on tables on the sidewalk and crowds walked in the street to check them out.  Now the downtown is not much of a retail area.at all.  So much for progress.
    We left Mankato on Wednesday and traveled about 45 miles east to Owatonna.  We are here until Saturday morning when we will drive to Fairmont.  During these days we are visiting old friends.  Friends from high school and college.  It is great renewing relationships.
     The heat has broken, at least for a while, by thunder storms.  The storms are exciting.  Our area of Oregon does not have thunder storms, so we really enjoy the thunder and lightning.  It's fabulous!!