Administration in Minnesota

I arrived at about 20:00, picked up a car and drove to Karen's house. Julie had come up so the whole family was there. It was great to see my daughters and grandchildren. I had trouble staying up after having left Antwerp at about midnight.

I had several things to do while in Minneapolis. Some could only be done on week days. I set to accomplishing as many as I could on the weekend. I wanted to purchase a baby carrier back pack for Mouaniss in Morocco. I had ordered one from REI and they are open on the weekend. I picked that up.

Sunday night, it snowed about 12 cm. I awoke about 05:00 as usual, still being on European time. I looked out; the car had a heavy white hat. I have not seen fresh snow in a long time. It brought back many fun memories.

Monday morning I had planned to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). It is not too far to drive but in the snow, I was a little reluctant to drive in the snow. I have driven for years in the show and am not afraid of it, but I am afraid of other drivers. I waited until about 09:00 when I thought most people would have made it to work. The small rented car was doing well in the snow.

The main streets were clean; the side streets were another story. As I drove north, I turned onto a four lane highway. About a kilometer down the road, there was a police car on the side of the road with all of its 1,000 light flashing. There were two cars in the ditch. Two kilometers further there was another Christmas tree looking police car and a wrecker loading up a car. There were two other cars off in the snow. I thought, drive carefully, all of the crazies are still not off the road.

I made it to DMV safely. Even thought the parking lot was fairly full the office was almost deserted. For a sate office the renewal of my license did not take long. The young man assured me that my license will be sent to Switzerland in two weeks. I sure hope so.

Now to try and convert Euros to dollar traveler's checks. This was not nearly as easy as the license. I went to six banks, finally had to create an account and then drive to the center of Minneapolis to exchange Euros for dollars and then carry then to a different area to get the traveler's checks.

Monday night was almost a repeat of Sunday, there was an additional 8 cm of snow on Tuesday morning. Today's task is to mail the back pack to Mouaniss.

I have been in Europe for some time. When strangers started talking to me in the post office I was surprised. The man behind the counter was overly talkative. The package is on the way.