A Minnesotan’s Idea of Fun
My friend, Lynn, and I went snowshoeing yesterday. Granted, most the snow melted during a thaw a couple weeks ago and our most recent snowstorm didn’t drop that much of the fluffy white stuff so we could have just walked in our boots, but what fun would that have been?
It was a beautiful, sunshiny day to be out in the woods and Lynn and I had a great time, so I was a little offended this morning when I was reading the Star Tribune newspaper and ran across an article called “Don’t the Twin Cities deserve their own Facebook 25?” by Chris Riemenschneider. If you’ve spent any time on Facebook, you’ve probably seen the chain posts of “25 Random Things About Me”. Mr. Riemenschneider felt the Twin Cities deserved its very own list of 25 notable things. I was enjoying the read until I got to number 20, which states that “They’re two of the dullest physical activities known to man, but that hasn’t stopped us from creating a lot of really nice cross-country ski and snowshoeing trails.”
What is the man talking about?! For crying out loud! Don’t ya know this is Minnesota? What the heck else are we supposed to do? Sit around and whine about the snow and cold?! Oh yeah, that is what a lot of people do.
But like I said, Lynn and I thoroughly enjoyed our walk in the woods and meadows, with all the pretty snow, the birds a twittering, the sun hitting our faces, well, at least what was exposed of our faces. By the way, for those of my relatives who live in Arizona and California and wonder “How can you stand the cold?”
How much skin do you see exposed? Exactly… Minnesotans are very proud of our ability to withstand freezing temperatures. Okay, so there are a number of us vacationing in Florida, Mexico or some such place at some point during the winter, but that’s just so we can come back and fully appreciate how great our variety of weather really is.
I don’t cross country ski… yet. But I am looking for ski equipment so I can cross country ski next winter. And I’m studying up on skijoring so I can teach my dog to pull me around on my skis, and I don’t have to work so hard.
We don’t have very much snow right now, but March is supposed to be Minnesota’s snowiest month. It would be so awesome if I could get outside a few more times and bore myself to death.
Someone said it was…gasp…BORING…oh man, that’s SO not true. The sheer beauty of the trails, the smell of fresh clean air…sure your nose hairs freeze together, but still!
heh heh heh. reimenschneider is from texas. he can’t be blamed for not understanding the joys of snowshoeing.
i have the old-fashioned snowshoes; the gut-lattice ones. my old dog toby used to try to step on them when we walked in deep snow, and he’d pull them right off my feet.
The new metal snowshoes are so nice! Maybe Toby got irritated, like my dog does because I’m walking on top of the snow while she’s sinking to her belly. She can’t quite figure out why I don’t want to stay on the path. Didn’t think about Reimenschneider being from Texas. That explains a lot.