St. Cloud, Minnesota

 

 The Mississippi continues to be my companion.  I crossed it five times in my perambulations about the Twin Cities tracking down the seven Carnegies scattered about its neighborhoods, and I continued to follow it along the Great River Road for seventy miles to St. Cloud, where I will bid it farewell as I head west to Sauk Centre for the next Carnegie.

There are more than twenty bridges over its serpentine route through the metropolis, most of which have a bike lane in this very bike-friendly community.  Many of the lanes about the city had plastic posts separating them from motorized traffic.  Signs occasionally affirmed cyclists the right to take over an entire lane when there wasn’t space for an actual bike lane.  And for once on this trip I wasn’t a lone cyclist.

I was glad for the opportunity to explore the city hopping from Carnegie to Carnegie, most of which were in quiet residential neighborhoods.  The first was in a Hmong community in the northeast of St. Paul.  It was initially known as the Arlington Hills Branch.  It had been replaced in 2014 and became a private library taking the name of the East Side Freedom Library serving as an archive of Hmong materials.

I crossed the Mississippi for the first time heading south five miles to the Riverview Branch, also in St. Paul, on George Street.  It was a similar design of one large room with high ceilings and large arched windows letting in loads of light.  The library is soon to be expanded when the funds can be found.  Plans for the expansion have already been drawn up, though there are still community meetings seeking more input from library patrons.

It was twelve miles, mostly west, to the next Carnegie, this one in Minneapolis with two crossings of the Mississippi.  My climb to the first of two bridges over the River gave a panoramic view of the skylines of the two cities.  St. Paul was dominated by the dome of a large cathedral, as is common in France, while Minneapolis was highlighted by a cluster of mini-skyscrapers, at least in comparison to Chicago.  

The Hosmer Branch was similar to the previous two and likewise in a quiet residential neighborhood, though my route there took me on busy streets.  I had to remind myself that I was in a large city, as it’s streets were lined with small, well-tended homes, a sharp contrast to Chicago.  There was hardly a two-flat to be seen or an apartment building of any sort.  It looked like a most liveable city.  

It was a quick three miles northeast without having to cross the River to the Franklin Carnegie on Franklin Street, a busy, four-lane thoroughfare.  An Aldi was across the street.  It was nearing dinner time, but it’s dumpster was behind a high fence with a hefty lock, so there was no supplementing my ramen and beans.  

It was nearly ten miles to the next Carnegie back in St. Paul and over the River for the fourth time.  It was nearly an hour until dark and I became reconciled to having to find a motel for the night, as it wasn’t likely I’d have time to slip out of the city before dark with three Carnegies still on my agenda.

Wikipedia gave a faulty address for the Hamline University Carnegie, the only academic library he funded in Minnesota.  It clearly wasn’t the towering three-story building with an address of 1536 Hewitt.  A librarian at the nearby new, modern library said the former library was just across the quad, and it was indeed much more recognizable as a building that Carnegie would have funded.  It is now the Giddens/Alumni Learning Center.

I still had ample light to reach the next Carnegie just two miles away, but just past the university I came upon the first motel I had seen in nearly four hours of biking around the cities, so seized upon it.  I had been hoping to hold off on the first motel of these travels until the next night as rain was predicted for much of the day, but I let my better judgment prevail, though I had been looking forward to the challenge of finding a place to camp on the outskirts of the metropolis.

The forecast called for the rain to start at ten the next morning and to continue all day.  My hope was to be well out of the metropolis by the time the rain started. I began the day with the St. Anthony Park Branch.  It was in a more affluent part of St. Paul than the previous Carnegies.  It was well-maintained and featured well-tended landscaping with a variety of flowers. 

It was then seven miles through the heart of Minneapolis, over the River one last time and past the University of Minnesota campus, to the Sumner Branch on the four-lane Olson Memorial Highway.  It was the morning rush hour, but there was little traffic to speak of, as if everyone was still working at home.  

It was only 8:30 but the sky was growing darker as if the rain could start at any moment.  It held off for an hour, arriving a bit before it was predicted, but was light enough that cars only needed intermittent wipers.  It was just fifty degrees.  The rain dropped the temperature a few degrees keeping it below fifty all day.  The rain varied between a mist and a drizzle with only a couple spells of actual rain drops.  When I reached the large city of St. Cloud an hour before dark I knew I had to take advantage of one of its motels.  Even if the rain had let up, my shoes and gear wasn’t going to dry in my tent.  At least the forecast is rain free for the next week and the temperature will get into the upper sixties, promising the best of cycling.

The inclement weather was bearable knowing I was closing in on Sauk City, birthplace of Sinclair Lewis.  I was eager to see how the Carnegie of his youth honored him.  And beyond Sauk City I would have two or three small-town Carnegies a day to look forward to.  It was good to be back in the business of anticipating the new.