Grand Rapids, Minnesota is known as the home town of Judy Garland. The city seems quite proud of this and it is reflected in the many "Wizard of Oz" themed businesses.
I've always liked Grand Rapids. It's an hour's drive from where I live, so I don't go there very often. It's a great place to spend the day bumming around, going to interesting shops and eateries.
But yesterday....
First let me say we're having a barbeque on Saturday. We recently put a new back door on the house and didn't have a screen door. There's a Home Depot in Grand Rapids, so it's Grand Rapids, here we come.
The hour drive was not unpleasant except for some road construction. No sooner than we got into town and there was a detour. Traffic was fairly heavy, but it wasn't too bad. As we drove toward the bridge over the Mississippi river, My husband said "That's just swell, a car accident". I could see what he was talking about, just on the other side of the bridge were two cop cars with lights flashing, clearly in emergency mode. There were several other cop cars nearby. As we crossed the bridge (we're very close to the source of the Mississippi, so the bridge is maybe half a block to a block long) I noticed that there was no car accident after all. The emergency was a small group of people holding signs that said things like "Impeach Bush" and "No more War" and "Honk for Peace". There were a few people carrying signs that were walking away from the area. I was instantly infuriated. WTF? I thought that we were in America. Did that detour take us to the twilight zone?
This is my first diary, so I hope I didn't screw up too bad. I just had to share my trip to the land of Oz.