and then the wipers broke

We came back to Minnesota to pick up the bus at Dune Buggy Supply and decided to swing by the Bob Dylan mural in downtown Minneapolis. When our friends at Happy Productions, Shawn and Emma, found out we would be in the neighborhood (a couple of hours qualifies as being in the neighborhood in the northerly reaches of the US), we decided to meet up for lunch. Being VW people, nothing went as planned. We interviewed Sam for our podcast when we picked up Adie and that went long. (You can catch his podcast in Season 4 or 5.) Getting to the mural involved a lot of maneuvering in order to avoid the $12 parking fee. Lunch became dinner. 

Miracle has not been feeling well. She had every test under the sun run before the doctor concluded she had a mean cold. Shawn and Emma invited us to stay at their place for the night. Snow had started falling fairly steadily and it gets dark early up here, so we decided that was best. 

This proved to be the best course of action. Because after all of Sam’s hard work on the bus, after we shook hands and said, all systems are go, Adie decided to do her thing and the wipers broke. So there we are driving on the snow covered Minnesota highways at night. I’m following Shawn and Emma in the bus. Miracle is behind me in our friend’s car. Each stoplight we come to, Shawn jumps out, runs to the bus, moves my wipers to clear the windshield. We did this for 50 miles. 

We made it to the studio at Happy Productions and made some drinks. We bedded down inside for the night while four inches of snow accumulated outside. Then, in the morning, in the bright cold of Minnesota, we pointed the bus south and started driving. More on how that went once we know…