05/25/2002 A Quick Trip to Dodge Center MN

Saturday afternoon we headed south of the Twin Cities and east from Owatonna (home of Truth, Inc) just past the great Cabela's store on MN 14 to Dodge Center, Minnesota.  Linda wanted to do a quick site visit of an EMS facility as part of a project she's doing for the Department of Health.  I drove for a number of reasons, one of which was that I'd not gotten ready to head 'up North' for the weekend and was putting that off until Sunday AM.  The drive was pretty uneventful with the exception of a stop at Joe Senser's Sports Bar in Apple Valley for a large iced tea 'to go.'  Dodge Center is a bit far from Rochester for an easy commute, but the communities of Kasson and Byron clearly show the Rochester influence.  We continued back up 52 to the Twin Cities and did NOT stop and the Gentlemen's Club in Coates.

Dodge Center doesn't have much going on with the exception of a pretty large truck firm that puts concrete mixers on trucks.  That appeared to be the largest employer.  I snapped the following shots w/ my $75 Intel Pocket PC.  A new Minolta Dimage X is on it's way but the plastic toy camera does good shots.  Certainly it does better than any other Pocket PC Camera.  I've recommended them to many people and all of them have worse quality than mine...I must have hit it right on the plastic lens assembly line.

	Looking east down the main drag, Main Street, from my car window.
	The new fire station and EMS facility.
	Actually in St. Paul on the way home.  From the window at 65 MPH.