State of the Map US - September 5-8, 2019

September 4: Flights to MSP

After teaching classes and lab, the flights from ALB to MDW and then on to MSP were fine. Got the rental car [Picture] and set off to Eden Prairie to check into the hotel.

September 5: Day to Explore

With no class meetings on Thursdays for Fall 2019, this day was available to explore the area before the conference. I decided to go pretty big and drove almost 600 miles over 12 hours. It's not often I can drive that far and hit nearly all previously untraveled routes, but I did. Other than a few miles of I-229 and I-90 near Sioux Falls, it's all new. Starting and ending at my hotel in Eden Prairie, my route was US 212 -> US 71 -> US 14 -> US 75 -> IA 9 -> SD 42 -> I-229 -> I-90 -> I-29 -> US 12 -> I-494. Stops were at Redwood Falls [6 Pictures][18 Pictures], lunch in Sioux Falls [Picture], and the ball of twine in Darwin made famous by Weird Al [10 Pictures], plus a fillup, and a takeout dinner from Famous Dave's to bring back to the room. [69 Other Pictures From the Roads].

September 6: First Day of SotM US, Twins Game

I drove in from Eden Prairie in the morning [2 Pictures] to attend the full day of the conference [Picture]. After the conference, I took the train over to Target Field to watch the Cleveland Indians play the Minnesota Twins [5 Pictures]. Cleveland won, 6-2.

September 7: Second Day of SotM US

This was a full day at the conference, and the only pictures are from the rides in and out of Minneapolis [15 Pictures].

September 8: More SotM, Exploring, and Flights Home

The conference had just a half day left, but it included my talk. After the conference ended with a brief lunch, I stayed around a bit longer to use the network to get a little work done, walked around the U of M campus a bit [4 Pictures], then went for another (shorter, but still significant) ride to explore the area [25 Pictures]. This time it was to the north, and ended at the airport car rental return. The flights home, again via MDW, were uneventful.