Meaningful Side Trips and Unexpected Pit Stops

Day 2 started off a little late as we shook off the foggy remains of a fun night on town in Minneapolis.

And by foggy, I mean we couldn't even seem to find our way out of a cloverleaf leaving town.



As Paisley Park was a mere 25 mins away, our first stop was to pay our respects to the Purple One. The side trip ended up being more meaningful than we expected.  Fully a month after his passing, many devoted fans still roam the grounds outside the famous studio and residence. Everyone seemed to have a "I remember when" Prince story and we might have even gotten a little teary eyed at one point.  We made our exit known with windows down, blasting Purple Rain on the radio at full volume in tribute.

Flying by back country roads at 80mph you can miss a lot.  Thankfully we caught a picture-perfect farm out of the corner of our eye and did a quick u-turn back to http://atthefarmwaconia.com/ and met the lovely owner, Donna Frantz.  We left with some fruit, jam and fresh-made cookies.  That's my kind of stop!



The unexpected pit stop came a few hours later when, after switching drivers, Stephen pulled over to a road-side restaurant and the Lotus decided not to start again.  We noticed some black goo had dripped on the top of the AC compressor - this is the dreaded sign of the alternator voltage regulator melting its resin insides and killing itself.  So, no alternator.  Three minutes after closing, the nice guys at O'Reilly's let us in and spent over an hour with us as we ran diagnostics on the battery and alternator (yep dead).  I guess tonight we sleep in Huron, SD!