John McLoone

It was an interesting weekend. If anyone would have asked me a few days ago what the odds would be of me doing these things on back to back days, I would have said one in a million.

I should have bought a lottery ticket, apparently, because the stars lined up. What’s your guess? Where was John?

If you guessed “spent the day at Mall of America on Saturday” and “Sunday afternoon on a farm,” you hit the jackpot!

As of Friday, plans were for me to do little to nothing on Saturday. I was worn out from the eclipse and was just looking forward to doing what you’re supposed to do on a Saturday. Sunday, we had plans for a late lunch that involved two of my favorite things: food and our grandkids.

When my wife and I reconnected following our Friday workdays, that blueprint was thrown in the blender. We both have some devices with technology issues that could only be handled at an Apple store. Phone support wasn’t solving the problems. The nearest Apple store? Mall of America. I was able to make a late morning appointment, and we were on our way early.

I remember the excitement of going to Mall of America back when people were excited to go to malls. It was a big deal to load the kids up for a full day of adventure. I didn’t have that same feeling this time.

We made it to our destination without any problems and apparently the Mall of America isn’t a real popular spot in the morning. We parked in the front row, figured out how to get into the building and meandered to our destination. We had a couple hour wait while the nice technicians worked their magic, so we were able to do some more meandering. I remember the first time we went to MOA. We only had two kids, and my wife was doing some serious shopping. I took the stroller and did the meandering I like to do. Mind you, this was pre-cell phone. If you wanted to find someone, you had to look for them. My wife found us. Me and the kids were having lunch at Hooters.

Hooters hadn’t opened up yet on this visit.

All tech crises were solved, and we were out the door just when the crowds were showing up.

Sunday was another day of adventure. People apparently pay money just to go into farms. I never thought I’d pay $13.50 to walk through a barn for an hour. I can cross that one off my bucket list, apparently. The afternoon was pleasant though. I had one experience there that I’ll remember for the rest of my life, and that alone was maybe worth the price of admission.

I parked on a bench when the rest of our gang was taking in the agricultural activity of a 3-year-old going down on a slide. Up and down. Over and over. There was a couple seated behind me. The woman was way too excited when the little kid they were accompanying would get to the bottom of the slide each time. In my thinking, you can show excitement once, maybe even twice. But let’s face it, when you’re at the top of the slide, the only thing you can do is go down.

Anyway, after about 15 minutes, this woman directed her husband to go get her a water. He objected, because only the manure smell was free on this farm. Water was expensive. She pressed him on it.

“You gotta go get me a water. The Windsor’s kicking in.”

And that was the exclamation point to a weekend I will always remember.