Hey everyone! I'm a 16 year-old roadgeek and signal/sign enthusiast from St. Cloud, Minnesota. While I've been reading this forum for quite some time, I've only joined within the past month or so, but I look forward to contributing to various discussions and hopefully getting to know this community better! As I mentioned above, my interest tends to focus more on traffic control, signage, street lighting, and roadway design, but pretty much every aspect of roadgeeking (including photography and videography) also interests me. Speaking of which, my Instagram is 'roadsofcentralmn', where I post all kinds of photos and videos from Minnesota and beyond. Otherwise, that's about all I have for introductions. I'll admit that I don't know as much as many of the members on this forum, so bear with me since I'll probably mess some stuff up right off the bat :-D
Welcome from Massachusetts!
I don't usually post in these welcome threads (I never even posted one myself, when I joined), but seeing as how you're from my home state (although the weird central part of the state ;-)) I'll make an exception this time. So, welcome!
There's me and a handful of other roadgeeks from Minnesota on this forum. I don't actually live in Minnesota anymore (for now, anyway), but I was born and raised there and that's where my love for the state and its roads (and just by extension, roads in general) came from.
Welcome Lake Woebegon! I used to live in Saint Paul before moving to Texas.
I was in the Northeast at your age, but have been in St. Cloud for 30 years. Welcome.
Quote from: texaskdog on June 18, 2018, 10:55:55 AM
Welcome Lake Woebegon! I used to live in Saint Paul before moving to Texas.
Quote from: lakewobegon on June 18, 2018, 12:11:08 PM
I was in the Northeast at your age, but have been in St. Cloud for 30 years. Welcome.
What?
EpicRoadways is the OP. But then
lakewobegon appears as soon as you say this, as if on cue. I'm mystified.
Quote from: webny99 on June 18, 2018, 02:48:02 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on June 18, 2018, 10:55:55 AM
Welcome Lake Woebegon! I used to live in Saint Paul before moving to Texas.
Quote from: lakewobegon on June 18, 2018, 12:11:08 PM
I was in the Northeast at your age, but have been in St. Cloud for 30 years. Welcome.
What?
EpicRoadways is the OP. But then lakewobegon appears as soon as you say this, as if on cue. I'm mystified.
Because Minnesota is home to Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on June 18, 2018, 02:58:37 PM
Quote from: webny99 on June 18, 2018, 02:48:02 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on June 18, 2018, 10:55:55 AM
Welcome Lake Woebegon!
EpicRoadways is the OP. But then lakewobegon appears as soon as you say this, as if on cue. I'm mystified.
Because Minnesota is home to Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.
I've heard my Minnesotan relatives talk about Lake Wobegon, so I have at least some contextual knowledge. One thing is clear: it's a fictional place, not a
person (as it would seem from
texaskdog's post). So I think I still have a basis to be confused.
Quote from: webny99 on June 18, 2018, 02:48:02 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on June 18, 2018, 10:55:55 AM
Welcome Lake Woebegon! I used to live in Saint Paul before moving to Texas.
Quote from: lakewobegon on June 18, 2018, 12:11:08 PM
I was in the Northeast at your age, but have been in St. Cloud for 30 years. Welcome.
What?
EpicRoadways is the OP. But then lakewobegon appears as soon as you say this, as if on cue. I'm mystified.
That was so incredibly funny!!!!!!! I was making a Lake Woebegon joke because he lives in Saint Cloud and then Lake Wobegon posts.
Quote from: texaskdog on June 18, 2018, 03:57:22 PM
That was so incredibly funny!!!!!!! I was making a Lake Woebegon joke because he lives in Saint Cloud and then Lake Wobegon posts.
I did have that much figured out. I wonder if he timed it like that on purpose. However, I'm still confused about the joke itself.
Quote from: webny99 on June 18, 2018, 03:38:21 PM
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on June 18, 2018, 02:58:37 PM
Quote from: webny99 on June 18, 2018, 02:48:02 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on June 18, 2018, 10:55:55 AM
Welcome Lake Woebegon!
EpicRoadways is the OP. But then lakewobegon appears as soon as you say this, as if on cue. I'm mystified.
Because Minnesota is home to Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.
I've heard my Minnesotan relatives talk about Lake Wobegon, so I have at least some contextual knowledge. One thing is clear: it's a fictional place, not a person (as it would seem from texaskdog's post). So I think I still have a basis to be confused.
Sounds like you haven't eaten your Powdermilk Biscuits lately. They're tasty and expeditious!
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on June 18, 2018, 04:21:02 PM
Sounds like you haven't eaten your Powdermilk Biscuits lately. They're tasty and expeditious!
Not even powdermilk biscuits, whatever wonders they may work, would cause me to mistake a person for a place.
Quote from: webny99 on June 18, 2018, 04:04:47 PM
Quote from: texaskdog on June 18, 2018, 03:57:22 PM
That was so incredibly funny!!!!!!! I was making a Lake Woebegon joke because he lives in Saint Cloud and then Lake Wobegon posts.
I did have that much figured out. I wonder if he timed it like that on purpose. However, I'm still confused about the joke itself.
Find a podcast of Prairie Home Companion and it will all make sense.
Lake Wobegon is the county seat of Mist County, Minnesota, located near the geographic center of Minnesota, on a lake of the same name. Unfortunately, due to the incompetence of surveyors who mapped out the state in the 19th century, the town does not generally appear on published maps. The town's slogan is Gateway to Central Minnesota. It has been described by Garrison Keillor as a place "Where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the children are above average."
Lake Wobegon is located near St. Olaf, Minnesota (not to be confused with St. Olaf College, which is located in Northfield, Minnesota.) The town's school and amateur sports teams compete against the Upsala Uff-das and the Millet Marauders. The town residents drink Wendy's Beer, brewed in St. Wendel, Minnesota. The nearest good-sized town is St. Cloud.
Most of the current population is made up descendants of German immigrants, who are mostly members of the Catholic parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility, and descendants of Norwegian and Swedish immigrants, who comprise the Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church.
The 800 residents (1950 Census: 728) are proud of the Statue of the Unknown Norwegian (so called because the model left before the sculptor could get his name). Lake Wobegon is in competition with its rival, St. Olaf, for having the most descendants of the same common ancestor (aka "Stearns County Syndrome"). Lake Wobegon became a secret dumping ground of nuclear waste during the 1950s.
The town is the home of the Whippets baseball team, Norwegian bachelor farmers, the Mist County Fair, as well as Lake Wobegon itself.
Businesses and OrganizationsEdit
◾Jack's Auto Repair, including Jack's School of Thought (correspondence), Warm Car Service, Dry Goods Emporium, Jack's Fountain Lounge, and Jack's Home, "a rest spa for people of all ages"
◾Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery
◾Bertha's Kitty Boutique
◾The Sidetrack Tap, run by Wally and Evelyn
◾Chatterbox Café, "The place to go that's just like home."
◾Café Boeuf, "Where the elite meet to greet and eat," with maitre d' Maurice.
◾Art's Baits & Night o' Rest Motel
◾Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility Catholic Church
◾Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church
◾Bunsen Motors
◾Moonlight Bay Supper Club
◾Buck's Rent-a-Tux
◾Krebsbach Chevrolet
◾The Herald Star
◾Skoeglin's 5 and Dime
◾LuAnne Magendanz's Bon Marché Beauty Parlor and Salon
◾Co-op Hardware
◾Clifford's (also known as "The Mercantile," which many residents still call it)
◾The Sons of Knute Temple
◾The Whippets (baseball)
◾The Herdsmen, champion church ushering team
◾The Curl Up and Dye
◾Tentative Point
◾Lake Wobegon Piles
◾Mist County Historical Society Museum
◾Wally "Old Hard Hands" Bunsen Memorial Field
◾Lake Wobegon Leeches (baseball)
◾Lake Wobegon Loons (five-man football)
◾Powdermilk Biscuit Plant
◾Lake Wobegon High School
◾Municipal Sanitary Landfill
◾Statue of the Unknown Norwegian
◾Farmer's Union Grain Elevator
◾Bob's Bank, in the green mobile home
◾World's Largest Pile of Burlap Bags (created by Earl Dick-Meyer to fund his and his wife's move to Fort Myers, Florida, and the centerpiece for a mysterious cure to ailments, such as kidney stones)
I have to commend you for the amount of effort you put into explaining the joke, but also be a bit :meh: for not allowing him to Google it himself.
I find it humorous that he fell for the joke to begin with...
As to the OP, count me as another native Minnesotan who has moved on elsewhere, though I do often comment on this forum about Minnesota goings-on.
I've always wanted to visit more of Minnesota. Looks like the state has much to offer.
Nevertheless, welcome from Michigan!
Welcome from Georgia! :wave:
The closest I've been to Minnesota is probably when I went to Chicago in July 2012 (I've never actually been to Minnesota), but I do hope to have the chance to visit the state in the future. :nod:
Quote from: texaskdog on June 18, 2018, 11:06:35 PM
[lengthy quote snipped]
Well, thanks. :coffee:
It really wasn't the details of Lake Wobegon itself that I was confused by, just the fact that you called a
person by the name Lake Wobegon, when it's a
place. It was the equivalent of me being greeted with "Hey Rochester!"
Quote from: froggie on June 19, 2018, 09:34:03 AM
I find it humorous that he fell for the joke to begin with...
If I'm the "he", then see above.
To the OP, welcome to the forum!
I've done a fair bit of traveling in Minnesota, as you can see from the link to my county map in my signature. It's a great place to visit, and I'm hoping to get back there this summer.
A longer term goal is to do some more traveling/exploring in northern regions of the state. That's where all the scenery is! :-D
Welcome from Huntsville, AL!
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on June 19, 2018, 03:30:57 AM
I have to commend you for the amount of effort you put into explaining the joke, but also be a bit :meh: for not allowing him to Google it himself.
Why not make it easier? AARoads your one stop shop!
I'm from the northwest metro myself. I don't get to STC much, never liked going there.
Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on June 25, 2018, 04:01:13 PM
I'm from the northwest metro myself. I don't get to STC much, never liked going there.
I unfortunately have family from St Cloud...
Is that the same St. Olaf, MN that the Golden Girls' Rose Nyland hails from? :bigass:
Btw...welcome to the forum Epic.
Welcome from a similarly aged road geek from St. Louis, Missouri! If you like road design and signage, you should check out Redesign This! over in the Road Related Illustrations board. We take ugly sign arrays and make them prettier, so if you're into that you'll love it over there.