Homeward bound! It was a short month as camp host at Frontenac State Park, a regimen of stocking toilets, and minor cleaning, firepits garbage free and ready for use, in my May domain:

On the way in, the pelicans were gathering on the “lakelette,” hundreds, there were probably thousands on Lake Pepin.

After last year’s flooding in the Wawona 6, because there was no bathtub floor, no floor at all, in the vestibule… not to be repeated!

I got a 2 room inflatable tent for a month-long DRY stay. It worked. Even though a branch blew out of a tree and popped through the tent, gorilla tape did the job and it was DRY. Comfort was the goal, and this was essentially a hotel room or studio apartment!

The tent was perfect. It’s not the super expensive Russian one ($1,700+). I confess, IT’S FROM TEMU! I did a lot of youtubing, and figured out some features, like needed to be a double unit, plexiglass skylights, and a good tub floor. I picked the heavier of material, 400+ v. 200+, and yeah, that sucker is hard to move around, but for long term camping, that’s the best. It inflated so easily, took less than 5 minutes, and what took most time was that they MUST be guyed out thoroughly, so it was, and in that entire month, it never needed more air. The doors are kind of awkward, doors on both ends, and the zips aren’t too well thought out. There also should be at least a little awning, but I did get a 2nd tarp though didn’t get around to putting it up. The floor seems too light duty, even with tarp below, and a pad on top to protect — there may be teeny holes from all the rocks. When it’s hot, it’s HOT, so a fan would be good, but mostly this May, it was COLD, and a little space heater did the job. It just wasn’t weather to hang around outside, and way too windy for cooking, despite the stove table with a tall windbreak.

It does have a stovejack for hot-tenting, though I don’t think I want to camp in the snow in a TENT.

The last week was a very long week, well, 10 days, VERY LONG poison ivy days. Yeah, I’m whining… this was NOT fun. The hit to my immune system was intense, not really able to function. Started the 22nd, and it’s still grim today. I guess another week or two.

It was an “interesting” time. There was a fire, a stump smouldering behind a campsite, a bit into the woods, and then leaves starting to burn, flames jumping up. The camper brigade put it out, and the Lake City Fire Dept doused it thoroughly just to make sure:

Another day, a guy put his trailer into a tree and couldn’t get it out. Sometimes too many years with a CDL pays off — I got it out of the tree and backed into the site. The tree and the trailer were damaged a little, but survived.

There were very well attended public hearings for Xcel Energy’s Mankato-Mississippi River transmission project in Waterville one evening, and Nancy Prehn got to weigh in:

The next night it was Zumbrota, and the VFW was packed:

It was at the Zumbrota hearing where we hard from the first of the 1,341 landowners who did NOT receive notice that their property may be affected until just 2 weeks prior to the public hearing. He was rightfully pissed off, and I hope that he was heard by all.

Prior Legalectric posts — note that no other intervenor was concerned about this — UNREAL:

Public Hearings & NO NOTICE to 1,341 newly affected landowners May 11th, 2025

More on the 1,341 Landowners May 14th, 2025

And an otherwise busy month too, with appearances by A.G. Ellison in Red Wing:

A meet & greet with Jake Johnson for CD1 in Lake City — we really need to get rid of Brad Finstad:

A good Indivisible meeting in Cannon Falls, and a follow up on the Data Practices Requests I’d sent to the City of Cannon Falls about the TRACT Data Center scheme (not a peep yet):

Alan’s every Friday protests growing strong in Red Wing, and then there’s Wabasha:

Overland 1 – Wabasha Police 0 May 24th, 2025

A cool evening with Miletichs’ Clearwater Hot Club at the Widespot Performing Arts Center

Catching up on postcards:

Lots of days literally attached to Maisy, working away her reactivity, teaching her “mat” and how to walk around and assist with cleaning fire pits ,and she NEVER emitted in the tent…

And for sure I didn’t cook enough. I was SO COLD and WINDY that it was impossible for too many days, and then hit by poison ivy, and not in the mood. Corncakes were high on the agenda though, and obviously… GONE!

IT’S GOOD TO BE GOING HOME! Right Maisy?!?!

Well, between the poison ivy and the wobbly front end of the car, I felt cursed, but forged on ahead. In the morning at the campsite, the low tire light was on AGAIN, I’d just filled yesterday morning, and on loading on the way to Red Wing, then Waterville, I saw a worn through spot and cord of the tire. Oh great… called around and the only place that had the tires and could get me in was… WALMART! Ran over there and they got me in right away, with the caveat that if the front end was screwed up, they wouldn’t put tires on. Thinking it was the front end, like a tie rod end about to fall off, oh, I was freakin’ but as luck would have it, a tire belt had broken and the tire was falling apart!! Haven’t had that happen before, and GOOD, they slapped tires on and off I went. Made it to Waterville only 10 minutes or so late! The poison ivy didn’t go away, but that’s life… whine, whine, whine…

They spent a full HOUR going over the intro powerpoint, and it was really hard to stick with it given the itchies. I’m glad I had Nancy Prehn there to keep me in line (former Sen. Dick Day said, about Prehn, ““I think you’re a very vicious lady. I’ve never had anybody talk to me like this in my 29 years of public service.” He knows a little about Prehn’s ability to keep someone in line!):

What was interesting is that the Xcel handouts identified a “preferred route,” which had been filed with testimony in March 2025 (which landowners would not know about):

It appears that Waseca, the City of, is on that Highway 14 alternate route, and they didn’t get notice, the Mayor said that they’d received notice a couple weeks ago. The City isn’t on Xcel’s list from their January 31, 2025 notice, and of course, Commerce-EERA didn’t send notice. This needs to be checked out, and I understand the City of Zumbrota is also wanting to weigh in.

Notice has been an issue in this project proceeding. Remember, it was Nancy Prehn who notified CenterPoint of the original proposal to run transmission right over the gas dome. BOOM!

Xcel did not even mention the natural gas dome in its application of April 2, 2024, and didn’t bother to chat with CenterPoint until May 2! Here’s the map that we drew up when doing boots-on-the-ground recon, and put in the record in our comments:

And back to notice — it’s a problem, and I’m trying to track down who got notice when, and it’s hard to even how many “original” landowners were affected and who received notice! Hence these two requests:

Frankly, Asst. A.G. Dornfeld, I don’t care what it’s called or what the rules are for IRs or DPA Requests, I just want the info and I want it in the record. We need to establish who got what notice when. If the route selected affects landowners who did not get adequate notice, you’ve got a problem. And then there’s the question if cities along the route got notice, particularly those along Hwy 14. City of Waseca may not have received timely notice. Is that correct? Are there others that did not receive notice?

Put this up yesterday when it was tomorrow, and now it’s TODAY!

MMRT? That’s what they’re calling the project above — Mankato-Mississippi River Transmission.

COMMENT PERIOD CLOSES

4:30p on JUNE 10, 2025

Minnesota need? Ummmmmm, no… It’s all based on MISO claims:

It’s not real clear from the notice, but this is THE time for the public to comment on need. These are hearings for both the need docket (E002/CN-22-53) and the routing docket (E002/TL-23-157).

And as an NSP engineer testified way back in the Arrowhead hearing, “It’s all connected,” and that big long line described above is just a part of a much bigger plan:

And it’s moving right along, so don’t wait. Now’s the time to show up:

My car is acting up and I can’t get it in until Monday, so we’ll see how this goes.

Prior Legalectric posts on this project:

Public Hearings & NO NOTICE to 1,341 newly affected landowners May 11th, 2025

More on the 1,341 Landowners May 14th, 2025

Here’s the Commerce-EERA chart on landowner notifications from December, 2024:

Comparing this and the numbers from the Xcel notice, and they just don’t add up:

I sent these Info Requests to make some sense of it:

Last week, I heard a story about a confiscated sign at the Wabasha Saturday protest:

Wabasha & 8647 – May 23rd, 2025

After hearing a sign was confiscated at a Wabasha protest, and utterly appalled, I committed to showing up at the next Saturday protest, which was today. The story wasn’t clear, other than the cop took the sign. No one videoed, and eyewitness accounts were vague, not much was heard. Sooooooo…

Off I goes to Wabasha with my sign, as above. Alan got to carry the Ukraine flag.

The furor about and attributions to “86” are so bonkers. Distractivism, but easy to push back.

Driving into town, after going under the bridge there’s a pull off on Pembroke near the trailer park. A cop was there, arm with cigarette hanging out the window. Near Kwik Trip, I found a place to park under a tree for Maisy.

I’d started standing on the Kwik Trip corner, as I didn’t want to intrude on the Veterans Memorial there, or intrude on their protest either, but the folks encouraged me to come over, so I did, wouldn’t want to be anti-social after all. After being there a while, with many supportive honks, and a few “FUCK YOU!” hollers out the window, I see the cop car come down the street, and take a left on 8th and head over behind the buildings. He was back there for quite a while, then came out and headed east on Hiawatha Drive. I was on the NE corner of Pembroke & Hiawatha, right on the corner, a location with good visibility. As he took off from the stop sign, I waved and grinned, as I was with all the traffic there, and he kept heading east. Maybe 10 minutes later, he pulled up, and walked over.

A couple of folks got photos and were there when he first came up to talk to me, lots of support, and it was clear, most were very nervous. It was really good to see the Falkums there, it’s got to have been 20+ years since we were on the National Eagle Center board together, and I’ll have to catch up with them. A few were also butting in though, and I didn’t want that, as it was distracting, as with the prior week, it was my sign, at issue, and dealing with that is my niche. This recap is from memory, and the order of some of this may be off, and I probably forgot some:

The cop wanted my sign, said he’d gotten 3 complaints, and he was responding to those complaints, that my sign it was a threat against the President, that last week it was his partner who’d taken the sign. I said it wasn’t a threat. I pointed out the “86 does not equal 187” and he asked for my sign and I said “NO!” Told him it was unconstitutional for him to take it, there as no basis for it. That this sign was not a threat (and really, little ol’ moi with a painted sign in Wabasha, a credible threat? I don’t think so.). He said “this is not going to end well.” Oh, OK. I asked if he wanted my ID, he said he’d deal with that later. I told him “I’m ready.” He said he’d deal with me and then would also want to talk to the group, and went back to his car.

He sat there… and sat there, 10 minutes, 15 minutes… at about this time, the Sheriff came by on Hiawatha and stopped, took a left on Pembroke going the other way, of course I waved as he went through the intersection, and he went down the street and pulled into the Subway parking lot! The sheriff never did join the party. Meanwhile, cop still in car… 20 minutes… he’s got to be hearing all the supportive honking and waving, and see at least a few fingers out the windows. Some of the folks were coming up asking what was going on, was he going to arrest me, and I sure didn’t know what was happening, but was confident that he’d not do anything, no reason, no basis, and the time delay felt like good news.

… at 25 or 30 minutes he came out.

He said he’d been calling, consulting, and he wanted to know what I thought 8647 meant, that folks are saying it means to assassinate the President, that it’s a threat. I reminded him that it’s all hype, that 86 means to “toss out, eject” and those claiming it means “assassinate” haven’t a clue, haven’t spent enough time in bars. He said he was glad I said that’s what it meant, because last week, the guy with the sign said it meant “8 miles out of town and 6 feet down.” WHAT? HE SAID THAT? I told him I didn’t believe he’d said that, and for sure I’d check. I told him that I’m an attorney, that I am direct in my communications, and that if I wanted to say the President should be assassinated, my sign would say “KILL THE MOTHERFUCKER!” and “Hey, does it say that?” holding up the sign. I swear he had the tiniest bit of a grin at that point. I again pointed out the bottom line of the sign:

Those that think otherwise, those complaining, that’s THEIR problem! Don’t even try to make it mine. And I asked about those who were yelling “FUCK YOU” through their open windows, he said that’s disorderly conduct and you can make a complaint. Naaah, life is too short. He said, a couple of times, “I’m all for the 1st Amendment.” “GOOD TO HEAR” I told him. Anyway, that’s pretty much what went down — I’ll edit if I remember other parts, or the order of things.

It turns out when I asked the guy whose sign was confiscated, he did indeed say “8 miles out of town and 6 feet down.” He set himself up. I asked whatever possessed him to say something like that, and he said he’d just googled it, and said the first thing that came into his mind. WHAT?!?! Good grief… I cannot believe!

So a good time was had by all. I was concerned that the group might be offended at my showing up to press the issue, but taking away a sign, whatever the doofus said, is not OK, and I didn’t want to see that go unchallenged. Overall, the Wabasha protesters were supportive and very glad to see that the cop caved and drove away. Bottom line, I could continue to stand on the corner in the sun and hold that sign. Such a deal.

It might take a couple more Saturdays to get the police in the groove, and guide the protesters on dealing with police, but I’m confident that the 1st Amendment prevails.

It seems that those too many MAGAs have their knickers in a twist about “86 47” which leads to at least 2 presumptions. 1) They’ve not spent much time in West Bank bars… and 2) they’re conflating “86” with “187.” DOH! This is not rocket science, folks.

Last week in Wabasha, the strangest things happened at their weekly Saturday protest. This is all 2nd hand, some verified, some not, some presumptions, and will find out more tomorrow. As I know it: Last Saturday, some MAGAs were harassing protesters in Wabasha who were minding their own business holding signs. At least one was taking photos, videos, ? and shortly thereafter a police officer appeared. He confiscated an “86 47” sign.. it was confiscated or relinquished on demand. The cop said something on the order of “I could write up a citation,” (? for what??), and left with the sign. The protest continued.

No one filmed the interaction; no one objected to demand for sign/ handing it over. Ahem…

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So tomorrow, head on over to Wabasha, 11a.m., by the Kwik Trip: