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With the sunshine and some nice days coming our way, we’re getting excited with thoughts of traveling in the not so distant future.

Trips will be planned with caution, but knowing we can move about more freely will be a real joy.

February has usually been the month in which we host our Minnesota Coffee Party. Plans would then be revealed with our schedule for the 2021 season of travel.   

We will let folks know when the Mower County Senior Center will reopen through mailings and our newspaper columns. Remember, you do not need to be a senior or a member of the MCSC.

Members will receive a monthly newsletter of events if they sign to become a member.

As we look back, we realize it has been since early March 2020 that our time together closed with the Senior Center. Many of us have taken this time to perhaps catch up on projects like photos, albums and family events.

It caught my attention during this time while leafing through books of travel, that one or two Mystery Trips were always included.

The challenge for this writer is to find a new destination that will be fun and exciting, visiting towns and looking for something many haven’t seen or done before.

Some of the places we have visited include a farm site where the couple lived in a five-story silo complete with a kitchen on the second floor, a Czech buffet and Winnebago Motor Homes tour. Okobojii, Iowa, included a  riverboat cruise followed by a beach side dinner and play at their summer theatre.

In fact, we’ve had plenty of trips to Iowa including the Grotto of Redemption in West Bend, Iowa. We’ve seen a live performance by Shirley Jones in Mason City and another Iowa mystery was the visit to Boone, Iowa, for the the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad.

We’ve had several one-day trips around our home area of Austin. We’ve surprised our travelers when we explore towns such as Owatonna, Northfield, Lanesboro, Fairbault and more. Tours included step-on guides which are always special.

I would note that a fun and interesting trip included the Gangster Tour in St. Paul, filled with lots of history and how St. Paul ended up being the capitol of Minnesota.

The Amish and their style of living in Iowa and Minnesota is always a pleasant visit, including baked goodies and homemade items.

These are only a few examples of the places we’ve been and we hope to visit many more.

We hope that we can be together before too long and you can bet that I already have a mystery trip in mind.

You won’t need boots, but keep your walking shoes handy.