Sixth District Walking Tour — Phase 2 Wrap-Up

After walking down Highway 23 from Foley to St. Cloud and Waite Park yesterday, I will resume the walk today in Waite Park, heading west down Highway 23 to Rockville, Cold Spring, Richmond, and Paynesville (30 miles), for a total of 54 miles yesterday and today.

In Rockville, I will drop in on the annual Rock-Fest festival, whose theme this year is “Cowtacular Days.” Today’s activities include 1K and 5K fun runs, carnival games, food, booths, pony rides, and contests at John Clark School, a parade at 6:30 p.m., a Wild West show, a beer garden, live music, and fireworks to conclude the day.

———

Update

I ended up spending a whole lot more time at Rockville Rock-Fest than I had planned, talking to folks — including one individual who sold me a ticket to the Rockville Area Sportsman Club’s gun raffle. The club is selling 1,500 tickets for a donation of $10 each. The drawing for the 10 firearms, mostly shotguns, is at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4, at the Rockville Parish Center.

I wanted to get back to Rockville in time for the 6:30 p.m. parade, so I called it a day in Roscoe, about six miles short of reaching Paynesville. I’ll return on Monday to complete the walk.

Kneeling at a monument to life at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Roscoe at the end of the day’s walk.

I was at the parade purely as a spectator and did not walk in it, but I saw several other candidates for public office: Minnesota House District 15A incumbent Steve Gottwalt, his DFL challenger Joanne Dorscher, Sixth Congressional District DFL candidate El Tinklenberg, and a Bachmann float sans Bachmann.