Eons ago, before Roadguy ever set foot Minnesota, he thought he had at least heard of the state’s most notable cities — Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, Duluth, even Bloomington. But when he relocated to the metro area (also eons ago), some of the big green freeway signs around town pointed him toward a name that didn’t ring a bell: Albert Lea.

Roadguy had met males named Albert and females named Lea, so he was a little confused about the city’s gender. Plus, dozens of Twin Cities suburbs were bigger and closer, so why was a town near the Iowa border getting all the attention?

Eventually, he learned not only that Albert Lea is named after a man (a mapmaking colonel from the 1800s), but that it sits at a great crossroads on America’s interstate system, hence all the freeway-sign references – and hence this question from alert reader Angela, who is planning to head down that way very soon:

I’m vacationing with relatives in Deadwood, S.D., and some relatives driving in from Wisconsin are picking us up near the I-35 and I-90 intersection somewhere around Albert Lea. Do you know how I could go about finding a place to park my car while I’m away for a week? I looked at the MnDOT Rest Stop information page, but it doesn’t mention anything about parking for extended periods of time. There don’t seem to be any park-and-rides in the area, either. Any thoughts?

Roadguy’s first thought was that it’s illegal to park overnight at rest areas and park-and-ride lots, and this was confirmed by our friend Lucy over at the Temple of Transportation. Hmm, he wondered – how can we keep Angela’s relatives from having to drive almost 200 miles out of the way to come get her?

An answer came via Susie at the Albert Lea Convention and Visitors Bureau. Turns out that a few hotels and motels in town offer parking to non-guests, so Roadguy called up the Comfort Inn and got the details: For $5 a night and a little paperwork, Angela would have a place to leave her car. Roadguy felt so heroic he wished he’d had a cape.

By the time he got all this figured out, however, Angela had found a different solution: the parents of one of her old friends own a shop in Albert Lea, and Angela could park there. But of course; as small as Albert Lea might seem, sometimes the Twin Cities are even smaller.

If you have a transportation-related tale about Albert Lea or a story about parking and riding far from home, please share in the comments section below. Just remember: don’t try to drive to Albert Lea from south Minneapolis this weekend. A chunk of the freeway is closed.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2007 at 6:10 am and is filed under Good to know. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.