July 17, 2016 Forest City, Iowa

     Sunday  July 17     Today we went on a tour to the "Mall Of America" in Bloomington, Mn.  The Winnebago Rally hired a large
charter bus for those of us who wanted to go to the Mall for a fee of $28 each. The Mall was about  68 miles from Forest City. They gave each of us a coupon book for shopping at the Mall and a shopping bag for our purchases. When we arrived at the Mall, and the tour bus stopped to unload us, the bus was soon surrounded by several security police. They had a canine that they walked very slowly around the charter bus sniffing everything over real good. We were not let off the bus until they gave us an OK. We found out later the reason for the search was because the tour driver  came into the Mall the wrong way. He drove in the way they used to go and wasn't aware the route had been changed. It was kind of weird  to sit and watch all of the security and the canine working and it made me think this is the way our country will be if we don't get the crime rate under control. I didn't see anyone with a lot of purchases getting back on the bus, as the prices are very expensive there. I wouldn't go there again, but it was neat seeing all the shops and the many different roller coasters and rides they had in the amusement area in the middle of the shopping center.

 Some of the stores were fantastic, like the Lego Store, they had enormous things built all out of Legos. This Mall is huge, it has valet parking in 3 locations that you use by cell phones. It has a docking station to charge your phones.  It has 4 levels and they have a zip line that takes its riders on a combined 410 foot-long journey 55 feet above the park and back again. They have a life size maze of mirrors and glass, this family attraction is an illusion like no other with 2,500 square feet of endless hallways. They also have sophisticated flight simulators that are duplicates of those used to train military pilots Fly both modern F/A Hornet jets and classic WWll fighters. There are 50 restaurants, 520 shops employing 12,000 employees. There are so many different things and stores, I can't list them all. It is something neat to see but almost everyone on the bus said they would never go back to it again. We gave our coupon books to families with children who live and shop there because the coupon books cost $10 and we had 4 of them.