A dear friend of mine (also named Emily) was in town on business and asked me if I’d like to tag along with her to Morris, MN, a tiny little town 3 hours from Minneapolis, where she had work to do at the hospital. Road trip! Yay.

We arrived in the quaint little town with empty bellies and decided to stop for lunch. We dined at a cute Italian restaurant called Bello Cucina. The aim of this dainty little place is to “bring artful cuisine in combination with high quality fresh foods to smaller communities that pride themselves on quality of life.” Awe. The food was amazing. Fresh dishes in perfect proportions. And they even had vegan dishes! I had Broccolo Misto Rigatoni which is Broccoli and sundried tomatoes sauteed in olive oil and fresh garlic then tossed with rigatoni. All ingredients which I love dearly. If you ever find yourself in Morris, MN for any reason you should eat there!

Bello Cucina
located at 506 Atlantic in Morris, MN
http://www.bellocucina.com/home.asp
open 11am – 10pm Mon-Thurs
11am – 11pm Fri-Sat

Ah, but the fun didn’t end there. Oh, no. After we left the restaurant we headed over to the hospital so Emily could get her work done. About two blocks from the hospital, we were on a residential road, going about 25 mph. We came to a yield sign, didn’t see any traffic, and continued through the intersection. Suddenly, a car appeared, coming up a hill and t-boned us right in the intersection! We did a 360 and ended up on the other side of the street in the opposite direction with a popped tire, a bent axl and a bumper falling off. Ahh! Luckily, the car struck near the back right tire instead of the front right or we might have been much worse off. But Emily and I were injury free, aside from some whiplash and a feeling like I had been punched in the arm from slamming into the door. The girl in the other vehicle, who was 19, was fine also. The front of her car was pretty smooshed and she was certainly shaken up, but injury free, thank goodness!

Now the benefit of being in such a tiny town is that our accident occurred 2 blocks from the police station, so we had assistance immediately. The police officer could not have been nicer. He was helpful and friendly and stayed with us until all the insurance details were sorted out and our car was towed away. Thank goodness Emily’s company was able to cover the damage and her HR person was a great help.

So, with no car, and being so close to the hospital, we walked the rest of the way so she could get her work done. Even with the shock of the ordeal, she managed to complete her work in a few hours and we were on our way! Oh, except for one small detail… we had no car and no way to get back to Minneapolis. Luckily, the rental company based out of the Minneapolis airport was able to send someone out to bring us a new car! We just had to wait for it to arrive.

So we headed over to the police station to pick up the police report of the crash, then a very friendly police officer drove us to the junk yard so we could get our car out and paid for, so the rental company could towe it back to Minneapolis. Even the men at the junk yard were friendly and talkative. Really the whole day was made so much less stressful due to the kindness of the Morris locals. People really went out of their way to help us. Maybe I’ll retire there some day…

my dear friend Emily standing in front of the Police Station/Courthouse.

We had a little time yet before the rental company would arrive to bring us the car so we went to an adorable coffee shop called Common Cup Coffeehouse. I had a fantastic iced soy latte as we bided our time filling out the police report. In no time, our new car had arrived and we were on our way! Even the towe truck driver for the car rental company was as friendly as can be.

Emily filling out the police report.

On our way out of town, we stopped at a cafe to use the bathroom (coffee goes right through ya!) and encountered yet ANOTHER incredibly kind person, very talkative and sweet. I can’t get over the over-the-top kindness of everyone. The whole experience really made me realize how precious and fleeting life can be.

We arrived back in Minneapolis around 9PM and headed over to the Bad Waitress for a fantastic late-night dinner. A lovely end to a crazy day.