I first want to acknowledge that I am taking liberties with the whole Day 12 thing with it being past midnight. Listen, the day isn’t over until I fall asleep.
Ok, so back to it.
You knew that this was coming at some point, right? Today (and every day) I am grateful for River Falls. I am going to focus on the personal reasons tonight and will get back to the professional ones at some point in the near future.
I came to River Falls in the fall of 1996. Wow, I am old. I came here to go to college. I chose UW-River Falls because of two main reasons: 1.) It was sufficiently far enough from home and 2.) there was a much smaller chance of me partying (ie. dropping out) here than UW-Milwaukee. That was mostly it. And also for the Ag classes (that’s short for ‘agriculture’ for you city folk). When I visited the campus prior, nothing really stood out to me about the community other than it was small.
Once I found my way off campus, a whole other world emerged. Somehow, I found the Kinnickinnic River. Check this picture of what is affectionately known as “The Kinni” to most locals.
Look! A fly fisherman and some horseback riders on the Kinni along the trails in Glen Park.
Oh! The St Croix River. That is another thing I love about River Falls.
A hot air balloon on the St. Croix River
I also love the downtown. Our movie theater shows first run movies (I see the Life of Pi is playing this weekend- what, no Hobbit?!) for $3 a ticket. That’s right- you heard me. $3
There are also many thrift stores in downtown if you are into that sort of thing. I, personally, have to be in a mood. But just know that if you are into that, it’s worth a trip.
The Kinni runs behind Main Street and you can take this bridge, which is behind the movie theater, and walk along Lake George and do some bird watching.
PS- That’s our City Hall in the background
How about drinking? There are enough bars in a 4 block radius to give you alcohol poisoning in short order. Take your pick. Just don’t pee in the streets because, not only will you get caught by the police, but you will also get your name in our local paper, the River Falls Journal (not that it ever stopped me). If you were wondering why the River Falls Journal has such a huge readership, it’s because we want to know who is peeing in our streets.
Lastly, I love the people and the talent here. I go to a boxing studio and get trained by a professional fighter, Boyd Davis, at Peek A Boo Boxing. Or I can go do some time at the downtown clay studio, Kinni Clayworks, for $10 per hour. Speaking of art, we have a TON of amazing talent. I don’t even know where to begin. Poets, ceramic, glass, and jewelry artists… musicians. You name it. Also, there are a lot of natural practitioners and even a holistic dentist. How about a nudist organic farm?
Yep, I wasn’t kidding about that.
It just doesn’t get better than that.
Trust me, I barely scratched the surface. I didn’t even get to all of the activity on the UW-River Falls campus or the summer music series in the park or the RF Chamber events. It is for all of these reasons that I zeroed in on River Falls like a bullseye when I thought about coming home. This is home to me. And that is why WeatherVane Creamery must be here, too.