Bob Dylan Comics: Travelling again

A Minnesota photo album

Today in the drawing book, I have just a one-page comic about a Bob Dylan show. But luckily, I happen to have a bunch of photos from this trip, so I’ll share them too! For non-Dylan fans, I promise some non-Dylan-related comics next time.

This page from the drawing book starts with a bunch of travelling adventures. It was an adventurous time! Everyone in my family (my mom, dad and three brothers) seemed to be off on a voyage of some kind, and some of my friends were travelling, too. Of course, because I was working as a flight attendant with Air Canada, travelling was all in a day’s work, for me. And when I found out that Bob Dylan was playing some shows in Minnesota - close to where he’d spent his childhood in Hibbing - it seemed like an occasion for a road trip down Highway 61!

By the way, speaking of travelling: the comics page above mentions the Ship for World Youth, probably the coolest exchange program ever invented. You should check it out!

But now for the Minnesota trip. How did I get to these shows? I must have flown to Toronto from Calgary, and rented a car with my friend, and driven down to Shakopee from there.

There were TWO shows on July 2nd - one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. My drawing book says “We saw the show,” as in, just one show… but maybe we saw both, because my drawing book shows Bob and Paul Simon playing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (which was played at the afternoon show), but my photos show that it was dark by the time the show was over!

The audience gathered in a field under the open sky. Luckily, I don’t think it rained!

It was one of those rare shows where no one was going to stop you if you took photographs! I think my travelling friend took all these pictures, though, not me.

After the show, it was time to mingle around and run into all the Dylan fans who seemed to be at every show. Here’s a picture of me next to a frequent concert-attendee who was renowned for looking a lot like Bob Dylan (who was that guy?), and on the other side of me: the legendary Bill Pagel, famous for starting the still-awesome BobLinks website, where you could check out all the tour dates and set lists and show reviews, back then (and still today!). Thanks, Bill, for this service to humanity!! (Bill’s amazing work collecting Dylan-related-items is mentioned in this long but excellent 2022 Washington Post article.)

After that show, there was another show in Duluth (and an electrical storm that made our hair stand on end)! Actually, there were two shows that day, as well, but did we see them both? I only have one ticket from each day.

While I was looking for these tickets, I also found a ticket from earlier that summer, when I’d travelled to Vancouver, to see Bob and Paul Simon earlier in their tour.

And a extra trip to Hibbing

But back to Minnesota. After Shakopee, after Duluth, we had to visit Hibbing. We took a look at Bob’s old high school and some other landmarks like that. And of course we went to visit Bob Dylan’s old house!! We even met the then-current inhabitants, who were super nice (and didn’t mind us goggling at their residence). Who owns the house today, in 2024? Bill Pagel, of course.

And we made one other stop: Zimmy’s! This excellent diner/Bob Dylan museum was a highlight of the trip. I still have a Zimmy’s mug, although I see in this article that Zimmy’s closed its doors in 2014.

That’s it for my Minnesota photo album. Thanks for joining me! I promise that, next time, we’ll be back to comics!