Wednesday, August 20
Austin, MN is only 20 miles down the road, so we decided we could not live with ourselves if we did not go to the SPAM Museum.
What a grand looking museum. We were chuckling to ourselves all the way in.
Farmer Hormel and his pigs.
Spammy greeted us at the door. :-) BTW Spammy is a registered trademark.
Well we got a little education at this display. We had no idea that SPAM had created several flavors and even turkey SPAM.
Look at the list of brands that Hormel owns. We had no idea some of these brands were owned by Hormel. Did you?
Here are the ads from the 1930's.
Here are the ads from the 1940's.
Here are the ads from the 1950's. I remember this can with the key.
Here are the ads from the 1960's. Now they have changed the can to open on the side.
Here are the ads from the 1970's. I don't remember these ads. By this time I ignored SPAM.
We did learn that from the beginning, Spam is put into the can, vacuum sealed, then cooked for 2.5 hrs. We also learned that George A Hormel, the founder, had a passion for cleanliness in the productions areas. Also SPAM products were a staple during WWII. We actually learned a lot about Hormel and SPAM. It turned out to be very interesting. And Hormel stock just keeps going up!
We happen to like tex-mex foods. While we were there, they were giving out samples of a new flavor of SPAM; Chorizo. It was very tasty, so we bought a can at the gift shop and had scrambled eggs with chorizo for breakfast. Very tasty!
SPAM is worldwide. See all the countries and locations? See picture below also.
Of course the tour ends in the gift shop. There was everything you can imagine with SPAM on it. This T-shirt had one of the cutest sayings.
Even though this is a little blurry, I thought this saying was the cutest. In case you cannot read it, it says, "STURGIS ISN'T THE ONLY HOG HEAVEN".
We saw products that we would be interested in purchasing, but have never seen them in any store. Marketing is a tough job.
Thursday, August 21
The day started with rain until about 11 am. We both needed haircuts so decided to get haircuts. We decided to try Great Clips.
After showering, this is how Tic's haircut looks. It is the worst haircut I have ever seen on him.
After my shower this is how my haircut looks. I think I got the better cut. Wow don't I look great without any makeup. I can't believe I'm posting this. Oh well.
We are off to Welcome, MN tomorrow for a couple of nights. Sleep well all.
Sunday, August 17
I forgot we took a hike on Sunday at Hidden Bluffs to the top of the bluffs. I found the pictures of the hike when I downloaded the latest pictures.
This was a view of the campground from on top of the bluff.
Here is another view of another part of the campground.
This was a creek running through the park.
We kept seeing these tiny bright yellow birds flying around the campground. The breast and underside of the bird are also bright yellow with dark wings. I looked it up in my bird book and found out it is an American Goldfinch. Beautiful!!
Monday, August 18
Today we moved to Myre - Big Island State Park in Albert Lea, MN. It was an easy drive. In Minnesota you can buy an annual state park pass to all state parks for $25 or pay $5 per night in addition to the camping fees. Since we plan to stay in state parks for 8 nights the annual pass will pay for itself. The nightly camping fee at this state park is $26.
Here is our site. There is lots of space between camping sites.
Tuesday, August 19
We are not too far away from the Winnebago manufacturing plant in Forest City, IA. Winnebago gives 2 tours a day and they are free. We decided to attend the 1pm tour today.
This is the Iowa Welcome Center designed like a barn & silo so we had to get a picture.
Here is the visitors center. There were about 24 of us in the tour. They actually drove us around to different buildings. We were not allowed to take pictures. It was very interesting. Winnebago actually makes all their parts except for the chassis which is manufactured by Freightliner, and of course, the appliances. Winnebago has a few other facilities not far from Forest City and has a total # of employees of over 2600. The facility in Forest City is over 200 acres. We got to see most of the processes that they do. It was very interesting.
After dinner, we decided to take a hike on some of the hiking trails here in the park. We ended up walking about 3 miles total.
This was an old dead tree that looked neat against the clearing sky.
There were open fields then thick trees and bushes, then more open fields. We started on our walk about 7pm and did not get back till about 8:30. As the evening wore on we began to see deer.
Not a bad picture seeing that it was taken with Tic's I-Phone. That is a buck at the tree line with a doe and 2 fawns running towards the trees.
Here's a big doe with a fawn running into the trees.
As we turned a corner on the trail there was another fawn within 15 feet of us. It took off as soon as we stopped. We had a really great walk.
Thursday, Aug 14 - Sunday, Aug 17
We went to the Houston County Fair 3 different days. We took a different route to Caledonia where the fair was. On the way we saw two more barn quilts. I thought they were pretty so...
I'm going to make this post only the fair but include all 3 days. It was fun!
On the fair grounds, the city had moved this old original Presbyterian Church. Below is an 1880 original house from around the town that was also moved to the fair grounds.
We could only look through the windows of these two old buildings.
This greeting sign listed the bigger towns participating in the county fair.
All the vegetables looked so good. I was visiting with some ladies in this area asking if any of this stuff was ever sold at the fair. They told me no and to look for local farmers markets. As we chatted on further I made mention that I would like to be a judge in the berry pie contest. They told me to go to the office and ask if they were looking for a judge for the berry pie contest,that frequently they did need judges for various contests. After we left this building we went by the fair office and asked. They DID need a judge. I would be judging the next day. I was excited!. The only requirement was that I did not know anyone entering the contest. No problem! We walked around some more.
A little girl in 4th grade made this top of chainmail for her little brother. She made each link herself from straight wire, and inter-connected each link herself. We were impressed. She called it her chainmail project. Cute.
There was a section where 2nd graders wrote about what they wanted to do when they grew up. We thought this one was the cutest.
This huge thing cuts the corn stalks then sucks them in and plucks the corn cobs off the stalks and shoots them out the top yellow shoot that you can only see a piece of.
This piece of equipment cuts the hay for baling. The children were allowed to climb all over all the tractors and they had a blast.
This little girl watching at this point was washing the cows tail. By the time we got the camera ready she moved. She was really cute to watch as she "helped" clean the cow for showing.
Well Dusty was disappointed that only 2 berry pies were entered in the contest. The pie on the right was a rhubarb raspberry pie. The pie on the left had a granola crust, cream cheese middle and red raspberries & blackberries on top.
We had separate utensils for each pie. I tasted the cream cheese pie first. Yum Yum! Then I tasted the rhubarb raspberry pie. OMG! It was one of the best berry pies I've ever tasted. The crust was flaky and the pie was not too sweet. I voted for that pie. Of course I ate all of both pieces of pie. As it turned out there were only 2 judges also and the other person agreed with me.
Then we (the judges) learned that the lady made the cream cheese raspberry pie and her daughter made the rhubarb raspberry pies. The young lady is the daughter/granddaughter and she accepted the award for her mother.
Then after the awards were distributed, Tic got a piece of each pie also. Yum Yum!!
One afternoon we listened to a singing comedic duo called Tina & Lena. They were a hoot and very family oriented. www.tina-lena.com
I've attached the link to their website if you are interested.
Here Tina & Lena have 2 boys on stage singing about fishing in the winter.
Tic was one of 4 men called up and were introduced as Duck Dynasty guys. As you can see Tic was given a beard to wear. The men were told to quack Happy Birthday to this little girl for her birthday.
Here are both Tina & Lena being interviewed on the radio. They have been performing for 31 years all over the US. We really enjoyed them.
One evening we watched the Extreme Bull Riding. Before the bull riding started, the 4Hers practiced their barrell "racing" skills.
Obviously this was the first time for this girl and her horse. The horse was lead around.
This was one of the more experienced riders.
Here are the bull riders for the evening. The Pledge Allegiance was being recited.
These are the rodeo clowns for the evening.
Here's the start. The following several pictures are several of the bull rides.
This guy hardly made it out of the chute.
Here is a good ride.
Here is another rider that did not make it but just a couple of seconds.
After the above bull lost his rider he ran around the arena and would not go through the gate to the back. They finally sent this dog out hoping the dog could convince the bull to leave. That did not work either. One of the clowns finally got the bull to leave the arena. It probably lasted nearly 5 mins.
You can see this guy didn't make it long enough either.
This rider made the 8 seconds but his free hand touched the bull several times. Here is one of those times.
Here is our second good ride. Then there was a break and we watched mutton riding.
This is one of the better mutton rides. It was fun to watch.
This started out as a good ride but he could not hang on for the full 8 seconds.
This bull twisted around so much his horn almost jabbed the rider in the thigh.
Back to bull riding. The bull was after the rider that fell off. The clown in the pink did his job and got between the bull and rider. Unfortunately the clown got hit with the bulls horn and thrown a short distance He was taken to the hospital. By the end of the show, we learned his jaw was broken.
We took lots of pictures but I think y'all have the idea. Just in case you could not tell, we had good times at the fair. Sunday we watched more 4Hers in horse riding games. The did barrell racing, pole bending and jumping then figure 8s. We watched children in groups 10 & under all the way up to 17. Some of the older girls did has well as you see at any rodeo.
It has been a fun stay at Hidden Bluffs. We will be leaving in the morning for Myre-Big Island State Park in MN.
