August 3- 5, 2007 Trip Log

Friday, August 3 – We drove about 6 miles off the main road to find Bluebird Campground. And what a find it was! I have never heard of a live-in bar before. When I checked into the campground, it was easy to see that the Rec Hall was actually a bar. The motorcycles parked out front with people who didn’t say Hi when we pulled up should have been a tip off… We pulled into our camping space, about 100 feet from the Rec Hall and set up the motor home. About 5:30 to 6:00 PM, a lot of cars starting coming into the campground. There are a lot of permanent trailers set up and only a few transient spaces. About 6:15 everyone was walking around greeting their neighbors with cigarettes and cans in foam koozies. It was like the whole campground was a big outdoor bar. By about 9 PM the bar (excuse me, the Rec Room) was hopping with Karaoke Night. The adults were INSIDE the bar and the children were all dancing on the patio OUTSIDE the bar doors. I’m pretty sure the singing could have been heard 6 miles away at the main highway. It might not have been so bad if the singing had been a little more on key… The music continued until 1 AM, when I was finally able to go to sleep. Gosh, I can’t wait until Saturday night!

Saturday, August 4 – We drove around the town of LaCrosse, WI, which is situated along the Mississippi River. The Black River and the LaCrosse River both flow into the Mississippi at this point. There are 2 locks near the city. It was raining or drizzling all day, but it didn’t interfere much with our sightseeing. We went to a bluff, Granddad’s Bluff, 590’ above the town for an overview of the area. Then we went on a 1 ½ hour paddlewheel boat ride on the Mississippi. We learned that the Mississippi deposits 150 million tons of sand at the Mississippi Delta every day! That is enough sand to fill a railroad train 150 miles long with sand each day. Wow! The settlers began trying to make the Mississippi a navigable river since the 1850’s and people are still working on it today. There are lots of islands in the river caused by the build-up of all of that sand. However, those islands are also easily broken down by the force of the moving water. We drove north along the river for a while but the best view is really from the road above the bluff or the railroad track which runs right along the river. Saturday night must be just good ol’ country music from a real band in the bar. Much better than last night. Of course, the rain muffles the sound a bit too…

Sunday, August 5 – Wow, you just can’t believe how beautiful the corn fields and soy bean fields are throughout Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota. The corn is tall and straight and perfect. The soy beans are full and green. The farmers must be happy with this year’s crop.

OK, you are going to think we are really hard up for things to do and places to see. Today we went to the SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota. SPAM is made by the Hormel Company and they have a museum next to their headquarters building. They really treat it like a FUN place. There were lots of spoofs on SPAM and its use. Cute, fun, entertaining and we learned something. Do you know that Hawaiians eat more SPAM per capita than the residents of any other state? Since SPAM was first canned, more than six billion cans of SPAM have been shipped and (presumably) eaten. The military used it for almost EVERY meal during WWII and the Korean War. By the time of the Gulf Wars they had developed some MORE (Meal Ordered Ready to Eat) meals that were a lot more varied. Jay Hormel, the company’s founder’s (George Hormel) only son finally found a way to use the shoulder portion of a pig when he formulated SPAM. Did you know that the saying “Living high on the hog” refers to the fact that the best cuts of pork come from “high” on the top of the pig and were used to feed the officers in the army while the enlisted men ate the cuts of pork from lower on the pig? One of the things they had was a video of the Monty Python spoof of SPAM. Faith, you probably know about that. Maybe Heather and Brian do too.

Then to make the day even more special, we drove to Blue Earth, MN, to see the 60’ tall Jolly Green Giant. My life is now complete. SPAM and the Jolly Green Giant all in one day!

We are having FUN!

Photos: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=x2eavjj.3e9jp94f&Uy=i1ml1u&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0