Bonneville Salt Flats 2011

Welcome to the trip to the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2011. I expect to leave on July 29th and return about four weeks later.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome. E-mail me at rogerwilliams623@gmail.com

If you're interested in last year's trip to Alaska, that blog address is www.rogersalaskaadventure.blogspot.com

The trip for 2012 will be to New England and the Canadian Maritime Provinces. I'll be posting that trip at: www.maritimeprovinces2012.blogspot.com

More to follow!!

NOTE: Contrary to what I originally wrote about enlarging the pictures, the web site has changed its software. So to enlarge a picture, doubleclick on the picture and go to "Picture" on the tool bar, go down to "Zoom", and select a magnification for the picture. Once you've finished looking at the enlarged picture, bo back and change the Zoom to 100%.







Sunday, August 21, 2011

August 21, 2011

Worthington, MN to Sky Prairie, WI

(Yeah, never heard of either one either...but wait!)

I left Worthington this morning headed east on I-90 with intentions to stop in Austin, MN for the SPAM Museum.  Well...what did I come upon first?  None other than the Jolly Green Giant Statue (56 feet tall!) in Blue Earth, MN (never heard of that before either.)

It seems that when Interstate 90 was completed east-coast to west-coast in 1978, the meeting point was Blue Earth, MN.  Don't ask me why.  So, to celebrate, the Green Giant folks had a statue made of the Jolly Green Giant for the dedication.  (I am NOT making this up.)  Once the dedication was over, the statue was trucked over to Blue Earth and re-erected in the city park, right behind the Dairy Queen.  (NOT making this up either!)

So now that the suspense has built to a crescendo, here is the big guy himself:


And for those Doubting Thomases out there who want to verify my account of the saga, here is the plaque in front of the statue:


(Double click on the picture to enlarge it, and then single-click once more to make it even larger.)

Well, having digested all that info, I headed east on I-90 another 100 miles or so to Austin, MN, home of the Hormel Packing Company, proud makers of SPAM.  I promised I'd take a lot of pictures, so here they are:


This is the museum, adjacent to the Corporate Headquarters to the left.


This is the Wall of SPAM, which stares you right in the face upon entering.


If you're interested in Packaging (and who isn't?), this is the evolution of packaging of the product from its introduction to the present day.



This is a display of some of the Company's products.

Believe it or not, I pretty much ran out of things to take a picture of after this.  Don't go out of your way to visit the place.

So, after digesting the Jolly Green Giant and SPAM, I hit the road again, taking I-90 until it merged with I-94 near Tomah, WI and then I-90/94 down to Sky Prairie, WI for the night.

Quiz time...what famous person hails from Sky Prairie, WI???

Tomorrow it's on the Milwaukee for the Harley-Davidson Museum and then to South Bend, IN and the Studebaker Museum.

Miles today:  384.  Total:  6,441.