Day 133: Minnesota to Iowa

It was still packed at the petrol station in the morning, with a lot of folks likely having spent the night here, and quite a few still needing to start their days. We didn't leave particularly early, but we had a fair amount of driving ahead of us, starting with the Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children. From 1886-1945, it was an educational facilities for at-risk youth, with residences, a schoolhouse, hospital, farm, and facilities including a bakery, laundry, and even a power plant! Over the lifetime of the facility, 10,635 children stayed there. By 1945, State legislators realized that children were better served by being in foster homes, so today it's now a museum.

On weekends the place opens at 1pm, so we hung around, and eventually went in to go into the museum. Coincidentally, there was a Celebration of Life happening for someone there, so people were also heading in for the person who had died. The main building is lovely, and there was a room reserved for them that we walked past with food, drink, various tables and someone playing the piano, although Lisette did find it an interesting choice of venue! Perhaps the person had a connection to the State Public School?

We checked out the museum first and then some of the buildings, including Cottage 11, where some of the boys lived. We spoke to the lady who was working there, and she acknowledged that while it was a good thing that such an institution existed, it was traumatic for many of the children too. We saw the shared bedrooms, and a basement where the boys could play games. While we didn't see it, there's also a cemetery, where 198 children are buried, unclaimed by family. In many cases, there is no name on the grave, but just a number. Over 300 children died during the time the School was in operation. It was sad and sobering to read these numbers and the reasons for the deaths (often diseases like severe malnutrition and tuberculosis), it's good that this museum is around to detail what happened.

Goodbye, Awning!

Whenever we drive on highways, we feel the wind acutely, so Michael has to have a firm grip on the steering wheel so we don't swerve. There was a constant gust on the highway, when suddenly we heard a thud on the right side of our vehicle. Lisette looked through our (still broken) passenger side mirror, only to see a black thing flying away. Initially she thought we'd blown a tire, only to quickly realize it was the tarp from our awning falling away, onto the road! "I think our awning has fallen," Lisette said, which prompted Michael to think that the awning had just come loose, so he stopped about 100 yards away on the highway shoulder. But no, that misunderstanding was made clear once we got out of the RV and he realized that the tarp had severed cleanly at the top of the RV as one of the rods holding it up had popped loose--and these were now lying on the highway.

Lisette and Michael ran to move it off the highway, which fortunately wasn't particularly busy, although a few oncoming vehicles saw us running and the tarp on the road, and changed lanes to avoid us. It was pretty heavy, so we both dragged it off the ground, but had to leave it there as there was just no way we could fix it back on. The other rod was still attached to the RV, so Michael yanked it off so that it wouldn't bang loosely against the side of our vehicle.

While it is such a bummer that we don't have an awning now (especially since it is summer), we consoled ourselves with the fact that we didn't use it that much, as it would rattle loudly when we'd put it up and there'd be the slightest wind (although in hindsight, it was also because the bolts were kind of loose on one side that contributed to it ripping off). But we can always still sit outside, and the RV itself can provide additional shade. We also looked at the silver lining that at least when it blew off, there weren't any vehicles or people immediately behind us that could have been hit and injured with the flying awning and rod! Traveling always has its unpredictable moments, but it's all part of the adventure!

The Spam Museum

In Austin (Minnesota, not Texas), there's the Spam Museum! We arrived 30 minutes before it closed, which turned out to be enough time to see everything, as it's not a big place, but it's jam-packed (or should we say Spam-packed?!) with information dedicated to the famous canned meat made by Hormel Foods.

The museum is free, and has a bunch of exhibits, including details about Spam's history, its role during World War II, recipes, and an international section that shows its popularity around the world, including in China, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the Philippines! There's also someone handing out Spam samples (Korean BBQ and jalapeno were the 2 flavors when we were there). Who knew there were so many different flavors (including Tocino flavor, made specifically for the Philippines palate? We had a lot of fun with the interactive exhibits, including assembling one spam can as quickly as possible, which when you'd press the stop buzzer would tell you how many cans of spam were created in the same time. There's also a height chart to stand next to see how tall you are in spam cans!

The gift shop was our last stop, which had all sorts of fun souvenirs, including all the Spam flavors! Michael got a fun t-shirt, which also shows that we got it from Austin, so it's going to feel very special and exclusive wearing it later!

Hello, Iowa!

Just over 30 minutes later, we wrapped up our visit to Minnesota, and arrived in Iowa, state #16 for this trip! On the other side of the state border, there's the Top of Iowa Welcome Center, a visitor center in a building in the form of a rural, classical American red barn. Iowa is also known for its "Freedom Rocks,", which are large, painted boulders honoring veterans across each of its 99 counties. Behind the visitor center, we saw our first one, in honor of women who had fought in the war. It included the famous Rosie the Riveter, who has appeared in countless posters with her arm flexed and a red bandana tied around her head, with the words "You Can Do It!" above her.

Across from the visitor center there's the Diamond Jo Casino & Hotel, which we checked out briefly (at the very least, we always use the restroom and get a free beverage!). It was full of poker machines and a few other tables. For the first time since we've been going to casinos, there was a security guard checking IDs before we went in, and he'd randomly put some IDs through a machine as a measure to confirm their validity. There were 4 people ahead of us and only Michael didn't have his ID run through the secondary measure. He was so surly that it gave Lisette a bad impression--that and the fact that they let people smoke inside the casino was enough for her to head straight back to the RV! Time to redo her manicure and get through the last season of Borgen on Netflix (3 more episodes left)!

Michael ended up staying, where he met a bunch of Canadians traveling down from Toronto, and made $40 by the end of the night. It's not much, but it'll pay for a meal, petrol, or definitely something along the way!

Route Map