Of Lighthouses and Cheese Curds.

[BikerGeek99]

And right around the corner…



Was the Laura Ingalls Wilder Park & Museum. As in, the Laura Ingalls of “Little House On The Prairie” fame.



They weren’t open yet so we couldn’t get any trash and trinkets, but Sooze was excited to have been there.






After diligently doing their rally tasks, we headed for our next stop.






More small towns.



A grain elevator! In Iowa! Who’da thunk?



It seems that most every small town in ‘Merica has an old church. Go figure.



I dunno what they were growing here but it sure was a whole lotta yellow.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Before much longer, we were at our next stop – the Iowa / Minnesota state line.






The rallyers did their rally stuff.



After a few minutes, we loaded up.



There was some general BSing going on.



And we headed to our next stop. Gonna guess what it is?



The SPAM museum!






We had the giggles just being here.



Several of us were walking around saying, “SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM” and cracking ourselves, in general, up.

 

[BikerGeek99]

This is a must-visit for anyone passing through, but ya better hurry! They will be closing the museum soon. In a couple of years they will re-open at a different location – it seems the SPAM factory is currently running at full capacity and they need to expand.



Me and Sooze – thanks to Tyler for taking the picture.



This is either silly or a little creepy. I’m not sure which.



This is actually a pretty cool place.



They have all sorts of stuff with the SPAM logo on it.



Somehow I managed to spend $85 on trash and trinkets at the gift shop. 85 freakin’ dollars of SPAM chotchkies! Sheesh.

Oh, well. We checked out the museum itself for a few minutes.



SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM…









Spamville.

 

[Intech]

Not "GEEK, GEEK, GEEK, GEEK, SPAM!"?

 

[BikerGeek99]

One last shot from the SPAM museum.



We gathered up outside – the wind had really picked up. And I mean REALLY picked up.

As we were heading out, two funny things:
1. The smell from the plant was … uh … “pungent” to say the least.
B. There was a SPAM billboard facing the highway that said, “Where Hawaiians go for vacation.” We got a laugh out of it – if you google “SPAM where Hawaiians go for vacation” the first hit is a picture of that billboard on TripAdvisor.

Heading back east on the slab, these things were generating some power.



Every now and then we’d stop so the rally goers could check on their plan and next destination.



Which was here. I don’t know what the significance was, but that’s my problem.






The next one was here – yes, it is a bed & breakfast in what used to be a jailhouse.



Back on the road….






We have Amish in Ohio. A lot of ‘em. Pennsylvania has ‘em as well. I didn’t really expect to see ‘em in Minnesota. Or Iowa. I have no idea what state we were in.



But our next stop would be pretty damn cool.

 

[Fred W]

Getting better every minute...

Spam museum is now on the bucket list.

Spamety, spam!!!

 

[ts3doug]

The spam museum is far more enjoyable than one would think.

 

[PhilJet09]

Excellent RR! I added the Spam museum to my list as well.

 

[Tyler]

Excellent RR! I added the Spam museum to my list as well.

Do it... it's a hoot and, as someone mentioned, much more entertaining than you would think!! B)

 

[Bugnatr]

Keep it coming Bob, Andy good stuff. You guys look so much alike I get confused

 

[BikerGeek99]

Keep it coming Bob, Andy good stuff. You guys look so much alike I get confused

That hurts.

That really hurts.

Why not just call me Petey, fer cripes sakes.

 

[Bustanut joker]

Petey..




U happy now?

 

[Redfish Hunter]

U happy now?

I don't know if the Geek is happy but I am. A BikerGeek ride report that has Tyler in it, what could be better?

Keep it going Andy, as always I am enjoying it.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Our next stop on the Rally Rallye was Ernie’s Garage, which was easy to find other than the fact that the GPS wanted us to take a bridge. That wasn’t there. And hadn’t been since 1974. Way to go, Garmin maps…



This is a REALLY neat old garage.



Historical information posted out front.



Inside, there is a bunch of vintage garage stuff on display, as well as an old car and old pickup that looked like they were being tinkered with.






I think old garage stuff like this is cool.






In the adjacent room (office?), they offered cold water and sodas (in the Orange Crush cooler) that you could buy on the honor system.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Me and Joe (the El Toro one).



Me and Sooze.



Grace, Tim, and Tyler.



Rally stuff done, we headed to our next stop, which took us on a goat path.



And dirt, which was manageable.



We had to get up here to check out some USGS thingamabob for the Rally.



We had gained some serious elevation and were rewarded with a serious view of the surroundings.



Just watch that first step – it’s a doozy!






You can’t see it from here, but there is a lot of construction in that town down there. The kind where it seems like you can only get in to the town but not get out.

 

[BikerGeek99]

One last shot from up yonder…



And we headed back down that dirt goat path and, after a bite to eat at Subway (not foodporn-worthy; deal with it) and going round and round and round in that town (kinda felt like Ottawa in 2010), we finally made it out and to the next Rally stop. An old cemetery. Directly adjacent to a corn field.

By now it was official: the rallygoers would not make it back to the hotel in time to be scored. They all DNF’d. But we tried to make the best of it anyway.

Funny thing aboot this cemetery:



A bunch of people are buried here, but apparently vandals had destroyed all the majority of the markers, so there is one marker for a lot of people.



After some consternation ‘cause the corn reminded me of the movie “Children of the Corn,” Tyler convinced us to pose for a picture, so I call this “Bikers of the Corn.” And I stole the picture from Tyler.



I’ve been wanting to stage a “Ghost Rider” shot since I read Neal Peart’s book a while back.



This handy-man’s special was on the other side of the ‘road’ from the corn.



We had one more stop for the DNF’d Rallyers. We were in and out of the VERY stout wind, and rolling through the rolling countryside.






Did I mention anything aboot small towns and churches?



The last stop: Culvert Man. It was stinkin’ WINDY – luckily he was securely tied down ‘cause he was a-swayin’ in the wind and would have otherwise toppled over like a Canadian tossed a bookcase at him.

 

[rogdeb]

As RR's go, this is one of the coolest

Thanks Spamndy

 

[1maxman]

Great report

 

[1maxman]

I'm jealous, I'm a Packers fan and want to get there. Went to boot camp in Great Lakes, Illinois but it was spring time, no games. I'm also drooling over those bacon cheese fries. Sounds like a great trip, not to hurry my life along but I can't wait until my boys get a little older so I can do more traveling on my bike.

 

[BikerGeek99]

One more shot of Culvert Man.



OK – one MORE shot with Tyler.



After that, we stopped by an orchard for the last rally stop (no pics – trust me, though) and we fought traffic and wind to get back to NAFO Central.

Back at NAFO Central, a meet ‘n greet was scheduled, so we headed down and met and gret.

Moi and Mike, AKA wineguy.



Moi, Chris (TheAxeman), Chris’ buddy Bill, and Greg (geezer – yah, he always has that face).



Left-to-right: Tom (huron52, but he never gets to go anywhere), Bill (yamafitter), Bob (FYB, or Intech), Joe (the El Toro one), Jack (Old School, I believe?), and moi.



WOO-HOO shot.



And, with that, we called it a night.