I think I was seeing some dreams fulfilled here. You will also notice that the beard is gone. Dave couldn’t hang with the beard anymore. He claims it was too scratchy.
I got to have the same experience, and there’s just something about sitting on Yogi’s lap that makes one feel like a five-year-old.
On my wrist is NOT a wristband from a bar or amusement park but rather the wristband that Jellystone guests must wear at all times.
We spent a good bit of time in the gift shop as well. Dave found this shirt and debated heavily about buying but opted out at the last minute.
This is the one that I wanted, but when am I going to wear a hot pink sweatshirt in NC? Almost never.
Shortly after this, Dave and I decided NOT to go to Minneapolis. We had been looking forward to it, but we realized that we just didn’t have the time. Instead, we would hit Chicago to see Dave’s sister, Detroit to see my relatives, and Pittsburgh to hang with Will Simmons. It was also around this time that I learned that I was not going to be able to go to Honduras this summer. My nine-day trip had been cancelled because of the Honduran coup. Boo hiss.
On our way through Minnesota, we spotted this weird statue in Blue Earth, MN.
(That’s David there between the Jolly Green Giant’s legs to give an idea of scale.) There was no sign anywhere explaining what was going on here either. I have since discovered that there was a Green Giant packing plant nearby. The 55-foot-high statue was erected as a way to memorialize the joining of the two sides of Interstate 90.
Even though we ditched Minneapolis, we were still able to stop in Austin, Minnesota, to enjoy the Spam museum. That’s right, Spam.
The museum was pretty spectacular, too. It is attached to the Hormel plant, so there is a good deal of Hormel paraphernalia around as well.
Outside the Spam Museum is this statue of a hog farmer and his wards.
Dave actually burned his hand on the statue because it was so hot that day.
When we entered the lobby, we first saw this gigantic display of Spam cans.
The gentleman who greeted us said that it was made up of 3,390. We were then ushered toward these doors, which lead to the theater where we watched a 15-minute movie about Spam.
Upon leaving the theater, we entered a room with displays about the history of Spam and Hormel that included this disgusting specimen.
At this point, I think I noticed Dave started to drool a bit. We also spent some time watching a pretty creepy mechanical puppet show featuring Burns and Allen doing a Spam version of This Is Your Life. It was really unsettling to me for some reason. Apparently, Hormel was a big sponsor of the Burns and Allen Show.
We already knew that Spam had been a staple for soldiers during World War II, but the museum gave a LOT more information about that. For example, this is a 1966 letter from Eisenhower to the president of Hormel forgiving him for sending so much Spam during WWII.
Apparently, the Hormel Company had its own internal magazine in the 1930s and ‘40s. I find the name a bit disturbing, though.
The museum also featured this great display honoring WWII vets who had worked for the Hormel Company.
The museum featured many interactive exhibits as well. Most were about Spam trivia.
This is the process for making one can of Spam.
This make-believe grocery store features all of the products currently produced by Hormel and its subsidiaries. It was a stunning display.
Many of our friends will also be pleased to learn that the museum had a great display honoring the Monty Python skits about Spam. After looking at all of these exhaustive displays, we headed to the equally exhaustive gift shop whose ceiling was lined with this constantly moving line of Spam cans that circulated through the entire building.
This is a sampling of the huge array of products available.
After purchasing some necessary souvenirs, which surprisingly did NOT include any Spam, we headed back to the road and pointed ourselves toward Chicago. The road took us through Wisconsin where we stopped for gas at a station that offered a wide range of cheese products as well. Strange cheese products.
We purchased about $20 of cheese and headed on to Chicago. We arrived at Dave’s sister’s house in Chicago at about 11:00 pm and crashed after a long, weird day.
No comments:
Post a Comment