Woodbury, MN to Fairmont, MN

Today’s interesting town, Hastings, MN, featured a gas station that was established in 1896, though it looks like a modern gas station.  Kristy noticed the sign as we were sitting at the pump.  It was also advertising “Broasted Touchless Chicken Car Wash”, if you read the sign the right (wrong) way.

We also drove through Red Wing, the headquarters for Red Wing shoes.  It was a little hard for Kristy to not stop to look at (shop for) shoes, especially after seeing the plant buildings for Red Wing!  We saw a little bit of the Mississippi river as we drove down the border between Wisconsin and Minnesota.

We drove through Minnesota’s Root River Valley, a scenic drive through farmland with oceans of corn.  We also saw many barns purchased as kits by mail order for $500 to $900 from Sears and Roebuck.  They are still standing about 100 years later.  We made a collage of seven of the dozens of barns we saw.  We think the ones we got pictures of were first sold about 1918, but we think Sears and other companies sold barn (and house) kits starting in the 1890s.

Lunch was at the Aroma Pie Shop in Whalen, MN.  We had delicious sandwiches and of course some pie.  Janine had cherry pie, Sandy had blueberry, Kristy had blubarb (blueberry and rhubarb), and Grant had the rhubarb custard.   They were all delicious!  In fact, Grant gave give his pie the highest praise possible by saying it was as good as the rhubarb pies his grandma used to make. 

We saw Niagara, an alligator, fossils, Titanic, an elephant, a squid, a wishing well, bacon, and a chapel today, all in the same space in less than an hour.  It was at Niagara Cave in Harmony, MN.  The cave was discovered in the 1920s, after a farmer’s pigs were inexplicably disappearing in a field.  He sent some kids to look for them.  They found the pigs when they heard noises from the pigs underground – about 70 feet underground.  They survived the fall by landing in a bed of mud.  The cave has a 60 foot waterfall that reminded the first cave spelunkers of Niagara Falls, so they named the cave Niagara Cave.  There were several fossils in the walls of the cave, including one of a squid!  The rest of the items were names for formations in the cave.

Grant’s birthday was today, so we made hot fudge cake, but we burned the bottom!  Oh well, I think he was pleased anyway …