TuzigootJournal: SPAM!

We camped Tuesday night at a KOA between Austin and Albert Lea, in SE Minnesota, setting up during a light to moderate rain.

The campground information sheet listed things to see and do in the area, one of which was to visit the SPAM Museum in Austin. I've seen that museum listed on unusual museums to see lists, so we decided to check it out Wednesday morning. It's great! Colorful, informative, and free samples, too. And FREE admission. Guaranteed to give you several smiles. This website provides traveler reviews. Here's a Warhol tribute I found on the internet.

As you can see, the spam we're talking about is canned meat, not junk e-mail (and why did that come to be called 'spam?' Case of slander?). Some call it the mystery meat, but one thing you learn is that there is no mystery about the meat content. It's all pork, "primarily" pork shoulder meat (oh, but what about secondary pork parts?). Then, there's sugar, salt, and other spices. The ground-up ingredients are put in the cans, sealed, then cooked for 2.5 hrs., and shipped.

The production volume is awesome, especially to those of us who identify SPAM with our youth and rarely consume it now: 7.8 million hogs were converted into SPAM in 2000. Two production plants can produce 44,000 cans per hour. Three cans per second are consumed in the United States. The state with the highest SPAM-use per capita is Hawaii. Korea is a major foreign consumer.

SPAM was invented in 1937 by the Hormel folks in Austin, MN. It gained fame for its ubiquitousness in WWII. You can watch film of soldiers talking about SPAM two or three times per day. A grainy newsreel, SPAM Goes to War, tells you that SPAM went to Europe before the troops -- as a major ingredient of the Lend Lease program in which the U.S. sent food and aid to Europe prior to our entry into the war. "From Oklahoma to Okinawa, SPAM was there," intones the narrator. Makes you want to salute.

My SPAM memory of more recent vintage is a float trip down the Grand Canyon that Roy Sooter and I made in the early 70s. Our outfitter served SPAM once a day, every day. Either fried for breakfast or in sandwiches for lunch. Backpack trips that I went on back in that era also generally included a can of SPAM.

Other museum highlights: The SPAM-ettes quartet singing, Mr. SPAM-man, bring me some food, ... .

George Burns and Gracie Allen were sponsored by SPAM.

Bet you're getting hungry for a can of SPAM right now.

The museum features a short, entertaining movie and lots of colorful, informative displays.

There were quite a few people in the museum on a Wednesday morning, including a red-hat ladies group.

So, if you're ever in the Austin, MN vicinity, go see the SPAM museum.

Right across from the museum is Johnny's Main Event restaurant, featuring a SPAM-A-RAMA. menu. Had to go there, of course. I had SPAM and eggs; Susie had pancakes, just a bite of my SPAM.

Then it was back to Lake KOA. We checked out and headed west.

Ended up in Pipestone, MN, for the night. Nice campground, 30 miles or so off the beaten paths of interstate highways. Here's the evening's sunset.

Later that evening, Susie said, Did you hear the news. One or more tornadoes just hit Austin, Minnesota. Earlier in the evening the TV had shown Pipestone to be in a tornado watch area. The campground flyer said that in case of bad weather, drive to a downtown store with a basement. To be ready, I went out and disconnected the PT. The night went by quietly.

Thursday morning early it's raining lightly. Susie says, the TV says this area is in a severe weather warning area all day. The map shows, though, that across the border west and to the north in South Dakota, no problem. So, we hustle away. So far, our timing has been good (lucky).

Now, late afternoon, we're on Jeff and Valerie's farm, southeast of Aberdeen, and the TV is saying, severe thunderstorms approaching Aberdeen. Gotta stop watching local TV! An hour or so later, here's the approaching storm.

Earlier, while fleeing Pipestone, going north toward Lake Benton, all of a sudden we were in a region of glacial hills -- green, rolling, very scenic. Didn't stop for a picture, but found a good approximation later on the internet:

Also, west of Lake Benton is a large collection of electricity-producing windmills -- 600 plus windmills, I find out later, and more being built -- we saw a couple of trucks hauling those big blades. Lake Benton proudly calls itself the "Original Wind Power Capital of the Midwest."