Walking in Austin

Yesterday was sunny, but brought the word, cold, into the vocabulary. The temperature got right down to freezing over night and then came a strong wind.

I decided to drive down to Austin to do the walk there. It started from a truck stop along I-90. A walk across the parking lot brought me to a bike trail that ran parallel to I -90 and then across the freeway on a bridge. This brought me into an industrial area on the left hand side with a railroad track on the right hand side -- safe walking, but not too scenic. A few minutes later I connected to some city streets and then got into a park area long the Mill Pond.

Fall Flowers along the Mill Pond

A bit later in the walk I caught up with some history signs and learned the Mill Pond is made from controlling the Red Cedar River. The water in the pond was originally used to power both a lumber mill and grist mill.

At the end of the pond I walked over to Main Street and to the SPAM Museum.

In front of the museum is statue.

Yes, this is all about pigs.

SPAM is made from pork shoulder. This is a meat that in the United States went somewhat unused. When I heard this I couldn't help but think about the delicious grilled pork shoulder that is made during bonfires at Reymontowka. I've always know about SPAM but on this visit learned the name was hatched at New Year's Eve party. The product was being tested and needed a name and one guest came up with SPAM, taking the first two letters from spiced and the last two letters from ham.

One walks into the museum under a display that may go unnoticed since it's over one's head. The clerk at the reception desk called my attention to the 3, 390 cans of SPAM.

This looks impressive -- a family could eat for a long time with this much. But a bit later in the museum I learned that 13 people can produce 21,000 cans of SPAM/hour!

The product really came into its hey-day during World War II. Because it was canned, it could be shipped everywhere without spoilage. It appears the U.S military lived on this and also introduced it all over.

The figure at the far right is to be Eisenhower. He is standing by a letter in a display.

The letter, dated in 1966, congratulates Hormel on its 75th anniversary. Eisenhower says he ate a lot of SPAM, along with all the soldiers.

The museum is free, worth of the stop if you are in the area, but should be free because it is somewhat an advertisement for Hormel.

One walks into a display of many different products.

Much to my surprise, this product is made in Minnesota.

Somehow I missed knowing that Hormel owned Jennie-O.

Hormel bought Dinty Moore in the 1930s when a change in farm policy left the company with 500,000 empty cans and nothing to put into them.

Herdez is owned by Hormel but the label said the product was made in Mexico.

A woman was walking about offering samples of SPAM.

I looked at the calorie count on this -- definitely not diet food.

I overheard guests saying they liked the samples of this. The staff person explained this product was made primarily for the New Zealand and Australia market, but was being introduced into the United States as well. (Still not diet food!)

After leaving the museum the route took me back along the other side of the Mill Pond, then to the bike trail and back along the industrial area and to the truck stop where I had left my car.

Good exercise -- glad I did this once, but probably won't do this twice!

Surprises on Friday

I set out this morning to do a 5K walk, and couldn't make up my mind about the weather. At first it was rainy, then sunny, and then rainy again. I decided to take a chance. My proposed walk was in Shoreview, MN. The first intersection that would take me to I-35 had a bit of road construction, so I decided to drive down further to my usual corner for work. Was I surprised -- There sat the American Queen.

I found a place to park and then walked back from photos.

The smoke stacks looked quite dramatic against the stormy sky.

Here's the paddlewheel.

 A crew member told me they had arrived at about 3 AM this morning.
I went onto the web site for the American Queen and found it will be back again on September 28, three times in October, and finally again on November 5.

I headed off to the walk location and the weather was sunny. So I went off on the walk around Snail Lake. Next surprise, the battery in my camera was dead. I think actually it is malfunctioning. Thus no photos, not even of the flock of wild turkeys that I strolled by. They weren't the least impressed with humans.

Summer Memories on a Cool Fall Day

Temperatures have last moved to more normal, from the abnormal of +90 degrees.That makes warm drinks sound even better, but truthfully I never give up coffee no matter how warm is the weather.

This summer while in Siedlce, Poland, some of the volunteers were looking for souvenirs and having bad luck being told that "this is not a tourist type town." Then we stumbled into a store on a side street that had the usual tourist things, much to the surprise of some of our Polish friends. (Well, yes, when one lives in a town, you don't go looking for the souvenirs.) That's a long way to explaining how I have a coffee cup with with Siedlce themes.

On top is a stroopwafel. I found a package of these in Schiphol airport. The English translation is Caramel Waffle Cookies. One is placed over the top of the cup holding a hot beverage. The heat from the beverage softens the caramel inside, and it's oh so yummy! Having these things in my kitchen brings back memories and also helps to make the time seem shorter until I can go back again!

Walking around My Home

I've been lots of places in the past few weeks and haven't spent much time seeing what is just out the door. Yesterday afternoon I walked down to Caribou to get a package of coffee. So nice to have Caribou Coffee so close, particularly if I return from being gone from Europe for several weeks and the cupboard is bare.

After this errand I walked around the corner to the fountain in the Upper Landing Park.This September day had a pleasant temperature and a bit of wind, blue skies and puffy clouds.  You can see the loveliness in the photo below.

Around another corner brought me to this typical fall view.

The trees are still green. In the distance one can see now a quiet tour boat. Near the shore on my side are barges, moored, waiting to be loaded with grain, corn, or soybeans as it is harvested in the Upper Midwest.

A bit down the sidewalk I came to a lovely garden courtyard for one of the nearby condo buildings.

I enjoyed, too, seeing the white wave of the grasses in the wind.

And the day lilies are still saying hello every morning.

The great thing about being semi-retired and only community faculty now is that I can take a walk like this in the middle of a Monday afternoon totally guilt-free!

Minnehaha Creek Walk

On September 3 I wrote about walking around Lake Nokomis. In the same area there is a second walk route for walking along Minnehaha Creek. I decided to do that one this weekend.

This morning I woke up wide awake around 4 AM. I thought to wait to leave home until at least daylight, but about 5, sleeping sounded even better. Thus I didn't arrive in this neighborhood until almost 11 AM. Good thing for the police were just taking down street barricades. I saw lots of signs left over saying the area had been closed from 7 - 11 AM for an "event." This usually means a run, bike race or other such event.

I headed out along a walking path along Minnehaha Creek. The creek flows from Lake Minnetonka located in the western metropolitan area to the Mississippi River. Its last journey is a fall over Minnehaha Falls right before in enters the Mississippi.

It's no secret many parts of the country are experiencing a very dry weather. I just looked up and learned that the Minnetonka Lake is at its lowest level in 12 years; hence not much water is flowing in the creek.

Here's a view of a basically dry creek bed.

 However, despite the low water I did find some ducks that found a bit of place to feed.

 This walk was pleasant but not particularly scenic. I walked through grassy areas with some trees, but the fall colors are not yet appearing in this part of Minnesota. The dry weather has left all the shrubs and prairie flowers looking very bedraggled.

The path went along Hiawatha Lake for a bit, but at a distance. The picture below is about the closest I got to the lake on the mapped out route.

Glad to add another 5 K to my distance book. I will try this walk next spring when hopefully there will be some water in the creek and perhaps some spring flowers.

Early Morning View

Today was the Faculty Conference at Metropolitan State University. I was responsible for staffing two information tables for the faculty attending the conference. The event started with coffee at 8:00 AM and I was asked to be there by 7:15 to get the tables set up. Arrived and found I was way too early. I'll know next time that I can wait until 7:45!! But I looked out the window about 7:20 and was awarded with an interesting view.

A tree in the courtyard was reflected in an interesting way in the puddle in the drive. Behind the tree is the classroom and office building called St. John's. A public university having a building named after a saint may be a bit unusual. This building's name is a remembrance of the fact that St. John's Hospital once occupied this site. There is a still a St. John's Hospital in the eastern metropolitan area, but it is located elsewhere, is larger and much newer.

So I guess the viewpoint in the puddle is a good example of when one has lemons, make lemonade.

September Day

This morning the temperature was around 60 degrees (15-16 C). I thought this a nice change after 95 (35 C) yesterday afternoon. I went out for a walk primarily to check out the rules for using the dog park which is now in front of our building. I have a friend who wondered if one had to get a  permit or license prior to using the dog park -- answer no.

But it is definitely a September day.

The area in back of our building is full of barges.

This is a sign that harvest is underway. These barges will eventually be filled with grain, perhaps a bit further down the river -- by a bit I mean only 2-4 kilometers away, not a huge distance away.

I noticed the sumac is changing to red. This is always a sign of autumn.

I found someone fishing.

I noticed, too, she was talking on her cell phone. We don't seem to get away from the phone anymore!

And this evening a beautiful sunset showed up outside my window.

It's beautiful, these colors seem only to show up in autumn, but also it appeared about 7:30. The long days of summer are behind us.