Mystery trip

Mystery Trip

I spent the last two days with my mother on a mystery trip through their bank. The fun of one of these trips is you don’t know where you are going. There are a few clues given in the months leading up to the trip, but they are very vague!

We jumped on the bus in Sheldon, and headed out on hwy 60, so we knew it was at least north and east. Our first stop was at Hardees in Windom, MN, for breakfast, still no hints as to our itinerary other than Minnesota. We played a couple of fun little games, one all about Minnesota trivia; no one did very well on that! And another word game with the names of Minnesota towns and cities.  We weren’t able to figure out our next destination from either game. We were wishing for a Minnesota map, to maybe give us a hint!  Second stop was in Willmar, MN.  Here there were two choices. The Mikkelson Collection of Classic and antique boats. Or Mr. B’s Chocolate shop. The majority of my travel mates went to the chocolatier, while a handful of us went to the boat museam.

I went with the small group to the boat museum. Paul Mikkelson, (in red) showed us his vast collection of antique toy boats and real boats, including the first boat he ever owned as a senior in high school! His collection included a tribute to Minnesota native Charles Lindburg, and one boat that never went into the water. It was very interesting!  Want to learn more about it? Visit his website: http://www.fallsflyer.com/

The rest of the bus went to Mr. B Chocolate. A little about their goodies: “Our chocolates are all hand made daily with only the freshest ingredients from around the world. Minnesota dairy cream,  European style butter, Marzipan from Germany, Wild Strawberries & Cherries from Italy, Vanilla Beans from Madagascar, Flavorings and cocoa butter from Switzerland, Cocoa powder from Holland and candied flower petals from France.” Mom brought some back, and yes, it was delightful!  You can order your own goodies online: http://mrbchocolates.com/

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We didn’t know where we were going from Willmar, but we were definitely having a good time!    

Our next stop was the Stearns County History Museum, This is a BEAUTIFUL facility!  Here we heard from a reenactor who portrayed Sam Pandolfp, a fellow who meant a lot to the St. Cloud community and should have been as well known in the car business as Henry Ford.   He built beautiful cars in St. Cloud:  This was very enjoyable, a well laid out museum with wonderful exhibits!  “Main Gallery Two floors of exhibits provide the visitor with an entertaining learning experience. Walk through a natural environment inFlowing Through Time. Examine the granite industry in a full size model of a 1930 working quarry. Learn about Sam Pandolfo and the Pan Motor Company, an early St. Cloud auto manufacturing enterprise. Controversial Sam Pandolfo went to prison because of his business practices. Solve the puzzle in the Museum's version of the children's favorite "I Spy."”  Check it out! http://www.stearns-museum.org/index2.html

We also enjoyed root beer floats at the museum, At my urging, she shared her soda jerk knowledge with the young lady making them… put the root beer in the glass first, then the ice-cream, so it doesn’t fizz over!  As we left the museum, they told us we’d be staying in the St. Cloud area, but no more hints than that!

We stopped for lunch at Perkins, tasty sandwiches, For some reason, I don’t remember if that was before or after the museum…. ANYway. We checked in to our hotel, and were joined by Jean from the St. Cloud Convention and Visitor’s Bureau for the rest of our stay. As we traveled to our evening destination, she shared St. Cloud history, apparently Stearns County was a hotbed of moonshine and intrigue during prohibition! And of course the granite and the quarries.  As we travelled we watched a short video about modern granite quarrying methods. Our destination was Millner Heritage Vineyard and Winery. John Millner was our host for the evening. The plan, a five course tasting and wine pairing. Ready?

Our first course was cheese and crackers, swiss, pepperjack, co-jack and cheddar, paired with MIllner’s Draga wine.  “Drága translating roughly to precious in Hungarian it is our fullest bodied dry red. This wine is made with Marquette. Matured primarily in both Hungarian and French oak for seven months, this is a very complex red with nice big soft round tannins. It should age quite well.”

Our 2^nd course, was a sweet pea salad on crusty bread paired with Freizeit. “Freizeit – Meaning Free Time, this wine is made with Prairie Star which is a full bodied grape that often does not present an overabundance of fruity tones. To bring complexity to the table, it was put through malo-lactic fermentation, and barrel aged.  As this is dry, fairly neutral, and has a nice body, it makes for an excellent wine to have with a meal… or whenever you have a littleFree Time. Serve chilled.”

Course #3 was a wonderful tomato-basil cream soup, served with Millner’s Salier. ”Salier - Salier is the name of the ship in which Anastasia Müllner and family made their voyage from Europe to the New World on, thus starting the Millner family tree in America. This wine is is made primarily with free run Frontenac Gris. It was fermented cold to retain its fruitiness. Apricots are the dominant flavor with hints of pear, melon, grapefruit and berry in the background keeping you enticed. This wine is finished semi-sweet. Just like the ship, this wine will surely take you on a journey. We recommend serving this cold with chicken and pasta dishes”

The evening was very enjoyable, both the food and the wine DELISH!

Course #4 was the main course, Beef Burgundy made and served with Millner’s Draga  The chef used all locally available ingredients for each course of the meal. I’m not sure, but I think they saved the best for last. Our 5^th and final course was a filled pastry served with Millner’s Norduss. Nordsüss - Translating to “Northern Sweet” in German, this wine is our sweetest red. It is made with Valiant, King of the North, and Bluebell. All three of these are Labrusca grapes so do not expect oak or tannin out of this wine, but instead foxy fruit forward tones. This is the quintessential “American grape juice” kind of taste that will probably remind you of the juice you had growing up. 

After we finished our dessert John gave us a tour of the wine making process: My favorite part?  His daughter’s artwork on the cases:  If you can see the actual label, THAT artwork was done by John’s mother.

Our first stop on Friday was at Quarry Park. It was beautiful. The park featured a century old crane used to pull the stone out. The machine is still used once a year. The park lets people see how granite was quarried at the turn of the century.

  

Since the St. Cloud Red was used for the fronts of buildings and decorative uses, so any stones that weren’t to the buyer’s specifications went on the waste pile. Modern uses of granite want more movement and color in the stone. Quarry Park was a beautiful stop, they have a celebration there every year demonstrating the old ways of quarrying granite. Want to learn more about the park? Here’s the website, http://www.co.stearns.mn.us/Recreation/CountyParks/QuarryParkandNaturePreserve I think we barely touched what this location offers!

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From there, we crossed the Sauk river and headed to Collegeville, of course, still our escorts and driver Tom were the only ones who knew where we’d stop!

We found our way to St. John’s University in Collegeville. This school started as a self sufficient institution in the 1800s, run by Benedictine monks. There is a Sister school run by Benedictine Nuns. In the 90s, the school was approached by the Queen of England’s scribe to create a hand written, illuminated bible. That book was begun in 1995 and finished in June of this year. It is incredible. 23 artists worked on the project. Here’s a sampling

ß- pages from the book are on display at st. John’s and in Minneapolis. This book will be around long after the rest of us are gone. It was written on vellum, using the same techniques used in the 1300s, and those books are still here!

A little more about the bible:  “The Saint John's Bible is separated into seven volumes. This was done for practical reasons—each completed, bound volume will weigh as much as 35 pounds, with a combined weight of more than 165 pounds. It also produced interesting artistic results. While images and motifs repeat across volumes, each collection of Biblical books takes on its own character. We can approach each collection and discover its particular character and place in the grand story of salvation.”   Find more information at www.saintjohnbible.org

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From St. John’s we went to Collegeville Orchard. There we were able to get some fresh picked honey crisp apples, by the way, that is the Minnesota state fruit. And other fall bounty. Visit their website. http://www.collegevilleorchardsmn.com/

From the orchard, we went to Cold Springs and the Grasshopper Church.  It’s really called Assumption Chapel, but is known by the Grasshopper name.    

The site also featured the stations of the cross, which were just refurbished in granite.  It was a lovely setting. The local parish holds mass out there at least once a month during the summer.  Here’s our group, we had a bus full of people and a busful of fun!    From there we had one more stop, we stopped for dinner in St. James. It was a good trip. The Iowa State Bank coordinators work hard to get us to see things that are off the beaten path, and that we might miss if we were traveling on our own.

Going on a mystery tour, help me follow the clues

I’m on the ambulance for South O’Brien’s first home football game on September 2^nd, so have been refreshing myself on the possible injuries we could see. It’s time to take a bit of a break. Next month I’m going on a 2-day mystery trip with my mom. She couldn’t decide who to ask to go, and realized I’d have PTO, so decision made, I’m going. 

I hate surprises, just tell me already. I’ve been trying to figure out where the trip is headed since June.  No luck. It has to be within a day’s drive from Orange City, so there is a LOT to see in that radius. Here are the clues we’ve been given, see if you are better at this game than I am:

June

We all love adventure and fall is a wonderful time to travel. The air is cooler and the autumn colors are abounding. Along the way you will meet a ‘living legend’ of the area. This flamboyant character will delight you with his story and what tomfoolery ultimately sent him to jail! Row, row your boat, but leave the driving to us. The B I B L E, yes, that’s the book for me… especially, following the jail tale. Cookies and apples and rocks, oh my! How about those “sketchy details?”

July

We all love traveling and fall is a wonderful time to venture out. The air is cooler with autumn colors abounding. Along the mysterious way you will witness some rock solid adventure which may also be pretty as a picture if Jack Frost holds off his magic. A European style evening tour with a visually enticing and elegant meal will be enjoyed Thursday. You will be blown away with bakeries, boats and bibles. Our trip includes something for everyone.

August

Fall is a wonderful time to venture out. The air is cooler with autumn colors all about. North, South, East or West… only the driver will know best. His Global Positioning System will show him the way. It will guide him safely around detours and road blocks as we travel all day.Our trip includes something for you and for me.

There you go, all the hints, including the same clip art (just dumb luck) except for the church. I’m thinking somewhere in Minnesota or Wisconsin, but have no idea. Where do you think we could be going?

How our Congressional Delegation spent their August break

Where did this rain come from? It’s very welcome, but is putting a kibosh on my chore list for today.

So, I will write instead. For some unwelcome reason I have politicians and politics on my mind this morning. Cory at the Madvilletimes comments on the lack of public appearances by the South Dakota delegation during the August recess, or lack of free public appearances, Kristi Noem had a $500/head appearance in Sioux Falls.

 Not that I pay much attention to the news these days, but I haven’t heard anything about Congressman King or about Senators Grassley and Harkin. The only one that surprises me is Sen. Grassley. I think the entirety of his senate career he has made a point to visit each of Iowa’s 99 counties at least once every year, often more times than that.  A quick check of his events page shows he’s not hiding from his constituents, just hasn’t been to our little corner of the world yet. To me, this is what EVERY Senator should do, and every Representative also, take time to talk to the people who gave you your job.  Senator Tom Harkin is also touring the state, but his map shows a mighty big hole in stops.  But it’s more than I expected, I’ve always considered him to be an east side of Iowa guy, so the stops in southwest Iowa are good. But when is he coming our way, hmmm?

Now how about our Congressman?  Congressman Steve King is a lot harder to nail down from his website,  he does have a nice up front link to help people impacted by the Missouri River flooding. Bu I sure couldn’t find a link to where he’s going to be in his district, …… (a few clicks later) ….. AHA, found it, his office has been busy with news releases during the break! The congressman will be in SPENCER on Tuesday. King to Host Clay County Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday, August 30  Good to know. If you are able to go I’d love to have a question asked.   

A potpourri of thoughts

As I write this, the thunder is rolling, we’re getting our first rain in a couple of weeks, it feels odd to say that we needed it, after how wet the first part of the summer was in our area. Wish we could have sent some of that water to the folks burning up in Texas.

My mom spent yesterday cleaning out the garages… apparently, it couldn’t wait until Saturday when she would have younger help to boss around. (J ) My parents grew up after the depression and tend to save everything. Or almost everything… we have the bikes they bought for the grandkids in the late 80s and early 90s. But have no clue what happened to my brother’s Stingray. I remember that bike; it was orange with a dark grey, glittery banana seat and high handlebars. I had to be able to ride it across the yard and around the martin house before I could get my own bike. Mine was white, with a sky blue seat. Until I painted it.  My nephew says they keep junk and threw out the good stuff. I think the good stuff is the memories.

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There’s been a lot of talk of politics and what is happening in Washington. I consider myself politically neutral… not necessarily an independent, but neutral. Both parties have greatly disappointed me as a citizen, I wish the anger that my fellow citizens are voicing now, months away from any election would still be churning when they go to the polls and vote…. But it won’t. Voters will forget that the people we sent to represent us failed to even think about us, and held fast to party lines. The anger will be forgotten and those politicians will be re-elected and the cycle of a broken America will continue.

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And now my final thought to share. I’m hoping to write an article on members of law enforcement who are also EMTs or Paramedics… if you know someone, please have them contact me! lastruve@gmail.com.

Hello... is this thing on?

Tall corn and crossroads, an analogy for where I am in life. 

Crossroads represent a potential change in direction, and if you’ve ever driven down an Iowa gravel road in August, tall corn can create blind corners, so you don’t see what may be coming until it hits you. My best friend says I’m in autopilot right now, and something will come along that will be perfect. That could well be. But in the meantime, I will sue this as my creative and newsy outlet.

I don’t know what direction this blog will take, I confess, I don’t read a lot of blogs, I read Madvilletimes, The South Dakota Cowgirl and On My Plate, so this effort will probably include some political and local issue commentary inspired by Cory, photos inspired by Jen and recipes inspired by Fran. Otherwise, it will be stories that I feel a need to tell, interviews I just have to do, and opinion I just have to share. SO please, comment away, and give me ideas, especially if you are in the Paullina area, there’s news stories of local interest just waiting to be written!