Day Tripper

I treated myself to a new car for my birthday.

Yes, it's a BMW - 335i xDrive. Yes, I am now officially yuppie scum.

I decided to go for a little day trip to get a feel for the car. It's a dream, by the way. 6 cylinder twin turbos. 300 hp. 0-60 mph in 5.4 sec. Terrific acceleration. Fun to blow past people on the interstate.

Also it was a beautiful day. Skies don't get this blue - not like Hawaii blue anyway - often in MN. Oooh, little fluffy clouds.

I decided to drive the 2 hours south of the twin cities to humble Austin, Minnesota - home of Hormel, meat packers extraordinaire, but more importantly, home to the SPAM Museum. In my 9 years here in exile in the midwest, I have disgracefully never made the pilgrimage to the holy land of pork products - until now.

Exterior shot of the humble museum. Note the bronze farmer taking his bronze pigs to the slaughter/smelting house.

Interior of the SPAM Museum - wall of 3390 cans of SPAM over the entrance - no significance to the number, it's all they could stuff in there.

Learned cool stuff about SPAM - more than 6 BILLION cans produced since the 1930s. Confirmed comforting facts that Hawaii is that state that does in fact consume the most SPAM per capita.

What I didn't know was that Guam reportedly consumes more. Good reason to keep them a protectorate.

Saw neat examples of previous packaging and advertising, including this monotone "special economy label" can from the WWII.

Wonder if there's still viable SPAM inside...

Learned about the role of SPAM in WWII, the lend-lease program, aid to the Russians, how it was ubiquitous for US service men.

There were videos from different chefs from around the world demonstrating various SPAM recipes. Sam Choy made SPAM musubi - shot at Breakfast, Lunch, and Crab.

But the most interesting thing, for me anyway, is that they showed how to decipher the code on the bottom of every can.

Of course they had the Monty Python SPAM skit on endless loop.

I bought the requisite SPAM T-shirt - plus got a free can of SPAM with T-shirt purchase. Got a SPAM tie too. They really should have SPAM musubi for sale there. I'm totally jonesing for one and I haven't figured out how to get the shoyu glaze right. I should call my Aunty....

So then I drove back north towards the twin cities through Owatonna. I figured since I was down there anyway, I should stop in Cabela's because my technologists are always talking about it - Costco for the outdoorsman.

It got off to a good start. There was an impressive bronze statue outside of 2 bucks, well, bucking.

Detail of one of the bucks below - I shot pictures up at the blue sky a lot today.

Inside, not so fun for me. There are big tanks of fish with examples of different species from the region, but they didn't look terribly healthy and it was kind of sad. No pictures taken of the sickly fish.

The walls are lined with the stuffed heads of different species of mammalia and mounted fish - didn't take pictures of them either. They have displays with stuffed animals akin to the Museum of Natural History in NYC. I had the same reaction I had to the Natural History Museum. Sad that the kids there (and the 'rents think this is a good place to take their kids for an edjumacation while they shop for ammo) thought it was so cool. Better to see the animals alive at a zoo. Or dead on the plate. Either way.

This is the largest display, located in the middle of the store.

Off to the side of the display.

Look at the sea of haole-ness shopping for guns in the left corner. Admittedly, the gun library - yes it's called the gun library - was kind of neat. It's where they display authentic antique guns for sale - Henry repeaters, Winchesters, Colt Navy revolvers, semi-auto Thompsons, etc.

Guns and knives and bows and arrows - oh my.

I walked around a bit. Clandestinely took some pictures. Left without buying a thing.

There's a small airport not too far from Cabela's where this Thunderbirds statue lives. I stopped to take pictures of the statue.

Yet another picture I took staring directly into the sun.

And then I drove back home. I should have taken a picture of all the bug guts splattered on my previously pristine windshield.

Anyway. That was my day trip. Just wanted to share. Miss you guys/gals.

Mike's drunk, I pictured him.

I really like the subject heading of this spam I just got. I know two people named Mike.

Hey, look what the Internet sent me!

Stories about Spam fill a slow news day

Barack Obama Snacks on Hawaiian Spam Sushi

President-elect Barack Obama is spending the Christmas holiday Hawaii – relaxing in the sun, playing golf and eating Spam.

On Sunday afternoon, while playing golf with friends at Oahu's Olomana Golf Links, Obama, 47, who grew up on the island, stopped at a snack bar and bought two hot dogs, soft drinks and two orders of a local luncheon specialty called spam musubi – Spam and a fried egg on a bed of rice, held together with a strip of dried seaweed, according to reporters covering his trip.


The snack bar clerk later told the New York Times' Jeff Zeleny the president-elect's tab came to $17.75. Asked how his game was going, Obama answered with a smile, "I'm not that good." He also invited reporters to order a beer and put it on his tab, but none took him up on the offer.

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I agree that the sad state of journalism reflected by this article is an issue of concern, especially since it appears even the New York Times is interviewing the snack bar clerk. But even more importantly... can anyone here confirm that the Olomana Golf Course snack bar actually incorporates a fried egg into their spam musubi? Cuz that sounds ridiculous-- or maybe ridiculously good.