Day 2 – Austin, Minnesota to Wall, South Dakota

Wednesday, September 12th
Perhaps I am in a minority but I read all the hotel information. It mentioned that the Spam museum is located in Wall, Minnesota. This is, allegedly, Minnesota’s third largest tourist attraction. I was fascinated and went to visit. On the way there I drove through Austin which really is a pleasant town with old houses, their long gardens stretching to the road. On the way to the Spam Museum I passed by the Hormel factory – quite appropriate really as that is where Spam (among other products) is made. I was surprised how strong the scent of meat was as I passed by. The Spam Museum was interesting . There was no entrance charge but I was greeted by a very friendly Spambassador. The history of Spam was explained, there was an film talking about people’s interest in Spam including a college student who only wore Spam T-shirts. At one point he explained he had 20 shirts which would do him 2 weeks, and then he would do laundry. I couldn’t help thinking that 20 shirts would do him longer. There was also a strange video of the Spamettes singing Mr Spamman to the tune of Mr Sandman. After about an hour I left the Spam Museum and continued on the I-90 across Minnesota and onto South Dakota.
South Dakota is big. After travelling for hours I looked at the map to discover I was only a third of the way through the state and I had planned to go through practically the whole state this day. At least the road was relatively empty and even the road works delayed me little. Americans may be surprised when I confess this but I had never used cruise control – it just seemed to scary however in the late afternoon on a quiet I-90 it seemed like the time to try. I pressed the buttons and after some initial failures I got cruise control to work. It was so fun to be driving without accelerating. What with automatic cars and cruise control, driving in America is really easy. Finally I arrived in Wall. The largest drug store in the word is in wall and it was advertised all along the I-90 for maybe 400 miles. When I finally arrived about 9.00 after checking in at the hotel I explored the town looking for a well deserved dinner. Well there was nothing – two bars and a restaurant that had stopped serving at 9.00. Even if it had been serving I’m not sure it would have suited me. So I ate some Lara bars and went to bed.