“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
We had an amazing summer of RV travel in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) states of Washington, Oregon, and northern California, but this story isn’t about that. The beauty of RVing is not always in the destination. Sometimes, you will find wonderful adventures to be discovered ON THE WAY. These unexpected, unplanned discoveries while you drive from Point A to Point B are sometimes some of the best memories. Here are two of ours:
Spamalot
While sitting in Florida in December 2021, we sold our first fifth-wheel RV to a couple from Minnesota, meeting them in early 2022 to complete the sale as we picked up our new fifth-wheel in Missouri. It was happenstance and perhaps good camping mojo that turned this business transaction into a new sort of long-distance friendship! So as we mapped out our planned PNW adventure a year later, it just made sense to reconnect with Bruce and Eva as we drove through their home state of Minnesota!
Bruce and Eva are gracious hosts and were eager to meet us in Ellendale, Minnesota for a couple of nights of camping. We spent some of that time hiking in a nature preserve, touring a historic home, and eating lunch at a local pub, but the very best thing we did was a visit to the SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota!
We never knew that a (free) SPAM museum existed, but eating SPAM was a childhood experience LONG preserved in our memories – much like the long preservation time of this curious “canned meat”. We remember it well! It was a convenient, affordable meat-on-the-shelf option for mothers of the post-WWII United States looking to feed their families. We had no ill-conceived notions that SPAM was a healthy choice for a meal or snack, but it certainly played a role in our childhoods of the 60s and 70s.
We entered the nostalgic museum, (the latest and greatest version of it was built in 2016), in cute little downtown Austin, and we were immediately taken back to a time when no one worried about nitrates and salt content in food. We were warmly welcomed and offered some free samples, which were being passed on trays by employees, like fancy hors d’oeuvres at a post-wedding cocktail hour. There were more flavors than we knew had ever existed, including bacon, hickory smoke, teriyaki, Tocino, and jalapeno. Some were cubed and warmed, some grilled, and all were different than the “original”, thinly sliced-and-fried version my momma had served me decades earlier.
As we wandered through the self-guided museum, we were met with SPAM facts and flavors that taught us of the worldwide fame of this ground, cooked, and canned 6-ingredient meat product. Most popular in Hawaii, it also has wide appeal in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and South Korea. The museum is unpretentious and has fun laughing about itself, even displaying SPAM musical instruments, a bacon-fueled motorcycle, and an entire display dedicated to Monty Python’s Spamalot. We spent the day giggling and reminiscing and even marveling unexpectedly at what this Hormel-owned mystery meat meant in our lives. Our visit ended in the gift shop where we couldn’t resist buying a 14-can variety pack of SPAM and a pair of pajama SPAM pants!
Spam will never be part of a heart-healthy dietary plan, but it is a very versatile “meat in moderation”, or the perfect item to place on a broke college student’s shopping list alongside ramen noodles, and single-ply toilet paper. It was a wonderfully silly and fun visit if you find yourself in the Austin, Minnesota area someday; wander into the worthy-of-an-adventure SPAM museum!
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Danke, Leavenworth!
Before you arrive at the picturesque and familiar images of the Pacific coast of Washington State, you must first drive through eastern and central Washington, where you will find a very different culture and topography. Smack in the middle of the state, as you cross over from the flat and desert-like lands in the eastern half of the state, you will see the approaching mountains. As you climb closer you will see Leavenworth, Washington, which looks and feels like you are driving into Bavaria, Germany! With an average of 80 inches of annual snow, and an average temperature of 60 degrees (an average high of 102.5 and an average low of 33.9), a visit to this town is a pleasant trickery of culture and fun!
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In the 1960s, the leaders of Leavenworth decided to embrace the mountainous views that are the backdrop to their town and modeled their street names and storefront facades after a little German ski town. It worked, and over time, they added German cultural events and businesses that further embraced a Deutschland flavor. Today, Leavenworth is a popular year-round tourist destination to explore a little German culture without any passport required. We were thrilled to discover it.
On our visit, we found our way to the Nutcracker Museum, which houses the most impressive collection of nutcrackers I’ve ever seen, with varieties large and small, historic and kitschy, depicting careers, sports teams, nationalities, lifestyles, and more.
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We wandered to the town center where the streets were closed off to vehicles and were shaded by buildings with window boxes teeming with flowers. Oompah music emanated from in front of the gazebo while an elderly couple danced lovingly in the classic polka style. We visited the Boudreaux Cellars Tasting Room and sat at their outdoor seating, enjoying the warm afternoon sun, listening to the sounds of the village, and enjoying a delicious bottle of expensive but high-quality wine. We ended our visit with a traditional German-styled dinner of schnitzel, beer in a glass mug, and traditional live German accordion music and yodeling.
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Our visit to Leavenworth was our last stop on our ten-day trip from Pennsylvania before we scaled the mountainous overpass and saw the Pacific Ocean. It was quite a journey and it reinforced all the cliches meant to remind us to enjoy ourselves along the way. So – “enjoy the journey”, “enjoy the ride”, and be more like Verghese…
“Enjoy the journey, the destination will come.”
Verghese
“Though the road’s been rocky it sure feels good to me.”
Bob Marley
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