We Love Spam!

Blog to Alaska: Day 5 & 6, Mile 1651

June 24 & 25, 2012

We arrived late from Chicago Saturday night so didn’t get up until 8:15 AM Sunday.  As we were packing up the trailer at the campsite, we met the couple next to us.  They are retired from the oil business and were from north of London, UK.  Their son lives in Florida.   They flew over last Christmas for the holidays and ended up buying a trailer and Ford 350 truck.  They have been traveling across the US since Jan 5 and plan to continue doing so until next January.  They are touring on the non-interstate highways and having a great time exploring the US.  We left about 11:30 AM and the rest of our trip northwest was uneventful apart from our rest stop/lunch break.  While there, I noticed a sign that stated that we were close to the Delavan, WS that is considered the birthplace of US circus and close to Baraboo, WS where the Ringling Brothers circus originated.  Apparently, over 100 circuses had their beginnings in Wisconsin and Delavan was winter quarters for 26.  I wonder why they would pick such a cold place to winter?  What was the attraction to this area of the US?  Of course, the book “Water for Elephants” immediately popped in my head and I started listening for the circus train or expecting to see wild circus animals running loose across our picnic area.  But no such luck.   We crossed the Mississippi about 3:30 PM and noticed that large areas of the banks were flooded.  We finally arrived Hayward, MN about 6 PM and went to the grocery store for water and some fresh veggies.  No cars on the roads, 3 people in the grocery store………we’re not in NJ anymore.

Mississippi River 

Sunday was a wonderful day as we went to visit two of the most important Americana sites in the US.  Austin, MN is the international corporate headquarters of Hormel, Inc.  As a result, the SPAM Museum is centered there.  Opened by Tom Brokaw and 4 famous TV Moms (??) from the 60’s in 2002, it is now the world famous mecca for people who love pork shoulder and other parts of the ham meat…(dare I ask where??).  The tour begins with a 15 min movie that drove the audience out of the theater looking for mouth-watering hot slabs of SPAM on white bread.  The history of SPAM starts with its creation in 1937 by Hormel.  Within a year, Hormel had cornered 70% of the canned meat market.    Hormel is recognized for shipping SPAM to the military during WWII for US Soldiers (that is why my Father refused to have it our home when I was a kid), as well as shipping over 100 million pounds overseas during the Lend Lease Program of the war including to Russia and Great Britain.  Today, Hawaii is the #1 state for SPAM lovers.  Everything from deep fried chocolate covered SPAM to teriyaki SPAM.  Texas, Alaska, Arkansas and Alabama also have high sales of SPAM.  SPAM is sold in more than 40 countries with Korea, Japan and China at the top of the market.  I tried to remember when was the last time I had SPAM….. 1960??  Surprisingly, there are now different SPAM products besides Classic (plain): Peppered, with bacon, Hot & Spicy, Jalapeno, Hickory Smoked, Cheese, Lite, etc.   Judy grabbed several recipes including Hawaiian SPAM Musubi (rice, ginger sesame and wrapped in seaweed), Great Britain: SPAM Fritters, and Korean SPAM Kimchi. After the tour, we ended in the gift shop where a lady was buying 3 cases of SPAM and a SPAM slicer.   We bought a few souvenirs to remind us our wonderful tour of the SPAM Museum and headed west to our next Americana site.

Spam Museum, Austin, MN