no sleep 'til manchester (Day 6)

Free State Project migration - Day 6, Mon. 5/23/2005 Everyone in Sioux Falls is ancient! I mean, I had noticed in Coeur d’Alene that there were an inordinate number of people of retirement age, but in Sioux Falls, everybody was downright elderly. I visited the Falls downtown, which are in a nice park, and felt out of place because I didn't have a walker. I noted that the state penitentiary is right in town; how convenient! I walked around downtown a bit; it was very pleasant, and had numerous places to eat al fresco, but there didn't appear to be any European-style cafes; I had to order coffee in a pizza parlor, and they had no fresh milk or cream, just that disgusting non-dairy creamer stuff which I refuse to imbibe. But I did spot a Starbucks on my way out of town, so I stopped and had a second coffee there. I proceeded to drive across Minnesota, which is boooooooring! It was all farmland (at least along I-90). The billboards that peppered the SD landscape dropped off precipitously. I did spot the first Dunkin' Donuts in Minnesota (I was watching for it). I stopped off in the town of Blue Earth to view their 60' statue of the Jolly Green Giant (no explanation was provided). Minnesota redeemed itself in my heart by providing one of the highlights of my whole trip: the Spam Museum in Austin. It surpassed my wildest expectations. I didn't know it was coming; I was driving through the town of Austin, which I had never heard of, and saw a highway billboard that said, in fairly small letters, "the Spam Museum". And in huge block letters, it said "Come On... It's Free". How could I resist? I exited the freeway and doubled back to find the place. I highly recommend it!! A friendly security guard offered to take my picture in front of the museum, which features a statue of pigs (Spam is made of the other white meat, in case you were wondering). The place is huge, with lots of displays about the history of spam and the various incarnations of its marketing strategy. There's a very entertaining 15-minute film that features people who are really into spam. There's a guy who wears nothing but Spam-themed T-shirts. There's a women's quartet that sings only Spam-related songs. I'm not making this up. I think my favorite part was the Congressman from Austin who forced his fresh-faced aides to cut up Spam into appetizing cubes on toothpicks to serve at a Congressional committee meeting. Mmmmm... Spam! I was completely alone in the theater, but laughed my head off. There was also a cool gift shop with a lot of clever Spam-related items. The Hormel marketing team is clearly not above playing with their own image. I crossed the Mississippi River and went for a walk alongside it. Very relaxing. Wisconsin is noticeably greener and has more trees than Minnesota. I spent the night in Milwaukee. They have non-white people in Milwaukee! I don't think I'd seen any since California. No, that's not fair; I saw exactly two black people in Montana. The Motel6 was quite possibly the scariest Motel6 I have ever stayed in.