New Ulm, Who Knew!

And the four of us are off! The first stop that we camped together was in New Ulm, MN, just a few hours outside of the twin cities, just in case Greg & Helen forgot anything for our 5-month long trip (their “dirt” home is in St. Paul, MN). So far so good. No trips back to St. Paul (unless they snuck out at night and Dave and I did not know).

Greg’s brother Pat and his wife Laura, along with Susan, a close friend of Helen’s, stopped by our campground to see Greg & Helen off on their trip. We ventured into town and had a scrumptious lunch at Lola – An American Bistro and then farewells were said.

Since we were staying in New Ulm, MN for a few days, we checked out the area. Who knew the fun historical sights we could see. First, we stopped by a 45-foot Glockenspiel (clock tower), complete with 37 bells and 12 moving figurines that come out several times a day. Next, we drove to a large statute of Hermann, who led several German tribes to victory over Roman Conqueror’s in 9 AD. (in Germany). The Hermann statute was built honoring him by the National Sons of Hermann in the US and dedicated in 1897. The entire structure is 102 ft tall and Hermann looks out over many neighboring towns.

And, who could pass up a stop at the 2^nd oldest brewery in the United States, Schell’s, which happened to be right along a hiking trail from our campground (2 miles each way….we were thirsty!). Schell’s has been brewing in the same location since 1860. They had an interesting non-alcoholic drink “Hop Water” which Helen tried. She said it tasted a lot like sparkling water. When I asked were the restrooms were, the bartender said don’t be surprised, there is just one. I was thinking just one toilet. Nope! Lots of toilets behind closed doors – in an open area with shared water faucets. I like this idea for women who must stand in lines much longer than men.

As we left New Ulm and headed west to our next campground, the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) warned us that the tire pressure on the trailer’s left rear tire was too low. Dave pulled over on a county road to check, first doning his high visibility vest. Of course, it had to happen on the side with the cars going by. He found a very large pin inbedded in the tire. He dug out his tire plug kit and I placed cones in the roadway to alert motorists to please give us some space. Dave went to work plugging the hole and then putting air in. A nice trooper stopped by when he was almost finished. He was very impressed we had the high visability vests and cones. The tire held its air until we turned down a gravel road to visit a WWII air museum. The gravel road must have jiggled something loose as we were losing air. Dave, with help from his pit crew of Greg & Helen, adeptly changed the tire with our spare. We were able to find a replacement tire nearby our next stop. Whew!

The WWII Museum was mostly of planes used during the war and was it noteworthy is that all the planes in the museum are airworthy. Fun stop right near our route on a travel day.