Summer 2024 Wandering - June

This summer, I once again rode in the Grand Tour of Minnesota which involves riding my motorcycle to 20 locations chosen by the GTMN coordinators and scattered around the entire state.  It is an event that all riders ride at their own pace, with no set schedule other than to submit their photos of the locations by November.  I’ll include some location photos here, but mainly just photos of things I stumbled upon during this 3 day motorcycle ride.

On this June day, I was riding to the SW corner of MN to get a photo of the Tri State marker where MN, SD, and IA meet.  Up to this point of the ride, I had been very lucky weather-wise, threading my way between various thunderstorms that were forming all around me.  My luck was about to run out as I was heading west near the SD border, (I’m the blue dot in this photo), so I pulled into the last wayside rest prior to the border before the storm hit.

The wayside custodian at this wayside was kind enough to allow me to park my bike under the overhang because there had been reports of tennis ball sized hail heading my way from Sioux Falls. 

After that volley of storms passed, I met with some locals in Luverne MN who told me more storms were coming.  Luverne, BTW, doesn’t really relate to UFO stuff.  It is, however, a place to be if you like nutcrackers. This little shop right off I90, where I found these helpful and patriotic folks, is the future home to a 65 foot nutcracker, touted to be the largest nutcracker statue in the world, beating the previous title holder in Germany by 30 feet.  The stand has been built, and the actual statue is set to arrive later this summer 2024. 

“More hail coming”, or something like that.

Also located in Luverne, is the Rock County Historical Society. Here you’ll find probably the world’s largest collection of nutcrackers with over 6,000 of them on display.  Their nutcrackers outnumber the town’s population. I spent about an hour here as I waited out a couple heavy downpours.

Nutcrackers as far as the eye can see.

Luverne was also known for making cars.  The Luverne Automobile Company made cars from 1904 until 1917 when Henry Ford all but eliminated small auto makers.  Apparently there are only two Luverne autos in existence today, and this is one of them.

Luverne also produced fire engines from 1912 until 1984 when the company was relocated to Brandon SD.

From Luverne, I went south to the Tri-state marker where MN, IA, and SD meet.  I was here on my own last year, but coincidentally it was set as a GTMN location this year.

As I made my way north towards Redwood Falls, I found this sculpture park seemingly in the middle of nowhere, near Milroy MN.  The bronze sculptures depict the 5 Sorrowful Mysteries. 

After a restful night in Redwood Falls, I woke to more rain.  My goal was to get a photo of Ramsey Falls, which is located in Redwood Falls, without getting too wet or feeding too many mosquitoes.

I was able to get my photo of the falls, however what you can’t see is the cloud of mosquitoes that are bellied up to the bar on the back of my unprotected head, drinking my type O by the pint.  

Here is the little suspension bridge leading to (and from) Ramsey Falls.  Note the rain-slick wooden planks which make for great fun to walk (and fall) on because the bridge is at an incline. Fortunately, I was wearing armored riding gear…

Lake Minnewaska in Glenwood MN.

Broken Down Dam Park in Fergus Falls MN.  Back in 1908, this dam, formerly known as the Fergus Falls Hydro Dam, was built to supply power to Fergus Falls.  The short-lived dam failed in 1909, causing the failure of four other dams downstream.  And here it is now, a virtual canvas for those graffiti “artists” who choose to dream big.

Steps leading down to (and up from) the Broken Down Dam. They made me sweat, but they didn’t make me fall!

Dock on Bass Lake in Grey Eagle MN. 

The route I took over this 3 day ride.

Thanks for looking!