How 2020 Changed Things ~ Part 4
Heading West ~ Thursday 6/11/20 ~
The visit with my sisters was much too short but so much was unsettled with the pandemic and I had plans to pick up a motorcycle in Colorado.
In most ways I was excited about getting the motorcycle but in other ways I wasn’t sure. I wondered if Becky, Lee, and I would be able to achieve our planned adventures. These thoughts continued to pop into my mind but I would push them away and think of the good times ahead.
Even thought there was a lot of doom and gloom during this time I was confident the pandemic would end and things would get back to pretty much normal. In some ways the pandemic reminded me of when Mt. St. Helens erupted. Not in the number of people who lost their lives, but in the unknown. When the volcono blew ash was blow well beyond where I live. It felt like we would never see the sunshine again and it was unknown how breathing all the ash that was in the air would affect those of us in it’s path. The unknown with scientists working hard to determine what is next.
Routing ~
Again, with the pandemic situation, my travel was different than normal for me. The pandemic was circling around us and running the world. I was still enjoying being out and driving but stops were minimal. Most places were closed and if they weren’t wearing a mask was needed as well as keeping a distance from other and using hand sanitizer after each time I left the van.
Normally when I travel I enjoy stopping for all the tourist site and I also enjoy looking for geocaches along the way. With the known aspects of the pandemic at this time I wasn’t comfortable looking for geocaches and handling the contents.
With this, I was still using backroads as much as possible because I enjoy getting off the interstates. There are so many incredible things to be seen on these roads.
Unexpected Find ~
As I was entering the small village of Necedah, WI there was sign that directed me to Queen of the Holy Rosary Mediatrix of Peace Shrine. Hoping it was an outdoor type of thing I found my way there to discover what it was all about.
The outdoor portions of the Shrine were open to the public however the indoor portions weren’t. The indoor areas being closed was no surprise and I was please the outside areas were open. There were things to see and read. It was peaceful walking around the grounds and I felt like the ugly side of the times had been washed away.
On my way again ~
It wasn’t long and I was in MI and driving through a small town called Houston. I thought of TX and enjoyed how much smaller this Houston is than the one in TX.
Not far from Houston, MI it was time for a break and to grab lunch when I spotted a road leading to a boat ramp. I found a pull off along Root River to park, make a pot of coffee and lunch. I stretch my legs and looked at the river. I’m not used to brown rivers and when I find rivers like this I appreciate our clear, rivers, stream and lakes in the Pacific Northwest even more than I normally do. I found critter tracks in the mud and wondered what they belong to.
Another Unexpected Find ~
Finding things along the way was enjoyable and it wasn’t long until I spotted something else I was drawn to. The Union Prairie Lutheran Church in Lanesboro, MN and I pulled in.
Built in 1869, the church building in 1894 was rotated 90 degrees, sawed in half and expanded in the middle. Lars Iverson’s 1861 log cabin was moved to the church site in 1934 to preserve it from destruction.
The cabin, originally built in 1861 by Lars Iverson with Kjel Thompson and Hans Sherpei, housed several families, including the Bothuns, until 1933. The Scanlan Habberstad Bank then owned the farm and built a new house there. Rev. Nestande, seeking a typical pioneer log cabin, acquired it from Mr. Habberstad and donated it to the Union Prairie Congregation. It was reassembled on the church grounds in October 1934 as a pioneer memorial, with help from church members like Christ L. Nelson, Matt Simonson, Louis A. Larson, Olwin Simonson, and Laurence L. Tollefson.
Since 1934, many items have been donated to the museum, including rope beds, a pioneer cookstove, a homemade cupboard, carpenter tools, firearms, grain cradles, spoons, bowls, flatirons, waffle irons, “goro” irons, and an Indian peace pipe. The museum’s downstairs area is gradually filling with these historical artifacts.
It would have been nice to see the inside and the artifacts, but this was a brief visit, and we could only walk around the buildings without going inside. Unfortunately, this has become the new normal for life and travel.
With the stops I wasn’t getting very far very fast and after that I made time on the interstate and stopped in Lincoln, NE for the night.
Friday June 12, 2020 ~
Finding things a