Wisconsin or Bust: Thursday

Last day on the road! Woo-hoo!

The plan for Thursday was to just drive to Sun Prairie and pick the the keys to the house. That’s it.

But, as we were driving through Minnesota, we saw signs for the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota. And we said, “We can’t NOT stop there!” 

According to the website:

“Few experiences in life are as meaningful and meaty-filled as those you’ll have at the magnificent SPAM® Museum. Referred to by some meat historians as The Guggenham, Porkopolis or M.O.M.A. (Museum Of Meat-Themed Awesomeness), the SPAM® Museum is home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of spiced pork artifacts.”

How could you pass that up? We couldn’t. We stopped.

The kids in front of the museum.

And we loved it! Well, John and I loved it, Meghan thought we had lost our minds and Ruby and Sam played with and touched everything in the place.

Ruby and Sam and the Can O'Spam.

The whole place had a great attitude, poking fun at Spam at every turn, while also presenting a good history of canned ham, Dinty Moore stew, and also Hormel chili. 

They had a section where you could dress up as a Hormel worker and time how long it took you to cook and process 6 cans of Spam, and then they told you how many cans the factory had done in that same time. Here’s Ruby all dressed up.

Ruby, the Hormel Worker.

It took me 1:19 to do all 6 cans and the factory had made thousands of cans in that same time. Here are Ruby and Sam racing each other.

How fast can you can a can of Spam?

At the end they had the video of the Monty Python Spam sketch. Here are Meghan and John watching it in the Green Midget Cafe.

I'll have the Spam, Spam, Spam, eggs and Spam.

They had what has to be the best gift shop ever. They had anything that could possibly be printed on with the Spam logo on it. We bought a small can of Spam spread for the kids to try on crackers in the car, and apron, and a couple of pencils for the kids.

And a squashed penny or two!

As I said, John and I really enjoyed it, Ruby and Sam had a lot of fun, and Meghan was in full teenage “I can’t believe I am stuck with these people” mode.

I highly recommend the Spam Museum to anyone anywhere near Austin, Minnesota. It’s great fun.

After the museum, we got back on the road with no more detours and got to the house while they were still cleaning it and picked up the keys. The kids ran around and picked out their rooms. Then we headed back to the hotel for some much-needed sleep.

We made it!!!