Better late than never Pt. 3

[lapacifidora]

Let's see? What did we do Sunday? Uh...

Oh. That's right. We went to the Kensington Runestone Museum in Alexandria, Minn. In the 1890s, an immigrant Swedish farmer discovered a stone inscribed with, what scholars have argued about more than a 100 years, are Scandanavian runes carved in 1362.

What's interesting is that scholars have argued about whether the stone's inscription is authentic, despite scientific evidence that the carvings are much older than 100 years.

What's sad is that this discovery ruin the farmer's life: His reputation was shot when people started saying he had faked it for attention or money; his family was either bothered all the time or the butt of jokes; and at least one of his sons committed suicide while one of his daughters fled, never to return.

And what's annoying is that because people - academians, scholars, historians - are unwililng to admit even the remote possibility that the Vikings could have made it to the mainland of America - and not just to Iceland, Greenland and the outer-Maritime Province islands - more than 100 years before Columbus, there is a whole period of history and exploration that may very well be being ignored.



This is clearly not the runestone. This is actually a scale model of a Viking ship, originally made as part of a project the Smithsonian was in charge of, that is now housed in a big barn out behind the museum.

It was a little eerie to be able to walk up to it and touch it, knowing that my Norwegian ancestors thousands of years ago were building these things and going all over the place.
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Also, if you've ever wondered what kind of restaurant is popular in Minnesota, I have an answer:

Space Aliens Bar & Grill.
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(Both Minnesota and Iowa have giant cinnamon rolls. However, this sucker wasn't very cinnamon-y. And apparently, locals eat it with extra butter. Eughh.)

We left Albert Lea, Minn., the next morning and planned to stop in the city of Austin, which is the home of Hormel Foods. Hormel is the maker of SPAM.

And as someone with a British father and a Norwegian mother, it's obvious how much I love SPAM: It's in my half Viking, half Celt blood.

Actually, I think SPAM is disgusting. But we decided to go to the Historic Hormel Home, but the bloody thing was closed for a private tour. So we continued on to Decorah, Iowa.
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Decorah isn't particularly big, though it is a college town. (Home to Luther College.) But Decorah is the home of Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, which is not just the largest Norwegian or Norwegian-American museum of it's kind, but is actually the largest ethnic museum in the country. We toured it over the course of the afternoon, even taking the outdoor tour through 12 historic buildings located behind the actual museum.





(Again, I won't say I wasn't bored shitless sometimes, but it was still nice to see it again. We hadn't been there since 1996.)

We stayed at the local Country Inn & Suites, and had dinner across the street at The Oaks Restaurant & Steakhouse, where I had a competely and totally awesome taco salad. And then we split a cookie sundae, that had a cookie baked in a mini-cast iron skillet, a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and both chocolate and caramel sauce. It was fantastic, but neither of us could really finish it. :(
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The next morning, we went back into town so mum could go shopping, meaning I had to carry around the cast iron aebelskiver pan she bought until we got back to the car. Damn those things are heavy.

We finaly left Decorah around 11:30 a.m., and headed for Dubuque, where we planned to pick up a Missouri guidebook and map. As it happened, there was a Panera across the street, so we went and had lunch. It was raining - still - and we both had soup. (Which is pretty much the only time you can justify eating hot soup in late summer.)

We also booked a room in Hannibal, Missouri, and headed that direction once we left Dubuque. (For the first time the entire trip, I got us lost. However, I also got us lost again later in the day. Effing GPS.)
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Next: Mark Twain! The Mississippi! And Indianapolis!

Comments

[eleventhimpala.livejournal.com]

Boy, that story at the beginning is sad. I don't know, it also kind of makes me mad for some reason. I don't know, I've never like stories where nice families are torn apart, real or fictional.

On that cheerful note, I think that that cinnamon roll looks absolutely delicious, but, if there was too much butter on it, I can see how it might be gross.

[lapacifidora.livejournal.com]

It's incredibly sad. And I was really angry, as none of the 'the whole family was screwed' stuff was in the History Channel program I saw that talked about the runestone. (Holy Grail in America (http://www.hookedx.com/film.asp)) I didn't hear about any of that until we actually got there. And sure it was a crappy museum. But they take it really seriously, and I think it's worth exhausting all avenues to find out if it's real.

It was OK. It wasn't the best cinnamon roll I've ever had. And that place also made them with caramel. For Breakfast. And locals are like, "Yum. Six packets of butter. Om nom nom nom."