Motorcycles, Corn, and a Reminder of "Home"

We didn't wake up until around 7:30 this morning, which is a little unusual for us on travel days. Could it be that we're getting used to traveling? Or, maybe we were just tired. Whatever, we still were on the road just after 9:30 for our 175 mile driving day.

As we headed east on I-90, we saw a nearly continuous line of traffic going west, towards Sturgis. While there were some cars, trucks and RV's, it was mostly motorcycles. There were motorcycles that were being towed in trailers or in the back of pick-up trucks. Motorcyles of every color, shape and size being ridden. Some were towing little trailers, some just had saddle bags. Tall handlebars, short handlebars. Men, women, tall, short, by ones and by twos. We knew a lot of the rv's either contained motorcycles in the "toy" section or in the trailers they were towing, even if we couldn't actually see them. Mile after mile, we saw motorcyles. Every once in awhile we'd see motorcycles going east. We wondered if they were lost, or just don't like crowds.

The other common sight was corn. Lots and lots of corn, on the north side of the interstate, and the south side of the interstate. Every now and then we'd see a different crop, probably soybean. But mostly corn.

We arrived in Welcome, Minnesota shortly after noon. We drove 177 miles and got 8.3 mpg. We didn't buy fuel today, but noticed the price of diesel in this area is $4.429 at most places. Welcome doesn't offer much, but we're close to the town of Fairmont. We picked this location simply because it's a Passport America park. We paid $25 and some change for 2 nights here. We'll get caught up on cleaning, laundry and rest while we're here.

After we got set up, we went to Fairmont for a few groceries and a meal. We stopped at the Ranch Family Restaurant, because it was the last place along the road we were on.

The restaurant itself isn't terribly impressive:

But when we walked in, the sight in front of me took me right back to Old Colorado City, to Michael Garmin's Gallery! Here's the display we saw, right inside the entrance to the restaurant:

They have many figures for sale:

I really love the style of this art:
Garmin's work takes me back to my childhood memories, with his "sittin' on the stoop" simplicity:


The waitress told us this is the only place other than Colorado Springs where Michael Garmin's work is on display! Another wonderful "small world" experience for us to enjoy, right here in rural Minnesota. Gotta love this life!