Gallivanting in St Cloud

Today was a fun day spent with our local hosts, Lon and Paula.  If you recall, Lon is the nephew of SSGT Irwin C Ellingson, and he is primarily the reason we are here.  Lon loves to fish nearly as much as Marty, and he had promised to take him to Big Fish Lake, which certainly sounds promising, don't you think?

So Marty headed over to his house, bright and early, only to learn that there was an issue with the boat motor.  But never fear.....Marty had a back up plan that involved Lon coming her to the B&B to fish with him from the dock on the Mississippi. (Great planning on my part finding this place, don't you think?)

Paula and I headed over to her house to chat while the men fished.  Also, I was relieved to learn that the fish fry planned for dinner, did not involve fish caught today!  Good thing too because absolutely zero fish were caught. 

But there's always a try again tomorrow as the boat motor is fixed and ready for another try!

Any boating would have been short lived anyway, as storms came rolling through just around noontime, and the men would have been totally soaked had they continued. But instead, they joined us and we headed off on a "saintly" adventure that involved lunch in St. Joseph, across from St. Benedict Abbey before stopping at St. John's Monastery and Abbey and returning to St. Cloud. That's a lot of saints!

As the rain poured, we did a tour of the abbey which was certainly quite different than what I had expected.  It is the first Catholic church that I've been in that was missing a Crucifix.  A simple wooden cross hangs above the altar. 

The interior is vast, simple, and with black wooden pews and white walls.  Paula explained that the thought is that the people should bring in the color.  Interesting concept. 

The Blessed Sacrament was in a separate room, not in the Sanctuary, which, again, was a foreign concept to me as well. 

Next door is the old abbey, which is now used as an entertainment hall.  Note the stark contrast. 

Lots of color and gold gilding.  It reminded me of the many cathedrals that we've visited over the years. 

Beautiful stained glass windows featured Benedictine nuns on one side 

with monks on the other. 

Personally, I enjoyed the fish motif. 

From here we skirted in the rain to the Library to view the Saint John's Bible that has a special exhibition display on the ground floor. 

I wasn't familiar with this, and if you are intrigued, there are many You Tube videos that you can explore to learn the detailed history.  

But the short story involves a man named Donald Jackson who was the Senior Scribe to Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain. 

He attended a calligraphy conference at St. John's University in 1980 and that inspired him to come up with the idea of creating a handwritten bible similar to those created 500 years ago, using ancient materials.  This artistic creation would be made to celebrate the Third Millennium of Christ. 

St. John's University was very interested and a formal agreement was made in 1998. The artwork was primarily drawn in Great Britain; the theological work was done at St John's Abbey here in Collegeville, MN. 

A team of artists took ten years to complete the project which has viewable sections behind glass for us to admire. 

The artists used quill pens from goose, turkey and swan feathers.  Color came from soot-based inks.  Enhancement was with gold silver and platinum leaf. 

Just look at the perfect calligraphy highlighted in gold leaf on this side of the page. 

Simply amazing. 

There was this description card to help explain the technique used to achieve such beauty on these vellum pages. 

The style is similar to this  15th century Book of Hours but obviously on a much grander scale.

I read that the many pages on display here are to be combined with the finished others that I do believe are displayed in other exhibits. That is to be done sometime in 2026, and considering that is where we are now, I'm not quite sure when that is expected to be completed.  But it certainly was fascinating to read about this unusual project sponsored by university here. 

From here, Lon drove us across campus (as it was pouring down rain), to a huge building that had been constructed in 2023 strictly for the purpose of making pipe organs. I'd never really given much thought to the building of a church organ, and had presumed that they were manufactured by companies. 

But here at this Benedictine Abbey there is a woodworking shop designed specifically for the creation of these musical wood wind instruments and they offer tours on Tuesday and Thursday at 3:00.  How nice of Paula and Lon to arrange for us to be able to explore this fascinating place!

Our young guide was quite enthusiastic and obviously loved being a tour guide.  She began the tour by referencing a drawing on the wall that showed a technique from years past that this shop basically uses in present day.

In this very room, there was an oven for heating lead or tin ingots into fluid metal that is poured into a wooden box similar to the one in the drawing. The box is then pushed along a metal table to form a thin layer that is actually thicker at the bottom end where they start and gets thinner as they roll along. 

The metal then hardens into these thin sheets that are pliable enough to easily form into a pipe. 

There were some shorter one to view on the table. 

Here you see scraps of the metal, which kind of looked like aluminum foil to me, but is actually lead. 

The adjoining room featured an organ that they are presently constructing and you could see the intricate joint work. 

Walking through the workroom there were woodworking tools everywhere.

In case you are wondering, there is a state of the art filtration system which keeps any saw dust and most particulates at bay.  The collected dust is actually formed into round pellets that look similar to a hockey puck, and they can be used for fuel in fireplaces, or coated with wax and used as a fire starter.  

Our tour continued upstairs, but before heading up, the guide showed us their "doorbell", which is a string on a bellows that feeds air into the three pipes on the left.  The sound was similar to one heard from a steam ship.  Quite entertaining. 

This was at the top of the stairs but I have no idea what the significance is.

Here is an example of finished lead pipes made right here in this factory.  They have been molded into pipes from those sheets I showed earlier. The middle pipe has been hammered with an intricate design, and there is gold gilding at the bottom of the pipes to add beauty. 

A photo on the wall gives an idea of just what kind of creation is being constructed here. 

This was a small organ that is model size. 

When the organ is finally complete, which can vary from nearly two years for the 32 foot piece recently completed, to 7 months for the one presently being constructed, it is disassembled, shipped to the install location, then reassembled.  The pipes then need to be "voiced" and it can take as long as 4 months to get the organ's sound complete. 

The tour was quite a surprise, and a great way to spend a rainy Tuesday afternoon.  Afterwards, we headed back to Lon and Paula's house where we enjoyed a fish fry by Lon with a green salad, fruit salad, and corn made by Paula.  All freshly made.  

When I mentioned to Lon that I had been concerned that the fish fry was going to depend on the catch of the day, he said.  "Always have a back up plan!"  Great thinking!

Until next time...

World's Largest Catfish Statue

I hope the title has caught your attention because you are in for a real treat!  But you'll have to wait for that surprise because we have other adventures that need to be addressed. 

Yesterday I mentioned that we were staying at the Nome Schoolhouse and that I'd try to share some of the charm that this B&B has to offer. 

I'll be frank....it's old.  It was built in 1916 and the floors, ceiling and walls on the interior are basically the original.  So, the wooden floors are planks, and they make noise as you walk up and down the stairs, as well as in the bedroom, but I'm fairly certain I'm starting to make some creaking noises myself, and I'm not nearly as old! 

When you walk inside to the landing, there is a photo on the left that shows just what the building looked like prior to its renovation. 

 

It closed in 1970 and sat derelict until 2018 when the present proprietors purchased it. 

Despite the renovation, many of the rooms stand as they would have as classrooms.  Marty and I had the M&M Room. 

It was at the front of the building and overlooked the entrance circle from the street. 

It was super large and even had a special seating area.  Note the black chalkboard in the background.

You can see another chalkboard behind the bed as well.

And how clever was it to use old Singer sewing machines as nightstands on either side of the bed?

The final touch:  A glass jar filled with M&M's for us to enjoy!

That was a win for me!

We headed down to breakfast to be sure we were seated by 9:00.  I had received a notice that breakfast was plated at 9:00 sharp.  I didn't want the principal scolding me for tardiness!

On the way down, I spotted this unfinished embroidery in the corner.  Made me chuckle. 

The breakfast room had some lovely needlepoint creations

as well as a quilt that featured the building. 

I learned that the renovated building is actually a Fiber Arts Mill.  They have 2 alpacas, 2 sheep, a Highland Cow, and some other animals that escape me, that they collect the fiber from to mill, dye and create these amazing skeins of yarn that they sell in the gift shop.

They also run various workshops throughout the year.  In fact, there was a group of women on site when we were there, getting ready to take a class on working with fiber. 

There were several quilting classes, which might explain this quilt hanging in our bathroom

and another in the dining room.

It certainly was a unique place to visit!

We headed out to begin our drive to St Cloud where I had reservations for the night.  I hadn't mentioned it before, but the scenery here is far different than what we see in our travels back home. 

Straight highways surrounded by green fields that extend as far as the eye can see.  We saw very few houses among the farmland.  And, to attest to the sparseness of people, The town of Kathryn, that I mentioned yesterday was 66, Nome was 69, and Wolverine, the next town along our travels was 138.  That's total people, not families.  The difference in dynamics was certainly eye opening. 

As we headed south, we began to see larger towns, but still expansive fields of green. We found ourselves being detoured, and I noticed a sign for Fort Abercrombie and we decided that since we were detouring anyway, it was worth stopping in to check it out. 

The first military post to stand in this area was in 1857, named after Lt. Col John J Abercrombie. 

The presence of the fort enabled new trade routes to be opened in the Red River Valley.  It was abandoned in 1877 and laid dormant until 1939 when the WPA reconstructed block houses and returned the original guardhouses to preserve the history. 

The jail had been sold to a family in 1877 and it was disassembled, moved, and reassembled by the family who lived it in for several generations.  In 1939, it was gifted back, returned to the site and reassembled as it stands today.  It does not qualify for the National Historic Houses trademark because it had been disassembled. 

The interior held 2 cells along with some interesting equipment that was used to humiliate the soldiers at that time. 

The blockhouses had a very clever feature. It was set up so that the windows on the upper level were at 45 degrees from the windows on the lower level. So, where there was an upper window, like at the top of the stairs in the photo, the one downstairs was positioned to view 45 degrees on either side of the upper window,  in a different direction. 

By positioning the windows this way, the guards had a 360 degree view of any possible attacks. 

But by the time they were constructed, there were no further uprisings to warrant their use. 

After leaving Abercrombie, we headed to Wahpeton, North Dakota.  There stands this beautiful building across from the zoo.

It houses this charming preserved carousel that had been rescued from the 1997 flood. 

Each horse has its own name, and all of them go up and down.  You can ride it for $3.00 if you choose. 

We did not. 

Our stop in Wahpeton was very last minute. While I was reading about what the town had to offer, it was brought to my attention that Wahpper stands here. 

And just what is that? you might ask.

Well it's just the largest Catfish Statue in the ENTIRE WORLD!

Right up Marty's Alley. 

You don't see something like that everyday!

Let's face it...that's pretty amusing. Regarding its claim as the world's largest...I'd have to wonder if it just might be the world's only!  I really can't say.

After a few photos, we headed out on the highway for St Cloud, which is the site of our B&B. 

It stands on the Mississippi River, and has steps down to the shore

where a paddle boat waits in anticipation of eager fishermen.

It might have been scenic, but no fish were caught. And you can't blame me!  I only whispered.  

Here's a shot from the dock across the river. 

I've been told that there are bald eagles who hang out in trees near the shore in the morning, so we just might have that treat to share tomorrow.  But, we were also told that Marty was guaranteed a fish by 3 casts, which did not pan out for him, so who really knows?

We headed to an Irish Pub in town, about a half mile away and enjoyed a delicious dinner before walking back.

Another super day....ending in Minnesota. 

Marty is scheduled to fish with Lon tomorrow, and I hear that dinner plans are a fish fry at Lon and Paula's place.  Looks like the pressure's on!

I'll keep you posted....