Roving Reports by Doug P: 2013-21 Byron Minnesota

2013-21 Minnesota

Byron

Rochester

near Rochester Minnesota

A lynx at the zoo next to the campground I'm staying at.
They have all native animals to the Minnesota area

Campground: Oxbow Campground. See previous report

Mantorville.

The weather this week is perfect, mid 70’s to 80 degrees. The rains have finally stopped, the sun is out and with a little advice from the camp hosts next door, I drove over to the small town of Mantorville. As it turned out, they were having an Old Tyme Days with a Costume Extravaganza. Lots of small venue events throughout town. Musicians playing on street corners, An accordion group from Rochester (but not enough polka music), Tractor pull, folks dressed in period costumes and just a lot of small town fun. I also discovered that they have a small town campground with great rates and one of only two original covered bridges in Minnesota. I ate at two of the best restaurants in town. The historic Hubbell House where many famous people have stopped and The old school restaurant. Housed in what else, an old school house. But the most fun was watching the play in the evening, “A Curse Comes Home” at the local Opera Theatre. It was a melodrama where the audience cheers on the good guys, boo’s at the villain and swoons with the maiden. All good fun.

donuts, no.... yes

Model T Ford

Hubbell House

The Rochester Accordion Band (and one guitar)

4th of July has been quiet out here in the country. Haven’t seen any fireworks and the campers have all been good about not shooting off any illegal fireworks. Most of the campers live less than 10 miles from the park. Come in for a day or two of camping and most have to go back to work after the 4th. The weather continues to be perfect, especially compared to the rest of the country having either a heat wave or constant rain. here it’s in the mid 70’s to mid 80’s during the day and a low of around 65. Sunny and light breezes.

Paul Bunyan and Babe, the blue ox

Rochester Minnesota is the home of the Mayo Clinic and as I drove around town the other day noticed that along with the clinics there are a number of hospitals as well. It’s quite apparent that this town is in the healing business and has prospered because of it. many of the larger buildings downtown are connect via skyways. Glass enclosed pedestrian bridges connecting buildings. Apparently designed to keep folks out of the severe winter weather up here. Hard to imagine on a sunny warm summer day.

I was hoping to see one of the Mayo founders homes on tour, but it’s going through a major renovation and is closed to the public. Of course that didn’t stop me from exploring the outside of the building and talking to some of the workers rebuilding the massive retaining walls in the front of the mansion. It’s called Mayowood and was the home of Dr. Charlie Mayo. Though he had a grand house, he hated waste and his son tells how he had green houses built to be able to reuse the glass x ray slides from the clinic. They weren't strong enough and eventually had to be replaced with stronger paned glass. But until then, one could tour the greenhouses and look up and see images of a gallbladder here, a spleen over there and images of broken bones overhead.