Zumbrota, MN & River

Sunday, September 17, 2023

Today, we were passing through Zumbrota, MN on our way to Red Wing and the Mississippi River and happened upon their town festival called the Covered Bridge Festival. They had a rather impressive car show and these are some photos of the cars.

Most of the cars were antique cars which had been restored - often in rather amazing condition. Others were Hod Rods and some were just plain strange.

The “General Grant” was decked-out like the Dukes of Hazzard General Lee.

As we said, some fell into the “just plain weird” category.

That might be the original owner driving this antique.

The Zumbrota Covered Bridge, after which the town festival is named.

The old dashboards and radios are fun to look at and think of where we are today.

I’ve been told that it is unlikely this is a real original Cobra; apparently those are exceedingly rare and crazy expensive. More likely, it is a reproduction. Regardless, it was a fun looking car.

Several references to Route 66 among this old nostalgia. Makes us look forward to our eventual trip along the Mother Road!

Some entertaining bumper stickers.

This fantastically restored antique was actually driven to the show by the gentleman sitting in the lawn chair in the background. We watched him drive it onto the grounds. He had his hands full with the old transmission, but he was clearly having fun.

When we finally got to Red Wing, the Viking cruise boat was pulled up at the dock. We have seen other cruise boats here previously, but never the Viking line. Out of curiosity we looked it up and to take this boat from New Orleans to St. Paul it costs roughly $20,000 per person; and that is for the entry-level cabin. For the top-end cabin it ran $40,000 per person.

Red Wing Yacht Club.

Looking back toward downtown and the docked Viking Cruise ship. In the foreground is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tug and barge headed northbound.

This survey marker was located exactly where the photo above was taken in Bay Point Park.

This is called the Teepee Monument in Bay Point Park.

Inside the Red Wing Amtrak station they have a number of old signs and photos depicting railroad memorabilia.

This huge tree and root system has washed up on the shore of the Stockholm Village Park in Stockholm, WI. I really can’t recall this tree being here in years past, so I think it may have landed here as a result of the floods this past spring.

The breakwater at Stockholm Village Park. I liked the way the setting sun backlit the sailboat and the couple embracing at the end of the breakwater.