Sleepy Eye MN and the Geo Wrap-Up

 We drove south from New Ulm to Sleepy Eye as that is where geocaching took us. 

Driving into town from the north one cannot miss the twin steeples of the Catholic Church. It is massive for a little community of 3500. 

Chief Sleepy Eyes was our goal for geocaching.

Linus at the library

Sleepy Eyes or Drooping Eyelids was born about 1780. He was a friend to explorers, traders, missionaries, and government officials. He had a nephew of the same name who may have been part of the 1862 Dakota War.

Chief Sleepy Eyes died around 1860 while hunting in Roberts County, South Dakota. The old chief's grave was located in 1898 and in 1902 he was reburied here, near his last home.

Always a Friend of the Whites

A thunderstorm on Tuesday morning hindered our geocaching plans. We completed the 20 or so geocaches we had left on the Fort Road Trail as that was the goal for the trip.

There are about 150 geocaches from east to west on Fort Road in Nicollet County, beginning in St. Peter.

We completed 3 of the 5 Adventure Labs in New Ulm...

And the one Adventure Lab in Sleepy Eye.

We earned this virtual souvenir once we found geocaches worth 20 points...

And this geocaching virtual souvenir once we found geocaches with 100 points. According to Hubby our final statistics for the Sunday through Tuesday trip was 159 various geocaches and 20 Adventure Lab locations.

New Ulm MN, a ReVisit

 

We last visited New Ulm MN July 2006 during Bavarian Blast, a three day German Heritage celebration. We were camping with two other couples that trip. This trip earlier this week was to revisit some of the landmarks and to geocache.

We spent time on the main street. The community has done a great job of creating a fun and welcoming downtown area. All the fire hydrants were delightfully painted.

A brick relief wall sculpture shared the history of New Ulm depicting the westward movement of the white settlers and the retreat of the Dakota, that is on the first half of the wall.

a colorful mural

New Ulm's Glockenspiel is one of the world's largest free standing carillon clock tower at 45 feet high. The largest bourdon bell weighs 595 pounds. The total weight of the bells is 2 tons.

The bells chime the time of day and play special pieces at noon, 3 and 5 pm. The three German band pieces are replaced with a Nativity scene from Thanksgiving through Christmas. A door below the clock slides up and a stage projects featuring 12 three-foot-tall animated figures depicting the history of the city. (at noon, 3 and 5 pm)

The clock tower was dedicated May 25, 1980. The Glockenspiel has 37 chromatic three-octave bronze bells which were cast in Holland.

The Heritage Tree was planted in 2004 to celebrate New Ulm's 150th anniversary. The symbols on the tree branches tell of the history of New Ulm. This website has a very good closeup and explanation of each decoration: New Ulm Heritage Tree  We saw similar trees in several of the German communities we have visited. They all had the beer wagon!

This stunning building originally was the Post Office for New Ulm. Today it is the Brown County Museum.

The Milford Monument is a tribute to the 53 men, women and children of Milford Township killed during the Dakota War of 1862. The three bases on which the cross rests represent faith, hope and charity. The rugged cross represents the stalwart and hardy character of the pioneers: their strength, endurance and courage. The statue Memory, holds a lily in her right hand that is about to drop as a last tribute to the departed. A plaque to the right lists the names of the 53 settlers killed in 1862. The monument was erected in 1929.

We ate dinner at the Kaiserhoff in 2006 and were excited to see it was still open in 2024. We enjoyed local beer (Grainbelt) and delicious German food on Sunday evening.

Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the murals in the Kaiserhoff. Since we have been to the castle in Germany, it was appropriate to take a photo. It is just one of several murals in the restaurant.

What we did not visit was Hermann the German statue and Schell's Brewery, which we did in 2006. We both agreed we'd really enjoy another visit to this friendly German community.

Some Rodeo

 We spent a week camping at Hart Ranch in the Black Hills. The weather was perfect the first half of the week and then turned HOT the last half. We met friends for dinner and a lovely catch-up and had pizza with relatives for another catch-up. Hubby had two projects he completed on the travel trailer and I read 4 books. We did not geocache! It truly was an R and R camping week. We went to a movie, Horizon on Friday afternoon to spend some time in AC other than in the camper. We also went to the Wednesday night rodeo at Hart Ranch.

Hart Ranch is a beautiful setting for the local rodeo. It gives area cowboys and cowgirls a chance to gain experience and possibly win some money for their efforts.

This is not the long-awaited Butts and Boots Rodeo blog. Not a lot of butts to choose from and all the cute boots were worn by young, elementary age girls. So no boots.

A new event for me was Break-Away Roping. The contestant rode after a calf released into the arena, roping it over its head. The lasso then broke away from the rider's saddle horn. Not as easy as it sounds as there were only a couple successful riders.

There were both male and female contestants for Break-Away Roping event.

Saddle Bronc rider

and another Saddle Bronc rider

there was also the Bareback event

The entertainment was a 15 year old trick rider from Belle Fouche. She rode two different horses to perform her tricks.

the second of three tricks

and her final, quite amazing for 15 years of age

women's Barrel Racing was another event

This 7 year old rode her horse around the barrels. Both of her parents are rodeo contestants. I think the announcer said this was her first barrel racing in an area in front of an audience.

The horse was well trained and knew exactly what to do. Most contestants ride the barrels around 15-17 seconds if there are no penalties. This seven year old and her horse completed the three barrels in 36 seconds, with no penalties. It was a delight to see her ride; a barrel racer in the making.

Scott the rodeo clown is Hubby's relative. Scott's grandmother is Curt's cousin. We have seen Scott at several of the Hart Ranch rodeos.

time for the bull riding!

three riders made the 8 second ride

just in case, but it was not needed Wednesday night

This was something I had not seen before. The bull did come out of the chute bucking, but then stopped and just stood there. 

Then the bull turned around and walked. When the 8 seconds were up, the rider got off and the judges did award him a make-up ride. He scored points on the second ride, but did not place in the top three. It was entertaining, but I'm certain frustrating for the bull rider.

I didn't get Butts or Boots, but I did get some hats...

probably the prettiest one I saw

hats on the younger women and the older cowboys

a beautiful sunset due to the smoke from Canadian wildfires

a good night for a rodeo

The Waiting Is Over...

 The waiting is over with the perennial flower bed. I waited to see what the city was going to do when they mowed the area. For three months they have mowed a strip of the wash area leaving my flower bed alone and the neighbors potato patch alone. April was just too early to think about plants and flower beds. May was too chilly and too busy to think of flowers to add to the bed. I patiently waited to see which flowers would come back. Finally, this last week (after the 12 inches of rain) the weather has cooperated, the price of plants reached end of the season prices, and I finally decided the perennial flower bed was going to be safe from the city mowers. After 3 months it was in dire need of some TLC. It was my project for Saturday and Sunday.

This past week I scoured numerous garden shops to find sale prices and perennial plants. I really was surprised at the number of perennials that did not survive the winter, especially the cone flowers.

before weeding 

after weeding and a little transplanting

view from the other end before weeding

and after weeding and some planting

the annuals are doing very well on the border of the bed

lots of blue flowers in the annuals

There is work to do this week. The grass in the back needs to be attacked by the weed whacker/eater. The weeds need a shot of Roundup, or several shots. I dug the thistles out of the flower bed and tried to get most of the creeping jenny. Although my body aches in many, many areas, I was in my happy place this weekend digging and planning and planting.