World's Largest Trip Day 4 (Tuesday May 15th)

World's Largest Bird House

Audubon

Google sent us down County Road 13 which is a gravel road for about 4 miles. This made Ben uneasy and he was much more comfortable when it turned into a paved road. The world's largest birdhouse is a happening place. We wonder if it is difficult for the birds to remember which hole is theirs.

World's Largest Turkey

Frazee

This is the second world's largest turkey Frazee has had. They accidentally burnt the first one. We entered town when the high school was on lunch break. After taking our picture next to a little turkey, a couple of high schoolers heckled that there was a bigger turkey down the road.

World's Largest Loon

Vergas

After missing out on the world's largest floating loon, we were pleased to find the world's largest loon off the road next to the lake. Vergas does not have garbage receptacles in their park. There was a creepy guy sitting in his vehicle watching us and we were glad he didn't decide to follow us when we left!

World's Largest Pelican

Pelican Rapids

The world's largest pelican was not located off their main street or at the town entrance. We prepared to start searching the city parks when we spotted it in the middle of town behind some buildings next to the dam on the river. There were people fishing and catching nice bass. The pelican is located on their man-made pelican rapids and the other side had a fountain and bridge. It was nice.

Nyberg Sculptures in Vining

Vining is home to Ken Nyberg and his sculptures. Nyberg lives one mile north of Vining where he has a shop to create his scrap metal sculptures. Vining has a population of 68 (2000 census) and has a post office, liquor store, and gas station. Everyone we met was very friendly.

World's Largest Foot

165 Hours | 1240 lbs | 11 feet | 654 pieces of 10 ga. steel
Nyberg donated Bigfoot to Vining in 1991. It is located at the west side of Vining right along side of the highway. Big Foot Gas, Grocery and Deli is named after the sculpture. The man working at the shop was very busy. He ran the cash register, answered the phone, served us food, and helped a distress man in a suit find a gas can and more when we stopped in.

World's Largest Clothes Pin

220 Hours | 903 lbs | 20 feet | 903 pieces of 10 ga. steel | Completed 1997
Clothes Pin is located next to the Vining post office. The post office was open but we didn't have any mail to send and we already bought 1 cent stamps because of the postage rate increase.

World's Largest Pliers Crushing a Cockroach

95 Hours | 750 lbs | 14 feet | 475 pieces of iron | Completed 1998
The Pliers are located in Nyberg Park. Nyberg Park is a park just for Nyberg sculptures right next to Big Foot Gas and Grocery. We thought this was an interesting sculpture and wondered why Nyberg chose to threaten a bug with the pliers.

World's Largest Square Knot

180 Hours | 1300 lbs | 8 feet |979 pieces of 10 ga. steel | Completed 1992
The knot is also in the Nyberg Park. Knots remind us of boy scouts and mathematical knot theory.

World's Largest Knife Cutting a Watermelon

121 Hours | 1600 lbs | 11.5 feet | 512 pieces of 10 ga. steel | Completed 2003
Also in Nyberg park is the knife and watermelon. This sculpture was built for the town's annual watermelon days which is a summer festival celebrating the wondrous watermelon.

World's Largest Coffee Mug

150 Hours | 1000 lbs | 11.5 feet | 598 pieces of 10 ga. steel | Completed 1995
Coffee Cup is next to the Big Foot Gas but not in Nyberg Park. It's also next to a box to drop of old batteries and computer parts for recycling. If you leave a monitor it is your responsibility to leave $7 in the box. We like the coffee cup!

World's Largest Electric Plug

84 Hours | 400 lbs | 11.5 feet | 422 pieces of 10 ga. steel | Completed 1997
This electrical plug is out at Ken Nyberg's personal workshop. The attendant at Big Foot was nice enough to give us directions. We could have visited with Ken but there were a lot of Viningites there (by a lot we mean about 5). THe only thing that confused us about the directions to the shop was that the road was supposed to be dirt but is actually paved.

World's Largest Door Knob

165 Hours | 2000 lbs | 12.5 feet | 895 pieces of 10 ga. steel | Completed 1994
We had a difficult time deciding what angle to take this picture from. The door has an outside door knob and an inside door handle. We ended up taking the picture from an angle only to end up taking a picture of the other side too because of the awesome door latch.

Wild Lawnmower Blade Animals

We were quite impressed by the wild animals made out of old lawnmower blades. We saw Elephant in Nyberg Park and Rhinoceros at Ken's workshop.


We even got to see his newly rolled out bear. He didn't even has his head attached yet! It was neat to see the sculpture's inside frame.