World's Largest Trip Day 7 (Friday May 18th)

World's Largest Onyx Sculpture

St. Paul

"The Vision of Peace" sculpture is at the St. Paul city hall and Ramsey County Courthouse downtown. We only turned around twice on Kellogg Street before we found it. We then proceeded to a parking garage in the Crown Plaza Hotel to over pay for parking. We then realized the camera was left on the counter at home, but we would still have to pay for parking so we went to the courthouse. We successfully made it through the metal detector and had no problem finding "Onyx John" with his peace pipe. He is really tall! Ben took a picture with his cell phone camera. Ben couldn't be in the picture.

World's Largest Boot, Part 2

Red Wing

Before driving back to Red Wing we concluded calling ahead would be a good idea. Ben called the Red Wing Shoe Company and inquired about the world's largest boot. Cheri couldn't hear what Matt's response was but it was fairly apparent with Ben's exclamation of "Indiana! Aw man." Turns out the boot is on tour and was visiting NASCAR festivities. The Boot should be back in Minnesota for the state fair and after this year will become a permament resident of Red Wing.

World's Largest Trip Day 6 (Thursday May 17th)

World's Largest Revolver

Mankato

Based on the only photo we had seen of the World's Largest Revolver, we had directions to R&R Tire Shop. The directions were quite straight forward but there was not a big gun in sight. Mankato is no small town - Mankato & North Mankato have a population of about 44,000 - and the world's largest revolver isn't a well known landmark. We decided to attempt to find a coffee shop with internet.
We went to a gas station and borrowed their phone book. We found there was both a Dunn Bros. and Caribou Coffee on Madison Ave. Since the phone book contained town road maps, but not one of Mankato, we set out blindly looking for Madison. Just when we were about to give up we found Madison Avenue. We stopped for coffee and began our interweb investigation.
We came upon a website for an old west gun shop museum and confirmed the address of R&R Tire shop. After looking at the picture of the revolver once again we saw the man in the picture was Rex MacBeth and pieced everything together.

Rex MacBeth owned the old west museum and had started the tire shop with his wife (R&R=Rex and Rosie). Rex passed away in 2006. We phoned R&R Tire Shop to inquire about the revolver and Ben talked to Rosie who informed him, "I donated that thing to the New Ulm gun club." We contemplated driving back to New Ulm, but decided the 40 mile backtrack wasn't worth it. We didn't know if the revolver was on display inside or out and there was no answer at the gun club.

World's Largest Ear of Corn

Rochester

Our directions to get to the world's largest ear of corn worked out great. We found the Libby's water tower right away. We couldn't get a great picture since the property is surrounded by a fence with barbed wire and no trespassing signs, but we took a picture anyway.

World's Largest Boot (Part 1)

Red Wing

After the delay in Mankato and our stop to visit in Byron, the Red Wing shoe company was closed by the time we reached it. There were lots of artistically painted boots around town, but no sign of the world's largest. We went home with plans of trying again in the morning.

World's Largest Trip Day 5 (Wednesday May 16th)

World's Largest Mallard

Wheaton

We made the mistake of not following the highway all the way through Wheaton before heading downtown in search of the World's Largest Mallard. We found a large mallard next to the historical center but it didn't seem large enough to be the world's largest.
After searching the entire town we decided to continue on the highway we finally found the mallard! The world's largest mallard has "Traverse" painted on the front for Traverse County and "The Land of the Ducks" on the back side. Laid in the brick work around the base are "Hunting", "Farming", "Fishing" and "Living".

World's Largest Codfish

Madison

Madison very proudly totes the title of "Lutefisk Capital USA". The town welcome sign, light post banners, and town hotel are all adorned with a happy cartoon codfish. The world's largest codfish is considerably more realistic. We contributed to the roadkill population on the way to Madison by hitting a pheasant crossing the road by foot. Poor pheasant :-(

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.

World's Largest Trip Day 3 (Monday May 14th)

World's Largest Floating Loon

Virginia

Once we made it to Virginia, it wasn't too difficult to locate the park and lake. We went out on the dock in search of the floating loon to no avail. We asked a friendly fisherman where the loon was. He told us that they hadn't put the loon out yet. The loon needed to appear in the Loon Days Parade the last weekend of May before floating in the middle of the lake. We were sad. :-(

World's Largest Hockey Stick

Eveleth

The U.S. Hockey Museum was easy to find. Unfortunately it is closed for "reorganization". It was just announced that it will reopen soon.

The World's Largest Hockey Stick is not at the U.S. Hockey Museum and thankfully there were signs for the "Big Stick" which directed us towards downtown Eveleth.

This is actually the second hockey stick in Eveleth . The old one started to fall over so they cut it up and sold the pieces.

World's Largest Muskie

Bena

This muskie used to be a hamburger stand. We think it may have been a fire hazard. It is located next to the Big Fish Supper Club which adopts the highway along side of it. It didn't look like the supper club was open right now.

World's Tallest Paul Bunyan

Bemidji

This Paul Bunyan has been around since 1937! His friend Babe is looking pretty rough. Luckily work is being done to repair the damaged ox. We went to the Paul Bunyan gift shop across the road. There were souvenirs for Paul Bunyan stuff across the state. We were very disappointed to learn Paul Bunyan's marble is located in Chisholm and we hadn't visited it. The lady working there didn't know about Paul Bunyan's fishing bobber in Pequot Lakes. We were also relieved to hear that Paul Jr. in Hackensack had been abducted for repairs.

World's Largest Northern Pike

Erskine

Erskine has basically moved itself from its original location one mile from US-59 on US-2 to its new location at the junction of US-59 and US-2. There is even a new water toware in the new part of town.

The world's largest pike is in old Erskine next to the lake. After taking our picture next to the fish, we ate at DiMaggio's Pizza. The owner is named Joe DiMaggio and makes some pretty dang good pizza.

World's Largest Trip Day 2 (Sunday May 13th)

Walker

It is very important to mention that May 12th was not just Minnesota fishing opener in Walker. It was the 2007 Governor's Fishing Opener. This was the talk of the town. There were numerous signs welcoming Governor Pawlenty and many Minnesota state flags. It turned out to be a successful fishing trip for Tim. :-D

This ice cream/coffee shop was very nice and had free wireless internet so we were able to update our blog! (Notice the fun pun in the window)

World's Largest Tiger Muskie

Nevis

We drove through Nevis on the highway and turned around to come back and go through their downtown area to find the Tiger Muskie. The prefixed “Tiger” is important because we see the world's largest muskie later in our trip. They had a nice sign for the tiger muskie and it looked well maintained.

World's Largest Paul Bunyan (tallest too if he was standing)

Akeley

The world's largest Paul Bunyan is located right off of the main road making it very easy to locate. He is big! He has his hand held for people to sit in it. If he was standing he would be the world's tallest Paul Bunyan. Akeley is the birthplace of Paul Bunyan, so they also have his cradle. Most of the businesses are named after Paul Bunyan or Babe the Blue Ox.

World's Largest Eagle

Remer

Conveniently located along side MN-200 in Remer, you will find the World's Largest Eagle. This is a very nice patriotic tribute to US veterans serving in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm.

World's Largest Iron Man

Chisholm

We can state with confidence this is definitely the World's Largest Iron Man. This guy is huge. There was no need to drive the streets of Chisholm looking for him. This is the third largest free-standing memorial in the United States. The informational plaque informed us the Iron Man has a look of content on his face.

World's Largest Trip Day 1 (Saturday May 12th)

World's Largest Dala Horse (not including Sweden)

Mora

We drove around Mora about three times. Google didn't know exactly where to find the dala horse and lead us down a dead end street. We saw houses with Dala horses and a “Dala Dollar” store, but no big Dala horse. Finally we decided to head down the road that looked like main street.

The Dala horse was built in 1971 as a tribute to their sister city Mora Sweden were they hand carve and paint Dala horses. It weighs 3000 pounds, even though it's hollow. There is a smaller dala horse downtown, we stopped to say hi.


We also tried to buy a Dala horse. After visiting a crazy variety store with both new and used products (computers circa 1995), he suggested the Dandelion Flower Shop since the souvenir shop was closed. We found cute little Dala horses that came in three sizes. We picked up the smallest one (about 3 inches tall) and balked at the $36.95 price tag. This horse must have been hand carved and hand painted in Mora, Sweden and hand delivered to Mora, MN! Too expensive for us. We tried a magnet, but that was $26. We opted for the $9 ceramic pot holder with a colorful Dala horse painted on it.

Mora Y Dala Horses!

World's Largest Walleye

Garrison

This huge fish is located right off of 169 next to Mille Lacs Lake. Being as it was fishing opener there were ALOT of boats on the lake and empty boat trailers parked along side the road. Unfortunetely the walleye had fragile fins and was missing his ventral fins.

We bought a postcard of the walleye from before he lost his fins and ate at Svoboda's Family Restaurant. It was very yummy.

World's Largest Fishing Bobber

Pequot Lakes

Paul Bunyan's fishing bobber was also easy to find because it is the town's water tower! We had to setup the camera far away to take this picture and Ben had to run across the street, *puff*. Cheri found a dollar at the gas station!

Not the World's Largest, but still worthwhile

Deerwood, Hackensack, Crosby

We don't know where the world's largest deer is located, but Deerwood doesn't claim that this is it.



Crosby is the home of the world's largest sea serpent (in the midwest). Unfortunately, there is a large driftwood sea serpent located in Virginia.

Hackensack is home of Lucette, Paul Bunyan's sweetheart and the birthplace of their child, Paul Jr. who has been abducted. We're going out on a limb and saying this is the World's Largest Sweetheart of Paul Bunyan.

World's Largest Trip: Day 0 (Friday May 11th)

Site 1: World's Largest Snowman

North St. Paul

Google says the snowman is right off of Highway 36 at Margaret Street. Of course, we told Google to find the intersection of these roads. So yeah, Highway 36... not so much, it's closed. North St. Paul is a town divided. We decided to go left at the exit we were forced to take to get off of 36. Now we were on the hunt for a snowman.

We ended up driving around in circle for a while. The Welcome to North St. Paul sign has a snowman on it; even the streets signs have snowmen on them. Then we saw it. The world's largest snowman smiling at us.

It was as if the snowman was mocking us because he was on the other side of the torn up road. Still determined, we got as close as possible to the snowman. Since the workers were not actually working on constructing the road we crossed it.

Hooray snowman! We made it!

Site 2: World's Largest Polar Bear

White Bear Lake

The world's largest polar bear was much easier to find! Before we could get to the bear Ben had to stop at the gas station for a bathroom break.... okay now we're ready.

We had to stand far away to get a picture with us in it and the polar bear. Luckily no one tried to sell us a car. Time to go to Ben's parents for the night before we head out tomorrow.

After work cherry trip (Wednesday May 9th)

World's Largest Spoon and Cherry

Minneapolis

We went to see Spoonbridge and Cherry, the world's largest spoon and cherry, after work on Wednesday. We easily made it to the Walker Art Museum, but drove around the block a few times before actually finding the sculpture garden.

That's a huge spoon (and Cherry!). Luckily not too many people were there and no one stole our camera while it was taking our picture (and Ben's phone and keys next to the camera). Cheri wanted to sit on the spoon, but there was a sign that said “please do not climb on sculptures”. :(

There were a lot other interesting sculptures and we got a little artistic ourselves with the tulips.