Visit to Red Wing

Yesterday Ellen and I decided to travel over to visit Red Wing. It was a lovely morning and we thought it would be fun to see what the Mississippi River looked like after all the area rains. We first stopped at the St. James Hotel downtown for their brunch. With perfect weather we requested seating on their outdoor veranda. We could see the river and the trains coming and going. You do get an idea of how important the railroads and rivers are to our commerce when you have a chance to see the two working together.

We were not aware of it, but there was a car show going on in downtown Red Wing yesterday. There were about 200 cars on display. The covered a wide range of vehicle types. My favorites are generally United States cars from the 1920’s through the 1950’s and post-war English cars. I was not disappointed in either category. There were a couple of beautiful British MG’s on display. This British racing green MG TC model had been carefully restored and was a fine example of that marque. Down the line a bit was this MG-A series, also carefully restored and cared for. I remember a friend of my older brother had an MG-A like this one and I so much enjoyed going for a spin with him.

But my favorite vehicle of the day was this 1929 Cadillac. It is a large car with big tires and a beautiful interior. The burgunday and black color scheme looks royal. Every part of this car was in perfect condition, from the chrome to the wheels, to the gauges and lights. The spare tires on a car like this indicate that even wealthy people that could afford such a vehicle still had flat tires!

Red Wing operates a trolley that takes patrons around the city to see the various sights. Ellen and I had never taken the trolley so we thought it would be fun to do….and it was. The trolley is a restored wooden vehicle from Pittsburgh. While it doesn’t travel on tracks, as it rambles along it does have a feeling of old time travel. There was a guide that told us all about Red Wing facts and places. It was fun to see some of the beautiful homes in the area. Wealthy early Red Wing settlers spent quite a bit of money building these lovely homes and it is nice to see that they have been properly taken care of in subsequent years.  It was fun to spend the day in a neighboring city and see the sights.