Antique & Classic Cars Blog

If you’re tired of pavement and traffic and relatively flat terrain, a drive to southeastern Minnesota might be just the thing for a fall respite. The leaves have mostly fallen now, but the
hills and the river and quaint little towns stick around all year.

For the city dweller, a hilly landscape is a welcome treat even when the fall colors have largely gone.
On Saturday, we went down to Lake City to a restaurant Rick Nelson had praised called Nosh. The whole experience was a fall highlight. The road along the river to Red Wing and south to Lake City and beyond was worth it on its own. (We went to Wabasha based on a Google search only to learn that Nosh had lost their lease there and moved north 12 miles to Lake City.) Our dinner reservation was at 6:20 and I had wanted to arrive around 5:30 for a little daylight viewing out at Lake Pepin–but the 24-mile detour cost us that time. No problem, though, as that terrain is as enjoyable through a car window as a restaurant pane.

If you’re drawn to science fiction and horror movies, there’s something unsettling about 100 large, strangely symmetrical organic objects populating a field. I kept my eyes on them and they didn’t move–at least not till we were out of sight.

The plan was to take my ’69 MG but like the trees, that car knows when it’s November. Starting was not in her playbook. The B is stored in a friend’s garage to which I’d ridden my motorcycle and I had no jumper cables and no vehicle to jump it with.

A little fall color held out, though I didn’t do an ace job of photographing it.

Even without the loud stiff ride and constant stream of heat on our feet, we managed a great trip. I’m no restaurant critic, but the meal at Nosh was superb, one of the best I’ve had, period. Though my wife ranked the old Levain under Stewart Woodman ahead of it, she too was very pleased. I’m usually more about the beer and company, yet I actually thought of that meal the following day. (I had a homemade sausage appetizer on homemade toast with cheese, empanadillas for first course and a dish with shrimp, crawfish and spiced rice for an entree.)

On the way, we stopped in Red Wing at what is largely an antiques mall in a brick warehouse on the old Main Street. Old furniture is cool by me–bookcases and desks and cabinets demonstrating craftsmanship–however I usually have no interest in small old stuff. The exception is old tools. Often a small adjustable wrench would come in handy–for a nut or bolt on a carburetor, coil, gauge, or those ones up under the dashboard. Picked up a four-inch Diamalloy, made in Duluth, and I’m eager to use it. Even if that chance comes up infrequently, you gotta love a cool old handtool!

Answers to 11-16 Friday Fun quiz:

1. Speed’s brother, Rex Racer.
2. Trixie.
3. Sparky.
4. Spreitel. Chim-chim, a chimpanzee.
5. A rebuilt race car that returns after a crash. A dummy with a recorded message utters “Melange still races” as the car, driven by remote control, hunts down the drivers who caused the original crash.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Car stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.