Road Trip: Northfield, MN

[lydamorehouse]

Image: Sign at Northfield book sale that reads "Sappy Platitudes"

I'm going to take you all on a trip through time. Cast your mind back to 11:30 am on Friday, April 24, 2026.  Now, imagine my family . We are in a former rental car, several decades old, and on the entry ramp to what the locals call 35 E near downtown Saint Paul. Mason and I have just picked up Shawn from work at the Minnesota Historical Scoiety. The energy in the car is high because my family LOVES a good road trip. We are headed down to Northfield, Minnesota for a legendary used book sale. 

Per usual, I've made a list of places along the way largely garnered from America's Roadside Attractions. I'm particularly keened to see Hot Sam's Big Weird Junk (https://www.hotsamsantiques.com/). Unfortunately, when we make the pull off, we discover they're not officially open for the season yet. We see enough ot fhe place, however, that we decide that we're definitely going to try to make it back this way again soon.  We're thinking about a special trip, just for it.

We have a bit of lunch at Ole Store Restaurant (https://www.olestorerestaurant.com/). I somewhat foolishly try the beet rueben, which is OKAY, but I probably actually wanted a regular rueben. But Shawn enjoys their turkey salad club and Mason has an amazing looking pork schiztle sandwich. The booksale is exactly as increible as promised. 

Hours are spent browsing books.  The book sale filled a hockey arena. Shawn said that she heard that they had over 70,000 books. We, ourselves, brought home a trunk full of books.


Image with sign reading: Special Curated Collection " I thought I wanted this but I changed my mind."

We took a different route home, one which took us past a place Roadside America only labels as "quirky metal sculptures." This spot was just of Hwy 52 near Coates, MN. The only place to park was right next to a truck refueling place (?) We were in the shadow of the refinery for those who know this area.  

I've described the sculptures to people as: "Chainsaw art meets metal welding." Mostly, the subject matters are reminiscent of chainsaw art, the metal is... well, what it is.



Image: a rooster sculpture outside of Coates, MN


Image: "death cycle" (if you look closely you'll see the flaming skull motif)

There were dozens more, but all in this same vein. Worth the detour? I'm not sure the rest of my family thought so, but I'm always up for random weird sculptures in the middle of nowhere.