(upbeat music) (lively music) - [Announcer] Coming up on the next "Off 90," we visit the Chateau Speedway in Lansing, learn about a horse therapy organization in Austin, and revisit the Pelican Breeze II.

(upbeat music) It's all just ahead on the next "Off 90."

(lively music) (lively rhythmic music) (lively rhythmic music continues) (lively rhythmic music continues) (lively music) (lively music continues) (engines roaring) - I'm Mark Wytaske, I'm the owner here at Chateau Speedway.

It opened in 1956.

This is our 70th year.

I'm pretty pretty proud of that.

Small businesses, small businesses have a tough time nowadays, and we're one that's lasted a long time, so I'm pretty proud of that.

We've had a lot of great race car drivers here, not just Hall of Famers here at Chateau, but Minnesota State Hall of Famers.

You know, you had the likes of Mert Williams, Dave Bjorge, Dave Noble, Mark Noble.

I mean, the list, Rex Garr, Ernie Derr, the list just goes on and on.

I guess, I guess the one that hangs in my mind is, a good friend of mine, Mike Guttormson, well, he died here.

I can't remember the year, 1997, or whatever it was, but anyway, the following year, they had a memorial race for him, and I won the inaugural memorial race, so for me, that was a very special, that was a very special race.

- One more thing, this is for Kyle Busch.

I learned, I learned from him at an interview one time so this is for Kyle Busch.

(spectators applauding) - Very nice.

I was told that the first time I was actually here, I was four years old, which would've been about 61 years ago, so it's been a long time.

I actually raced here.

This was, obviously, being four miles away from home, it was my favorite racetrack, won a lot of races here.

It just holds great memories and still does.

I spend hours, numerous hours, out here.

- I'm Noah Grinstead, I've been a race car driver here at Chateau Speedway for about 16 years now.

So actually, my sister was the one that started this all.

She got in a race car for a little bit first, and then I kinda took over for her when she had a couple of kids, and I just, we just haven't stopped doing it.

Whole family comes to the races.

My dad always went to the races growing up, helped out other cars.

I've raced in three different classes.

I started in the Hornet class when I was 15 years old, and then I moved up to a Street Stock, and I am currently in a B Mod for about six years.

- We've got the Chateau Mods and we've got the USRA stock cars, and they both make $500 to win their feature event.

The prize money that these guys compete for is probably more here than most any place they race.

- Yeah, so season opener here, I did pretty good in the heat race for the feature.

I started 9th, I told my brother, "There's no way I'm gonna be able to win this," and somehow, a couple of laps at a time, passed a car and was able to come up with a feature win.

I've won a good handful of races here, maybe 15 races here.

I've got three track championships here.

- We do have two sanctioning classes, the USRA hobby stocks, the USRA stock cars, and then we got what we call the high school racing league, and that's a pretty new deal.

- How'd that track look for you?

- Pretty good, it's nice and gripped up right now.

Put it to the floor.

- Put it to the floor, he says.

This guy's ninth grade, he likes math, so, and he plans on being an engineer.

So school's almost out, what're you gonna do for the summer?

Are you gonna just spend all your time working on this?

- Probably.

- Probably the hardest thing about racing is the amount of time and effort you have to put into it.

It's not put your car in the trailer and come to the racetrack.

We work on our cars all week long to make sure they are just right when we come to the track, because that's what it takes to win a race on any given night.

Sometimes it can become a second job, but for the most part, working on them is just as fun as driving them.

(lively rhythmic music) (lively rhythmic music continues) - (indistinct) we're ready.

(lively rhythmic music) - Yeah, the profit margin ain't huge.

We do not sell season tickets.

If you were all that interested... And that's the nice thing about being small and being the owner, we can make arrangements and we can do about anything we do, but it's not something that we advertise.

The people of Lansing are truly, totally... That's the only way a business like this could survive if you don't got a lot of pushback.

We got, well, you got a house right over there to our north, you know, got one down here by the river.

We actually blade that guy's driveway if he needs it, you know, it's like... There's a different headline sponsor every week, and as we just talked about a few minutes ago, we've got the A Mods, the Northern Lights series.

They're coming back for the first time in three years in June, so that's pretty exciting.

And then five times a year, one of them has already been rained out, or weathered out, but we have what they call a SMP Enduro.

Actually, Memorial Day, Memorial Saturday, we had one out here, it was $5,000 to win.

- Yep I race here every Friday night, and then I go over to Deer Creek on Saturdays, is primarily what our program is.

It's hard for us to get away, with work, but sometimes we'll also go over to Mason City.

- Most everyone has a car, a family member, or somebody that they follow.

Sometime when their feature race is over, they pick up and leave.

I would say, if you were to stay here till the races are over, roughly 10:30, half the people are still here, so, and it gets to be pretty long, as you well know.

Some of these guys are getting here pretty early.

Well, we got great, there again, our concessions are wonderful, we got great concessions, so they come out and they come out and have dinner here, and, you know, by 10 o'clock, some of them are ready to go home.

Usually, we try and be done by 10:30.

Tonight, there's two extra features, it's probably gonna be 11 o'clock.

- My favorite part about being behind the wheel is probably just, it's kind of a release, you know, it kinda gets you away from life in a good way.

It's just good fun, you know.

I don't know what else I would do with my weekends at this point.

It's a great time.

- My favorite thing is probably just the competition, the guys, the cars, the smell, and the atmosphere, you know.

You know, you guys will hang out here, you'll see what the atmosphere gets, they get pretty excited sometimes, you know.

The one thing, being involved in this for 62 years (chuckles), the one thing that I don't care for is the crashing.

I don't like to see that.

- I wouldn't say... I've had some good crashes in my time.

I've never had a rollover, I've had my car start on fire, you know, and had to jump out, and all that, but, you know, every year, stuff gets wrecked, you're always getting hit, but nothing too bad, luckily.

- Most of us, we're just normal guys, we've got normal jobs, we've got a family, and so, and the sport has completely, growing completely expensive, you know, it's not cheap to come out here and race.

Some of these guys, even in our classes, our limited classes, they got $10-, $20-, $30,000 tied up.

- It ain't cheap, you can say that.

There ain't, there ain't, there ain't, you know, they say there ain't no money in racing, but there's a lot of money (chuckles) in racing, but, you know, everybody spends what they can spend, and it's all about the fun.

We're all here for the fun.

If we weren't enjoying it, we wouldn't be doing it.

- Starting at 4 and going to 65, or probably 66 here in a month, yeah, that's passion.

- Sometimes you gotta have the drive, you know, it can be nerve-racking out there at times, you know, it does take a lot to push yourself in some of these situations to be able to beat some of these other drivers, but in reality, I think if you had the drive to wanna do it, anybody could do it.

- I think they would come in a blizzard.

It could be 22 degrees and snowing, and we'd still have 'em here, you know.

And I'll tell you what, that's who I am, so it's easy for me to relate to that.

- I love my family, we love it, we love the races, you know, it's great family fun.

I wouldn't know what we'd be doing without it, you know.

- Just urge people to come on out and just see what we got, you know.

(lively rhythmic music) (lively rhythmic music continues) (upbeat music) (gentle rhythmic music) - Equine therapeutic riding, we use horses, and we put people with disabilities on them to help them.

I have been a instructor for over 20 years, I was in South Dakota before I moved back to Minnesota, and I have seen amazing things happen.

There was one young man, he was like, 19, and he'd had a car accident, and the doctors told him he was never gonna walk again, several doctors, and he started doing equine therapeutic riding, and within a year, year and a half, he was walking, and so that was a definite, you know, success story for him.

He's got his legs back and he's living a normal life.

(gentle rhythmic music) (gentle rhythmic music continues) We're very fortunate that the owner of this place lets us have this out here in his hayfield, and he keeps a couple of the horses that the organization owns, and he lets us use his horses, also.

We have five horses that we regularly use.

Here in Austin, this is our fifth year.

Volunteers, everything is volunteer.

We're a 501 C3 organization.

There are people with PTSD that are volunteers that come out here, and they have said how much it has helped them, and we have some people, they come out, just because they like it, they come out to clean the stalls 'cause it helps them to be calm.

(gentle rhythmic music) We are 501 C3, and we have grants, United Way, Hormel, and Freeborn County, Operation Round Up, and some other small ones, and then we have people that donate.

Last night we had a fundraiser at Pizza Ranch.

I grew up with horses.

I started riding a horse when my mom would let me ride with dad in front of the saddle with him, and I started training ponies when I was eight, and I have always loved it, always enjoyed it.

(gentle rhythmic music) I actually was starting it at a different location, and at that location was where I was living, and my husband passed on, and then my brother had Parkinson's, and he lived in Hayfield, and I was asked to come down and help him, and that's when I brought it down here.

And my husband was a paraplegic for 11 months before he passed on, and he was starting to get a little bit of feeling back, 'cause he'd had, his spine was crushed, and I told him one day that, "You know, if I get this going, you're gonna be able to walk again," and he looked at me in a way he had never looked at me before, and in a voice I had never heard before, and he said, "There's a lot of people that need it worse than I do," and that has been a lot of my motivation to keep going.

(gentle rhythmic music) - I have been a part of this for five years, since the start with Lorna, yep.

What drew me in, actually, well, that's all Lorna, she is, she's a very special person in my life, she gave me my very first horse, and we have been very close since then, and she asked me to come on with her for this, and I said, "Absolutely!"

and I think it's been the best thing I've ever done my entire life.

(gentle rhythmic music) With horses, horses, like Hannah said, are my favorite animal, so it's the main reason that I get to come out here, and help horses and people at the same time, it's the best combination ever.

Yeah, I can't lie, my horse passed away my freshman year of college, unexpectedly, while I was gone, and I think it was a turning point in my life where I decided that I wanted to become more involved around here and continue to help people with horses, and share my passion with horses, because horses are a very special animal to me.

They know when you're having a good or a bad day.

And for a lot of these riders, this is the highlight of their day, it's a very good point, and I'm just happy that horses can be that for them.

We're in need of volunteers, because without volunteers, we simply cannot provide for the riders.

So this is a great organization to be a part of, and I think you will carry this experience with you for the rest of your life.

- Yeah, we have probably 30 volunteers, 'cause everybody here is a volunteer, nobody gets paid, and we have our instructor, we have our... They do sidewalking, we have the people that lead the horse, we have people that clean the stalls, and people that just help us with our fundraisers, so there's a lot of people involved, and it starts to become a family.

- Yeah, totally!

I mean, a lot of our riders around here... One of the first riders we ever joined with, he's been with us from the start, and now he's able to independently ride a horse, so that means he doesn't need a sidewalker on either side, he just has someone leading the horse, and one of his goals he talked about for this summer is to be able to just be with the horse and not have that horse-walker, and he's expressed interest in being able to learn groundwork with the horse, which is a very important step for him, and so that transition from starting out having two sidewalkers and having people help him get on a horse, he no longer needs help getting on a horse, it's just so cool to see!

(gentle rhythmic music) - (laughs) Yes, the cats are definitely part of the program, and maybe in a way you wouldn't expect.

We have a couple of riders with ADHD, and they cannot focus, and so they, and they're little, they're like, nine and seven, and they wanna play with the cats, and so when they're riding, you keep telling them, "You need to look where you're going.

You need to be looking through the horse's ears."

And by the end of last season, they were, they could.

And then we'd tell them, "When it's over, you can play with the cats."

(gentle rhythmic music) We are on solid grounds right now, and we would love to grow.

We'd love to have more riders and more volunteers, 'cause it helps both the riders and the volunteers.

And I hope we're around for a long, long time.

(upbeat music) (serene music) (serene music continues) (energetic music) (energetic music continues) - We cruise every Friday night at six o'clock, Sunday afternoons at 1:30 for our public cruises.

They're an hour and a half long.

You're welcome to bring aboard anything you'd like to eat or drink, and let somebody else do the driving.

The cruises are Memorial Day through Labor Day.

We do do specialty cruises and we do have private cruises.

(slow relaxing music) This is a, I like to refer to it as a lovely ranch style.

It's all on one floor.

They don't call it a paddleboat, we just call it a boat.

It's (chuckles) a tour boat is what it is, actually.

(slow relaxing music) Cruising speed is usually four to six miles an hour.

It goes very slow and, - (indistinct) - but it's, oh, yes, 'cause you get to see everything, and you don't really... You know, zoom by, you don't get to see anything, so.

We've had it up to 16 miles an hour but that was a lot!

(laughs) That was fast.

I wasn't on it, but yeah.

(slow relaxing music) It was replaced.

It started in 1997, they replaced it in 2001, I believe, with... We used to have a double-decker, the Pelican Breeze I, and then we decided we needed a bigger boat, so we purchased this one.

It's 55 feet long, it holds 55 people.

It was just a group of people that got together and thought they'd like to do something for Albert Lea and Albert Lea Lake, to get it on the map, it's such a beautiful place, so they just, we got together captains, and their wives were first mates, and that's how we started.

(slow relaxing music) By the name, it was just picked... They had a contest, who was gonna, what the name should be, and a lady came up with the Pelican Breeze.

We have a lot of pelicans on the lake.

They start in April, May, and then they leave about August, September, head back south again.

(slow relaxing music) Seen lots of pelicans today, and other birds.

We have several other species of birds and animals on the lake.

(slow relaxing music) (slow relaxing music continues) (slow relaxing music continues) (slow relaxing music continues) (slow relaxing music continues) (slow relaxing music continues) There's not a lot of people on this lake.

It's shallow, so, but we have had speedboats out here, we've had motorboats out here, we've had jet skis, and most people have pontoons.

(slow relaxing music) I've been doing this for 15 years.

One time, we were going out, captain and I went out, we had a boat full, it was a lovely day.

We went out, turned around, went underneath the bridge, turned around and came back, and the tornado sirens went off, lightning started to strike, thunder (chuckles) happened, and it rained so much!

That's probably one of my most memorable.

I had people underneath the table crying, you know, "Get the life preservers!"

I'm like, "Okay."

(laughs) They come from all over.

We've had people from Germany, we've had people from Norway, we've had people from China, all of the states.

They come from all over.

A lot of locals like to come and just enjoy it, you know, just to enjoy the quietness and to be able to watch nature and... (slow relaxing music) (slow relaxing music continues) We have 10 employees and volunteers that help on the boat.

Right now, we have, like, three active captains and three active first mates.

(slow relaxing music) When you're out there, you see the I-35 bridge, that's a big draw.

The pelicans, the houses along the lake are, there's some fabulous houses out there, so, anywhere the pelicans hang out.

(slow relaxing music) (slow relaxing music continues) (slow relaxing music continues) (slow relaxing music continues) (slow relaxing music continues) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (chiming music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(birds cawing)