Supper Clubs and Parades

Still heading west. 

We're in Tyler, Minnesota (pop. 1267)  for a few days with my family now. 
Driving through Sleepy Eye, Minnesota (home of Kathy Flom Bergs my best friend from college) the other night at midnight I noticed we were going to miss Buttered Corn Days so I was happy we were able to spend yesterday at the Saddle Horse Holiday parade in Lake Benton.*  No marching bands this year...mostly fire trucks and antique John Deere tractors.

You have to get there early to get a seat with the sun at your back.

Following the parade, there is a horse show.

For noon lunch (people here call it dinner) today Dad decided we should go to the windowless metal building called the Kronberg Supper Club (under new management).  Word around town was that the 'beef commercial'** was very good.   Having already eaten, Vin and I watched Dad eat.  We hadn't seen Aunt Marlene and Uncle Roy yet so I borrowed Dad's phone to invite them to join us.  I looked for Marlene's name under 'M' and she wasn't there which was odd since he probably calls her 3 times a day.  When Dad realized I was struggling to find the number he told me it was under tmarlene because when she punched it in his phone she hit the t and didn't know how to delete it.  Roy and Marlene joined us and we all watched Dad eat.  It was fun.

Aunt tMarlene spoils my Dad (Tyler's Huck Finn) by cleaning out his backyard shed.

Dad made a little wooden car to drive in parades.

I counted 11 clocks in Dad's house even with forgetting about the clocks in the new 3-season room.  None of the clocks had the same time, in fact, none were even working but the one in the kitchen (off by only 5 minutes) and the one in the guest room (off by 4 hours and 23 minutes).  Maybe that's why time seemed to stand still when we were there.

Vin doesn't like to play 20 questions as much as I do but he'll play trivial pursuit for miles.  We have one of those trivial pursuit decks with hundreds of questions and I read the questions while Vince drives.  When he gets one wrong he tells me how the card is wrong. 

I recommend Madison, Wisconsin to anyone that likes perfect places.  Forty-three miles of bike paths in the city that are filled with cyclists, a Wholefoods and two funky food co-ops, a university, coffee shops, cool little restaurants.... 

*Lake Benton is 7 miles from Tyler, my hometown.  They were our high school rivals.   It's smaller and much rattier than Tyler (just causing trouble) and has some hills.

**beef commercial (n.) a roast beef sandwich cut in two diagonally, pivoted open at one end to form a triangle of plate which is then filled with a dollop mashed potatoes and smothered (the whole thing....sandwich and mashed potatoes) with roast beef gravy.  many calories per serving. upper Midwest specialty.