In Search of Breakfast

Aberdeen to Webster – 52 miles
Average Speed – 14.4 mph

In Search of Breakfast

We had a late and filling dinner last night, so the plan was to get in a few miles and stop for breakfast. From looking at our map, we noticed the town of Andover, which seemed to be the same size of Groton, which had plenty of services. We pedaled past Groton as we would have had to leave the highway, although it turned out that we could have taken a direct route through downtown back to Highway 12, which curved around the town. The Andover sign indicated a population of just over 100. We ventured into town anyway, hoping that we would find a café. We spotted a group of men apparently waiting for the senior center to open. They laughed when we asked if there was any place to eat in town and told us about a truck stop in Bristol. They also pointed out that it would be all uphill to that town and they were correct.

Bristol was only 11 miles from Webster, our resting spot for the day, but we survived the 40-mile ride without breakfast. I probably have enough stored energy – i.e. fat- to last me several years’ worth of riding without having to eat. The truck stop doesn’t serve breakfast, so we settled for lunch since it was already almost noon.

Our motel is another that falsely advertises wireless internet. Yes, they do have internet, but you can only get it in the lobby, which means dragging the laptop down and being on public display.

We are in a glacial lake area of the state and there are plenty of fishermen around. We hadn’t planned on fishing, so we went to the Museum of Wildlife, Science & Industry.

Now, don’t think that this is anything like the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry or any other science and industry museum that you have visited before. The museum has 25 buildings on site, many of which have been moved to the location from other towns. Each moved building has photos of the building being moved, which added to the appreciation of the work and expense it took to create this museum and to preserve some typical buildings of the area. A church, blacksmith shop, schoolhouse and other buildings were all moved to Webster.

One curious building is a shoe house, a modern day version of the house that the little old lady with too many children lived in. Appropriately, the house is full of shoes – not kids. Some of the shoes are real shoes, but most of them are souvenir shoes from a local woman’s collection. This woman probably has more shoes than Imelda Marcos.

We spent a few hours here, which was more than I had expected as I am often very skeptical about these museums. The wildlife collection disturbed me mostly because I just don’t understand the thrill of hunting big game. Giraffes, zebras, lions and other trophy animals are all on display in one large area. All of the animals on display are the prizes of a local big game hunter.

Tonight is our last night in South Dakota as we will just cross into Minnesota tomorrow. Now it seems that we are getting somewhere. Having grown up in the Midwest, the area seems much more familiar and so much closer to the Atlantic than it really is. At least it is easy to visualize crossing more familiar territory. Other than being at the Minneapolis airport, I don’t think that I have even been to Minnesota since a family camping vacation when I was still in grade school.

We have pedaled over 1600 miles so far and expect to have a tailwind for the next 1600 miles.