Worthington, Minnesota - Day 29

Feeding Frenzy!
Yesterday morning Polly requisitioned some plain oatmeal and real bananas from the breakfast room and stashed them in our room --a brilliant move --  because this morning we had a quiet breakfast in the room thus avoiding the dreaded, ulcer forming, "Breakfast Feeding Frenzy". 


Here's how the feeding frenzy goes down. The night before, at rap, Karen tells us what time the breakfast room will open and what time we will  able to load our bags. A typical morning would be: breakfast room opens at 6:00 and load is at 6:30 or 6:45. Now, when I say breakfast room, imagine a place the size of, let's see... a utility closet... lined with cereal bins, a waffle maker, some coffee thermoses, a toaster, a little refrigerated box with margarine, hard boiled eggs, sometimes flavored yogurt, and milk. Of course there are the bins of packets - Equal, Sweet and Low, Coffee Mate, peanut butter, jelly, and sometimes cream cheese and packages of flavored oatmeal. Somewhere on the counter there are all the Styrofoam bowls, plates, and cups. (Reduce, reuse, recycle is unheard of in the Breakfast Room.) As you can imagine, that doesn't  leave much room for tables and chairs, but usually there are about 5 tables. So now you've got the visual; the scene is set.


As I said, the breakfast room opens at 6:00. Now if you were in Aspen or Boulder, using Aspen/Boulder Standard time, that means you would stroll in at 6:10, the place would be empty and you'd be early. But not with this group. At 5:45 fifty ravenous bikers, who have gorged themselves the night before, descend on the utility closet, I mean breakfast room, and begin the hunt for calories. By 6:00 there is no more coffee or hot water, there might be a lonely danish wrapped in its cellophane hoping this week someone might finally choose him for breakfast. A couple slices of Wonder Bread are still hanging out by the toaster. The the flavored oatmeal is gone and even if it weren't, there is no hot water to cook it in.(The absence of hot water is highly traumatic to a tea drinker like me.) Even if you do manage to find something to eat, remember, there are only five tables so you balance your Styrofoam encased mealinto the lobby or onto the stairs. Meanwhile, the hotel staff, one harried person, is desperately trying to refill the waffle mix, the coffee thermoses, the bread, and the orange juice (if the dispenser is working that morning) and all the little packets.. which s/he can't get to because all the calorie hunters are tracking, attacking and in the way. The re-supplier looks like s/he isready quit or have apoplexy.


But not to worry in five minutes at 6:10, the place is empty because we have run to be the first in line to load our bags (6:30 remember) into the truck.
In our wake, the breakfast room lays totally decimated. The food is gone the trash is over flowing and I wouldn't doubt that the staff is in psychotherapy.

So...after breakfast, we left Sioux Falls along a beautiful bike path and here we are in Worthington, Minnesota a lovely little town in a NEW state! The ride was an easy 70 miles, and we got here in time for a swim in Okabena Lake, the first of the 10,000 lakes, and home of the US National Windsurfing Championships. With the wind blowing over the lake, we now know why. We did a quick pass-by of the Dayton House, a lovely turn of the century home, now on the National Register of Historic Places, and built by the the family who started Dayton's Dry Goods Co., or simply Dayton's, and rode through the downtown to the lake for a quick dip.


Just another day on the road!


Day 29
Miles - 70
Total Miles - 2100
Elevation Gain - 939'
Next stop - Mankato, MN


Link to Mimi's Garmin info

10 miles of lovely bike path leaving Sioux Falls

Queen Bee Turbine House at
the falls

The Antiques at the Sioux Falls on the
Big Sioux River

The Sioux Falls

State #5 for the Antiques and happy to be here!

Pristine Minnesota farm

The land of corn and windmills 

Vanna Antique showing off the
Dayton House

Another view of the Dayton House

Mimi at the "windsurfing beach" at
Okabena Lake after a great swim

The Chamber of Commerce in Worthington had welcome bags for each of us! This post card was included - which we thought you'd get a kick out of. Lots to do here in Worthington.