Brenda Says Hey!!!
I sat outside the motel room listening to the mournful cry of the 'Rain Doves' pleading for relief, as the faint rumble of thunder in the distance seemed to suggest the prospect of a satisfactory response. The sun was lazily rising just clear of the horizon off to the east through the haze of light cloud cover, but to the north and northwest the heavily burdened sky was dark indeed.
The flag on the pole at the motel parking lot entrance had been hanging limp a brief time before, but now it was standing straight out. Flashes of lightning by then were visible as their thunderous report grew louder. Hmmm, “I might better add the 'Patterson Jack' just in case...” I hastened to do exactly that!
I'd been sizing up the unseasonably cool early morning while admiring our girl still covered and resting peacefully on her kickstand, and as I happily pondered recent events. All that while savoring another cup 'a Joe, as I relaxed in one of the Adirondak chairs provided by our thoughtful host. It was a near perfect morning that soon would almost certainly change dramatically. I was relieved we were ‘taking another day off’!
I had not expected to be there at this time. No problem, really, we’d just wound up there due to dodging extremes of heat and threading the needle between bands of rain as have always been major drivers in our rambling choices.
A week or so before, the UP of Michigan had seemed to be beckoning us, but changes in the weather forecast while we were headed in that direction had given me much pause… Hmmm… “Perhaps the Dakotas might be a better ‘destination target’ for the time being…?”
Ordinarily we’d have aimed farther west towards the mountains of western Montana and Idaho. The heat out on the plains not very far west of the Missouri River, however, had made that choice much less appealing! I’d also more or less ‘planned’ to attend the upcoming ‘Quad State Ride’ in Wisconsin, so there wasn’t really enough time to comfortably venture too far in that direction anyway.
“Hey, while we’re out that way, maybe things could work out for a visit to the ‘Tumbleweed Café’…?” Now there was at least a tentative worthwhile bullseye to aim for! I wondered how Brenda might be doing… or if she was even still in business…?
Yep, I reckoned we’d better just go and find answers to those pressing questions… that is, if we actually made it that far… Still, it was something fun to shoot for, even if nothing actually came of it.
We casually picked our way back across extreme southern Wisconsin, a piece of Iowa then Minnesota, and finally into South Dakota. A day here, a day or two… or three… there depending upon weather and notion… We’d recover from heat during one pause or wait out showers during another, but who cared? We were in no hurry, and if we made it to an interim target, fine… If not, that would be fine, too.
It was in eastern South Dakota that we’d been visited by the Harley angels as we were on our way to Selby, SD, in the north central part of the state. We’d made it to Selby later the same day of their visit, but that was after the temperature had risen considerably more than where it had been when we’d parted. I’d taken the room for four nights, due in large part to the rain forecast for the day being described!
Being at this location would also position us twenty miles joyously away from the bustling tourist town of Mobridge, yet still leave us within an easy day ride of the ‘Tumbleweed Café’. A nice, quiet, unhurried, out-of-the-way place perfect for peaceful reflection and needed relaxation…
The first full day of our visit was the day I’d figured on venturing in search of the now ‘famous’ café. The forecast of a slight chance of showers turned out to be the real deal though, so… relaxation time instead! The second full day would prove to be ‘the big day’ after all. The third, by the way, was the day being described above.
A brief mile-long stretch of unpaved road through a construction zone ten miles or so before Brenda’s place wasn’t particularly pleasing for this nonfan of such things, but it would barely have produced even a faint smile for my intrepid pal, Dusty Roads. Still, we did manage to survive, Brenda was there and open for business, and… things were definitely looking positive!
Tumbleweed Cafe…
Brenda told me that this is her fifteenth year in business there, so I no longer wonder about her ‘staying power’. The breakfast was good as usual. I got a hug along with her assurance that she did remember me. She also told me to tell all y’all she said “Hey!”
Brenda…
Just over two hundred miles on that day ride to see Brenda (yes, we did take a long cut), and things were most satisfactory all around! Now, the crackling of thunder and the flashing of lightning have moved on. The doves are joyfully celebrating their bounty, and the bright patch in the sky is drawing closer… It’s time, I guess, to prepare to do some much-needed laundry… Really… What exactly is a ‘funk’ anyway…?
DDT (12)
