I’m sitting in a quiet little corner of Ponds Bakery and Café just across the street from the newly renovated Goss Opera House in Watertown. I chose this little out of the way eatery because it said free WIFI in the window. Dining in the same place is a group of elderly ladies (some kind of club I would guess and expect the cards or mahjong tiles to appear as soon as they’ve finished dessert.) It’s Wednesday so I chose the house special of the day; cheese burger and a cup of homemade tomato soup. After placing my order the waitress came back to say that if I wanted lettuce, tomato and mayo on my sandwich, they’d have to charge a little extra because their produce prices just went sky high this morning. So this is how unrest in the Middle East filters down. Oil hits a 100 dollars a barrel..gas goes up 20 cents a gallon overnight, it costs more for vegetable growers to ship their products to grocery stores around the country including Watertown, that increase gets passed down to customers like the lady who owns Ponds Cafe and the help has to tell diners the price of a delux burger is a few cents more than what it says on the menu. That’s okay, I said, don’t want any of that stuff anyway. The soup was out of this world and I wished I’d ordered a big bowl of it. The cheeseburger was equally delicious with a real toasted bun. There must not be a shortage of butter because she slathered lots of it on the bun before it hit the griddle. Oh, what a great taste difference when you bite into that crunchy buttery hot bun compared to that wad of dough you get at burger chains.
I’m in Watertown attending the travel shows for our upcoming Holiday Vacations return trip to Alaska in August.
The turnout last year was so good that Kelo and Holiday thought they’d offer it again. Well, clearly a lot of Keloland viewers are still interested in going because they’ve already sold out one tour and are taking reservations for a second. When I told Linda we were heading back to Alaska she was excited for the chance but is going to have to psyche herself up again for some of the mountain crossings. She doesn’t do too well looking out the motor coach window into deep canyons and drop-offs. But, she says, the three day cruise aboard a Holland America ship makes up for her fear of heights. To find out more about the tour click on this web address: http://www.holidayvacations.net/tours/pdfs/KELOKN11.pdf
I’m certainly hoping that the sun has worked its magic and improved the highway for my journey back to Sioux Falls. It was very intense..read that slippery..from Brookings to Watertown on the way here. I didn’t realize how intense until I took my hands off the steering wheel after coming to a stop and thought I’d suddenly had an acute case of arthritis. Both hands looked like the letter C because I’d been gripping the wheel so tight. Anyway, there’s going to be a couple more opportunities to attend these Alaska Travel Shows. They’ll be at the hotel connected to the Arena in Sioux Falls on Thursday February 24th at 10am, 2pm and 7pm. I’ll be at the morning and afternoon shows. Hope to see you there.
Now, I’ve got to get out of here before I order another big bowl of tomato soup. Did I mention it was delicious?
