Lunch in Hartford
by tdaxp ~ June 19th, 2006
It was a beautiful day in South Dakota as Lady of tdaxp and I left for Hartford, South Dakota. Our goal was the Hartford Steak Company, a farmer-style steakhouse just a few miles west of Sioux Falls. As we drove in the noontime there were reminders here and there of my stay in China…
but all in all, the clear sky and empty paces reminded me I was in Nanyouguo. However, omens of trouble…
(which Lady of tdaxp photographed yesterday)
would be fulfilled.
The Steak Company is closed! Not for every, of course, but long enough to mean no delicious steak today!
Now, it would be bad enough to simply get lost, to take the wrong turn at some intersection
And end up in a grassy field
(as we did in Sioux Falls), but this was simply absurd.
So instead, I ordered a chili dog and Lady of tdaxp ordered a hamburger and salad from a country cafe
and we ate a picnic lunch in the park.
On the way out of town, cows grazed merrily, mocking us for our lack of steak.
But few things beat a picnic with the woman you love and simple food on a beautiful day in a small town. So it was a good adventure.
The New York Times uses top 1% of income, not wealth. From the legend:...
June 29th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Larry,
Have you read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Just wondering what you think of another western Motorcycle adventure…
PS: Very cool story!
June 20th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Oh to be on dry land and enjoy a nice drive through S. Dakota (never been)……..
I really enjoy these picture-oriented posts Dan, I hope you and Lady of TDAXP get to visit the Hartford Steak Co. at some point this summer.
June 20th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Aren't those cows French?
June 21st, 2006 at 12:00 am
I thought so! In the late 70's I was living out in the desert of Eastern Oregon. It was winter with snow on the ground and I was pretty good on a motorcycle. Some cowboys paid me (in beef steaks what else) to round up a herd of them. Man were they huge, next to my motorcycle. Anyway it was cold and snowy, so it didn't take me long to round up the little doggies, ha! great sport!
Much later in the year one of the cowboys, who in another life was a Hells Angle biker, killed one with a wood fence post for being ornery at the loading shoot. I have to say though, to me it looked to me like self-defence. Ya, I thought they looked familiar.
June 20th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Eddie,
Cool! I'm leaving for the Black Hills next, so those pictures should be more interesting than Hartford, Brandon [1], or the other East River towns that are easy driving distance from Sioux Falls [2]!
Larry,
Yup, they're Charolais (pronounced shar-LAY around here). I have a strong, emotional memory of being with my grandfather in his Ford pickup, trying to cajole an irritated Charolais bull back into a field. Fortunately, the Charolais cows we saw just east of Hartford were much calmer.
[1] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2006/06/20/brandon-city-of-nature.html
[2] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2006/06/18/after-the-rain-in-sioux-falls.html
July 3rd, 2006 at 12:00 am
I have not read the story. When the book came out I was heavily into motorcycles and it didn't seem to me to be anything “Zen” about them, just hard work.
Now that you mention it, I may go back and read it.
July 7th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Larry,
I think you'd love the book.
The book is really a travelogue with flashbacks on the development of a philosophy. “Zen” comes in because of motorcycling's requirement for “right” work. The narrator is contrasted with another biker riding a BMW. The BMW is a less Zen experience because the mechanism is too complicated to work on, preventing that biker from “right” maintenance.
The sequel — Lila — is good too, but ZMM is definitely the classic. I listened to the unabridged audio (the same version I think is available off iTunes) and loved it. It still guides my thinking.