Day 37: Lounging in Litchfield with the Bromans

Day 37: Saturday July 12th, 2014.

Litchfield, MN.  0 miles. 

Evelyn woke up early as she usually does, prompting the rest of us to get the day started.  I was sleeping on a comfy futon in the living room.  When she came around the corner and saw me peeking my head out from underneath the covers, she stared for a minute, excited inside, but composing her thoughts and assembling an articulate response to what she was seeing.  For her age, she is incredibly smart and inquisitive.  Then, she said with confidence, "You are Judd!"...  "I am Evelyn." ...  "You're Here!" ... "You came to see me!"  I was the focus of her attention.  She had many questions for me, and was excited to show me her toys and dolls.  We laughed and had lots of fun.

Claudia announced that she was going to make waffles for breakfast.  Everyone was excited about that.  She and Andrew buy fresh maple syrup, the real thing, produced by tapping into a maple tree, draining the sap, and boiling off the water to concentrate the sugars, from a local farm, bought by the gallon, divided up into several mason jars.  It was fantastic.

Claudia also found a recipe for some tasty chocolate chip bran muffins that accompanied not only breakfast, but were available on the counter any time of day.  Andrew made fresh delicious coffee in a French press after grinding up the whole beans.  Everyone was happy and having a great time.

There was a lot going on in town with the festival.  Claudia volunteers for the library, and part of the festivities included a book sale.  She stepped out for a few hours to help with the sale while Evelyn took Andrew and I to the park just around the corner from their house for a swinging good time.

We had a lot more fun throughout the day.  Evelyn was very excited to see my iPhone, what she referred to as my camera.  She was fascinated with seeing herself and others on the screen when the camera was activated.

In the early evening, Andrew grilled up some delicious brats and we all ate dinner before preparing to go to the town parade, one of the highlights of the weekend of festivities.  As a reporter for the local newspaper, Andrew was off to work the event while Claudia, Evelyn, and I traversed a few blocks to the "Grande Day Parade".  People had been staking out their prime real estate days in advance of the parade, setting up their blankets and chairs along the parade route to hold their spot.

We just walked right up and sat in a perfect location in the shade.

There were well over 100 floats or "participants" in the parade.  Among them, we saw the "Royalty of Litchfield", or the princesses.  In fact, Litchfield wasn't the only town participating in the event.  I lost count, but I think there were at least 10 different nearby communities that had their princess floats criusing down the street.  Some of the princesses were in their early teen years.  There was even a "Dairy Princess" float.

It seemed like the whole town was out enjoying the event, with lots of families and kids lining the street.  Claudia mentioned that Litchfield, along with many other small towns in Western and Central Minnesota, have had families leaving, relocating to North Dakota for the oil boom.  In some cases, the wives and children stay behind while thier spouses work in North Dakota and commute back to Minnesota on the weekend or every other weekend.  While the opportunity to make attractive wages pulls people into the area, the high cost of living and lack of housing often makes a permanent relocation not feasible.  It's fascinating to have left the obvious "ground zero" sites in North Dakota like Dickinson a while ago, and yet as I pedal farther and farther away, the story of the oil boom and its effects keep reoccurring everywhere. The tentacles of the current oil boom are far-reaching.

Evelyn waited with anxious excitement for the next float to come down the road.

She was especially excited about the horses that came by, but the fire truck, intermittently honking it's horn, was a little too startling.

The talented roper was fun to watch.

And, there was a fair amount of farm equipment showcased, including some of the machines of the past, as well as the latest technology.

This year's Grand Marshall of the parade is Sparboe Farms, the Nation's 5th largest egg producer, with a big operations plant centered right here in Litchfield.  In November 2011, animal rights activists infiltrated several of Sparboe's egg facilities and shot video of a worker swinging a chicken around on the end of a rope/chain, shoving a hen in a co-worker's pocket, in addition to the crowded cages common to the industry.  I think that ABC News, among other media outlets, picked up the story.  In response, some of their bigger customers stopped buying eggs from Sparboe, including McDonalds, Target, and other major grocery chains.  Then, in January 2013, federal agents raided the Sparboe facility in Litchfield in search of illegal immigrants employed there, and arrested 10 employees.  There have been concerns over other environmental voilations at the Litchfield plant as well.  

Despite some questionable business practices, the town of Litchfield didn't seem to mind that Sparboe was sponsoring the annual event this year.  After all, they are a big employer in the area.  As the Sparboe float cruised by, employees handed out squishy stress-relieving eggs and Sparboe beer/soda can insulated sleeves.

We had fun watching the parade and decided after float 60-something that we had seen enough.  It was a great day in Litchfield, MN.