In all the years I’ve been at the Independent, I have never covered Tyler’s Aebleskiver Days. And because of that, I never have been to the town’s annual summer celebration. So I suggested to Ross that perhaps we could attend this year’s festivities. There’s a car show, I said, which I hoped would convince him. The car show was new this year to Aebleskiver Days. I wanted to check out the vendor fair, which was also new. I also wanted to try an aebleskiver, which is basically a pancake ball.

We headed to Tyler, making a stop at the Danebod School, wondering where stuff was taking place. The car show and vendor fair, etc. was at the fairgrounds. The next question was “where are the fairgrounds?” It had been several years since I’ve covered the Lincoln County Fair (which is this weekend), so I was unsure. I figured they were sort of out of town, and we’d stumble upon them eventually.

And we did find the fairgrounds in a few minutes. Ross headed toward the car show, while I went to the vendor fair. As I was heading toward the vendors, I passed by several food stands and the building where aebleskivers were being made. Of course that reminded me that I haven’t yet eaten lunch.

I did a quick perusal of the vendor fair before I headed back out. When we had initially arrived at the fairgrounds, the talent show had just ended, and Ken Steen, a Tyler native, was entertaining the crowd with his juggling skills. There was also a mural being put on by the Tyler Arts Council. After that was the aebleskiver eating contest. I came over to the cars and there was a good number of vehicles for a first-time event. We decided it was time for food. I already had a head start in getting a hotdog from the Tyler Pool fundraiser food booth. After lunch, we had a few aebleskivers. I ate my aebleskiver without syrup (gasp!). It was still good.

After the fairgrounds, we went back to the Danebod campus. I liked paging through the cookbooks that were on display at the gymnasium. There was also an old, I think it was 1924, Better Homes and Gardens magazine. We also looked through the church. Other folks who came in to take a look at the church marveled at the wood inside. It’s a beautiful church. And the place has a lot of history. But speaking of church, I needed to get back to Marshall as I had lector duties at Holy Redeemer at 5 p.m.

After church came a spontaneous decision to head to Brookings for the community theater’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors” (it’s also playing at 7:30 p.m. today and 2 p.m. Sunday at the high school in Brookings). I can’t recall if I’ve seen the show on stage as Marshall High School did it years ago (did I attend?). Anyways, it was an entertaining comedy, and the actors did a great job. I wasn’t sure as how it would end and was a little surprised. But I would see it again, given the chance.