How far would you go for a donut?
Posted: Tuesday, Sep 4th, 2012BY: Billy Stit
The Flandreau Bakery and Coffee Bar has arguably the best donuts around so it makes sense that people from all over the region drive their cars to the downtown Flandreau bakery shop.
With as many options as the bakery offers, it suits a plethora of different people and their tastes so 40 miles round trip probably doesn’t seem that far to enjoy a tasty treat.
Not even by bicycle.
Mary Tolle and Jan Froehlich ride their bikes every Thursday from Nunda to Flandreau, a 40-mile roundtrip, in order to satisfy their taste buds with a quick donut and Diet Coke.
For your average twenty-year-old avid biker, 40 miles a day seems like a decent workout, but both Tolle and Froehlich have a little more life experience.
“Mary is officially retired, and I just decided to quit,” Froehlich said jokingly about their age.
Even though the two of them are retired, the two of them ride their bikes everyday during the summer. The usual Thursday route includes hopping on the Nunda Oil road proceeded by a nice southward jaunt towards Flandreau.
It is not the only route they take but have decided it’s probably the best- and safest. “Sometimes our route gets determined by farm dogs. Some of those guys are like small horses,” said Tolle.
They don’t just monopolize Flandreau – they make occasional trips elsewhere in the area. “We also like to go to the McDonald’s in Madison. A lot more people think we are crazy there though,” Tolle laughed as they hopped back on their bikes after their treat.
Tolle is the more seasoned bike rider, while Froehlich is more of a runner. Tolle lives in Brookings and usually rides her bike from there to Nunda to pick up Froehlich and then finishes the ride to Flandreau. Lately however, she has resorted to driving to Nunda because they recently chip sealed the road.
Being retired from work doesn’t mean that they have retired from competition. Tolle participates in the Tour de Kota and Froehlich runs in many races. The two of them both participated in the RAGBRAI race in July, which is a bicycle tour across Iowa.
As for the future, well, plan on seeing them every Thursday at the Flandreau Bakery. We will see if even the snow can stop them because Father Time doesn’t seem to affect them one bit.
2 comments:
Betty,
I assumed you posted this article. Mary and I just biked over to Flandreau for our donut this morning and got a copy of the paper. We laughed when the guy from the newspaper came in the bakery with the camera. He said the woman who called told him "Well, they aren't teenagers". He was right about that.
I found the article on the internet.
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