Coop's Corner: A Short Ride

Sunday, September 8, 2013

A Short Ride

Things suddenly got very busy around here this past week and the hoped for September riding miles may have to be cut back. After a very long day yesterday, I decided that I'd earned a short, early ride today. Out the door at 6:30, the cats fed and 'tricked' into staying out of the garage while I pushed the Morphous out, I was down the driveway at 6:40.

Dark skies early this morning when I started that soon gave way to bright sunshine. Truly looking like autumn, but the temp was in the upper 60's (mid-90's yesterday for a high) and with an east wind, it was quite pleasant; my favorite morning ride temperature. Or course I headed down to Alma for breakfast. Deciding to sit outside on the porch, my food had just arrived when some friends showed up (driving), our local Honda dealer and his wife.

"I saw the Morphous and knew it was you".

As a reminder, Alma, Wisconsin is nestled directly against the river bluff. Most of the town is no more than 2 streets wide, all the available space there is before the bluffs behind get too steep. Directly above town is a city park, Buena Vista with incredible views of the entire Mississippi river valley and adjoining Minnesota. I often ride through town and past the park, but hadn't stopped since an early spring ride so today seemed like a nice quiet morning to check out the vista. It was early enough for me to be the only visitor in the park.

My helmet off and earplugs out, I started to hear the tell-tale falling of acorns. This big old Burr Oak was and has been giving up a gazillion of them.

The picnic tables were covered.....check out the turn-around beyond.

The stone path that almost stays upon this ridge top towards the overlook. The slope away on both sides is steeper than it looks. I can remember quite well some very intense Frisbee throwing here by a group of younger and much faster men.

Someone not quite as young or as fast, content to just look today......

Lock and Dam #4, Minnesota in the distance.

The Great Alma Fishing Float, lower left center in the photo. On the Minnesota side of the river, accessed from Alma on the Wisconsin side. I've never been there and that needs to change. It looks and sounds like fun; it has been featured on the Food Channel, famous for the "Famous Mess" after Alton Brown was there on his "Feasting On Asphalt: The River Run."

70 miles later I was back home by 10:30, projects being tackled in some sort of order.

21 comments:

Martha September 8, 2013 at 8:02 PM
Can one really blame WI for that recipe? Sure it's not from somewhere more south? Ew.

What a pretty day over there. We were in the glooms today of a warm sticky cool with nothing terribly bright in the sky.

My driveway and my neighbor's drive are littered with hickory and walnuts and now acorns. Hard hat area. Fat happy squirrels.

WI is a pretty nice state, isn't it.
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RichardMSeptember 8, 2013 at 10:24 PM
The "famous mess" sounds like a "clean out the fridge" type of meal and, with the exception of the smoked fish, doesn't sound too bad. Then again, it depends on the type of fish…

Sounds like you had a great morning ride. You should do a series of posts on your various bikes and scooters. I had never heard of a Morpheus before.
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Erik RSeptember 9, 2013 at 12:19 AM
I remember watching Feasting on Asphalt and thinking about how I'd like to try the "mess" without the kraut and fish. Thanks for the link to the recipe.

I have similar pictures from Buena Vista. ..great view.
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SonjaMSeptember 9, 2013 at 2:22 AM
It's a perfect Sunday if you can squeeze in an early morning ride. The best time of the day! The air looks crisp and fresh in your pictures, and the view is amazing. As for the mess as a breakfast choice... the reading of the ingredients alone already make my tummy feel queasy. I rather keep fasting then.
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DebSeptember 9, 2013 at 7:25 AM
What a fantastic place to ride to for breakfast!

Quiet rides to special places...oh the joy of it all!

That view is stunning, absolutely breath-taking!

Thanks for sharing...
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TrobairitzSeptember 9, 2013 at 10:39 AM
Kudos to you for getting up and out of the house early. We have a tendency to sleep in until after 7 on the weekend to make up for the 4 am mornings during the week.

Looked like a perfect morning for a ride. Thanks for sharing.

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Dar September 9, 2013 at 1:13 PM
"Famous Mess" sounds like what some of my recipe experiments have turned out like. Pretty pics Coop.
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UnknownSeptember 9, 2013 at 4:49 PM
Coop:

I like Alton Brown and I watched that Feasting on Asphalt series, until he had that crash and broke a rib

I am not sure I like sauerkraut, or peppers. I would just take a plain bacon & eggs thank you. Nothing fancy for me

There is no such thing as a quick morning ride for me. I have to ride and hour or more in each direction just to get out of town. If I had to turn around then all I am doing is riding in the urban mess without a chance to get to the open road

bob
Riding the Wet Coast

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LuckySeptember 13, 2013 at 9:05 AM
Looks like a great place to ride to.

Hmm, about a 2 hour trip, one way, for me. I've really got to get new tires on my bike, that would be a fun day trip. I keep meaning to ride WI 35 anyway...

Personally, I got all excited about the "Famous Mess." I'm going to have to go try it.
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwaySeptember 13, 2013 at 12:33 PM
Lucky,
Nothing wrong with 35, but get east of the river on the other roads. That's where the magic is. It starts, a bit tame, just SE of Prescott and only gets better further down.
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"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)