Coop's Corner: Finally

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Finally

Finally some miles were ridden, yesterday was the start of my '14 riding season. The Ascot the only one taken out and then today, Sunday, a couple more made their own loops out and back.

First the Ascot........the nearby Mount Frontenac Golf Course, up on top of the bluff, Lake Pepin in the background.

Today I was out for multiple rides, first one was on the RT100 for breakfast in Alma.

The Dairyland Coal Powerplant......

Looking upriver to Lock and Dam #4, gates all open due to the spring flood and high water levels.

Another Lake Pepin view, this time a bit upriver at a Public Launch site.

We've been seeing pelicans along the river, their migration north seems to always happen around Easter time.

High water in Red Wing, roads closed. This view in Levee Park along the waterfront.

So a few nice and refreshing rides.........another season of riding has begun.

24 comments:

Martha April 20, 2014 at 5:38 PM
I need a chart so I can keep up with your bikes...have a picture handy when you reference one or the other!

Glad you got out for some air and fun. Looks like here- green grass is up and overcast- now raining. Going to get my trail sticker tomorrow so I can legally roll out MY two wheels soon for some sightseeing!
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RichardMApril 20, 2014 at 8:05 PM
Amazing difference a few weeks and some warmer temperatures make. Though the high water in the river is a little frightening.
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Erik RApril 20, 2014 at 10:04 PM
No snow and open water! I must be nice. I'm still in snow over the tops of my Sorel boots. The warm temps here are helping it melt fast though...

Has your driveway firmed up yet?
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DebApril 20, 2014 at 10:32 PM
Lake Pepin? The home of Pepe, the "lake monster"?

I just saw a show about that. According to the locals there are two types of people in Minnesota: those who live at Lake Pepin and those who wish they did!

Sound right?

Anyway, it looked to be a beautiful area!

What is the dirt bike that you ride, if that's what it is, in the last photo?

Yippee! Sweet freedom out on the roads again, eh?
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SonjaMApril 20, 2014 at 11:42 PM
Finally! You've waited long enough this year, and now you're making up for it with multiple bike rides (how cool is that!).
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David MasseApril 21, 2014 at 6:18 AM
You should do a catalogue post with your entire vehicle collection and make us all suitably jealous.
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Keith - Circle BlueApril 21, 2014 at 6:19 AM
Most Excellent!
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TrobairitzApril 21, 2014 at 9:38 AM
Man I bet that felt good to get a few of the bikes out.

You're casting shadows so it must have been sunny too. Yay.
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UnknownApril 21, 2014 at 11:52 AM
Coop:

Finally ! you deserve it, you've waited a long time to get your rides rotated.

hard to believe that road goes right into the river. Spring has finally sprung for you

bob
A weekend photographer or Riding the Wet Coast

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LuckyApril 21, 2014 at 1:29 PM
Hooray for getting the bikes out! The Triumph is getting a little impatient (and I definitely am). I expect I'll be getting her out for the first ride of the year later this week, or maybe next weekend.
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayApril 22, 2014 at 6:46 AM
Hope it works for you Lucky, it's time. There were some out for the Flood Run but I'd have to say numbers were down. Slimey Crud Run is coming soon!
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Scott GApril 26, 2014 at 8:52 PM
I went out for a good gravel ride last Tuesday.Took a lot of pics.I posted them on my Facebook page.You could probably go to Facebook/type my name in and see the pics.As an aside.Sheri and I will be heading to Clayton 4/27 early.Cheers my friend.
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VStar LadyApril 27, 2014 at 7:34 PM
Coop great to hear spring has finally arrived somewhere. The snow is mostly gone here but the temps are low and the roads still sand covered. (There have been some nice days but sadly I'm at work when that happens.) Looks like May for me ... think this is the latest ever!
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Others say....

"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)