Coop's Corner: Wisconsin Moto Guzzi Rally

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Wisconsin Moto Guzzi Rally - 2014

Another really, really good rally down in the deepest SW corner of Wisconsin...... not sure any of us would ever be able to expect otherwise. No rain, August appropriate temperatures with just the right mix of most everything else; more than adequate food to eat, beer to drink, lies to tell as well as listen to.

Dave and I met for breakfast in Alma and worked our way to Lake Joy Campground. I'm justified in saying "worked" because Dave noticed and commented upon the fact that every time he looked at his GPS, we seemed to be going at right angles to his Purple Line. Had he been watching MY Purple Line, he'd have seen that we never left the prescribed path, varying not at all, true and consistent. IIRC, two points define a line. MY purple lines contain many more than two points.

We really did have all day (though we did arrive too late for my size of short sleeved T-shirt) and I'm not sorry that we wandered.

There were coffee (Justin prefers bottled water) as well as bathroom breaks.

We stopped up on top, catching the cooling breezes across the hayfield.....the last grey shadow is Iowa across the Mississippi River Valley.

We rolled in to Lake Joy around 4PM on Friday afternoon. I was thirsty, but did manage to register and get my tent set up before visiting this place.

Notice the 24/7 light above the menu to promote clear and concise choices.....

Someone (can't remember who) called me a Hop Head. As a very part time, casual enjoyer of beer, I may have initially felt slighted, I'm now proud of the distinction....that Central Waters' was a delight to behold. I sampled most of the flavors, it was just that the Central Waters samples were larger but don't get the wrong idea. I didn't stick around the rally site all day on Saturday because of the beer. Instead, through procrastination and laziness (bad hunch really)the week before, I overestimated the remaining tire life on the Hyosung's 150/70-17 rear. Almost ordering a new tire twice, that would have still allowed me time to get the tire mounted, I put it off thinking I'd make the season with this bike's tires as is.

I had Routed a GPS loop of around 150 miles for Saturday though when I noticed the condition of my tire upon arriving, I decided to pull the plug on Saturday's ride and spend the day saying hello instead, saving the rear for my 225 mile trip home.

These both run, are Moto Guzzi's and yet are very different.

Eating/seating/soda/coffee/Registration/movie-watching/gathering area....

Dave and I found a spot for our tents....

Dan's new bike, affectionately and hopefully with caution, nicknamed "Hooligan". We're sure that Dan will be mindful of what it will and will not do.

John's new-to-him trailer and awning served us all very well as a gathering spot. John took under advisement our suggestions for more square footage of coverage and more chairs. Of course as long as he is doing the carrying, we're quite willing to suggest all sorts of things.

One of the 'other' bikes, obviously an attendee at the MOA National Rally in St. Paul this year with encouragement to visit next year's affair in Big Sky Country.

She rode from Colorado.....

I just liked all of the colors.....during the day on Saturday while everyone (else) was out riding.

Florida represented.....

Pilot and Mogs headed towards New Glarus and Mt. Horeb......

I rode (very soberly) to nearby Platteville for a salad and a tank fill. Happened upon this amazingly colored field of tobacco and knew I had to stop.

When I got back to the campground, I started up the Flip video recorder and made a pass through the grounds to share what the place is like; the up and down, the number of seasonal units, the beach, the wooded areas and so on.

My plate Saturday evening and I'm unashamed to admit that I made most of this go where it belonged. Here you've got your pulled pork between bread, roast beef beneath the chips, real pork and beans beneath the fruit salad and cole slaw beneath the potato salad. The napkin is beneath the plate.

After we ate and after the awards were presented, Paul hustled up to see Dave's new very high tech jacket liner and new tent. Dave went all out Saturday on his trip to nearby Cabella's, freshening up his camping gear and replacing a tent that's seen way too much UV time.

We did everything we could to delay Paul and his trip home to Iowa in the evening since he'd only come for the day. His new V7 Sport is a supreme example of a motorcycle and one I heartily endorse.

Saturday evening, we were once again treated to the Golf Cart Parade. Our dusty access road could really use a watering before the parade however; the dust gets pretty bad. I counted 33 carts in all.

We weren't really in a hurry to leave this morning and though many riders had already gone by the time we were on the road, there were still many there. According to George, there were just over 200 in attendance.

Deciding to mostly do a direct ride home, we were very unsuccessful at our planned breakfast stop(s). Our first intended break was going to be just north of DeSoto which we were too early for. Next we wanted to stop in rural LaCrosse which road construction challenged us to the point of ..."let's just keep going" and then when we got to Rollingstone, MN and saw barricades in the street, I was certain that we'd messed up Try #3 but we managed to arrive around 1PM (for breakfast) and it looked like the parade wasn't going to begin until 2PM.

The young women serving us in Bonnie Rae's had T-shirts declaring....
"Before the band....."
"Before there was a song...."
"We were here....."
"Rollingstone....."

Lots of Luxembourg lineage in Rollingstone apparently......

Here's my tire and though I'm sure that another 150 miles could have been done on it yesterday, I'm also glad that I chose not to. I know that others use up the last millimeter or two of their tires consistently but I do not, preferring to replace before they get this worn. There is a difference in carcass thickness between brands and models of tires; I don't know how thick these actually are. The GT250R will have a new rear tire the next time it leaves the farm.

Just eked out 500 miles for the weekend.

Tomorrow.....a new job, new hours, a new schedule and new responsibilities. We'll see if the old(er) dog can still learn some new tricks.

11 comments:

AnonymousAugust 3, 2014 at 8:51 PM
.... say.. don't you own a Guzzy... ? ... So.. if you attend a Hyosung rally.,... would ya ride a Guzzy... what are the legal parameters about a rolling beer tap trailer ? have ya thought about.. " inflight" refueling... :)
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VStar LadyAugust 3, 2014 at 10:05 PM
Coop - A perfect sized rally and you've gotta love it when a friend brings the awning and chairs. The Joy Lake campground looks like quite a nice place (complete with grass and water) ... I may have to look it up as a spot to stop by.
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TrobairitzAugust 4, 2014 at 10:25 AM
It sounds like a great weekend even if you didn't do the ride on Saturday. Somedays it is best not to tempt fate and chance the tire.

Congrats on the new job (a wanted move I hope) I am sure you still learn a lot of new tricks.
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SonjaMAugust 5, 2014 at 12:32 PM
What a lovely area for a rally. Looks like you had a fantastic weekend.

And congrats to the new job. I hope you'll like it. Have fun!
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayAugust 5, 2014 at 5:43 PM
Sonja, that area of Wisconsin is more rolling in topography than it is right here along the river, but some of the 'roll' changes are quite dramatic. Around here, we may have steeper changes but the areas around the rally site provide many incredible vistas as the roads follow the spines of ridges and when the ridges drop, the really do.

Thank you, it was a really good day and I had fun. I'm going to like this!
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UnknownAugust 7, 2014 at 12:34 PM
C00P:

so sorry you didn't get to ride with the group. Must have been lonely there being by yourself with all those empty tents.

good luck with your new job. Hope you didn't have to start at the bottom with vacation accruals. Sometimes change is good, and sometimes bad if it was forced upon you. I am thinking this would be much closer to home

bob: riding the wet coast
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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)