Coop's Corner: 3 In A Row

Monday, October 27, 2014

3 In A Row

A late October, Wisconsin weekend with Friday, Saturday and Sunday providing not only acceptable but fine weather for riding. Just think of it!!

We did our best to take full advantage and that meant capping it off with an Extremely Fine ride on Sunday, actually the end crescendo of the 3 day group.

I'd call this riding weather.....

Once again our Route was created on the laptop ahead of time, my goal to string together some (not all!) of my favorites in the area east of the Chippewa River and just a bit further away from the Mississippi River. Already in to the weekend, I contacted Eric, wondering if just possibly he might be up for joining us since the planned riding area was sort of mid-way between the two of us. Pleased to hear back from him in the affirmative, some serious backwards-forwards scheduling needed to be calculated. When I say I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna be there. Picking a meeting spot for lunch and coordinating the rendezvous time placed a great deal of responsibility on Route execution.

It's a very good thing that I enjoy this high level planning to the extent that I do.

Ben and I stopped here on Serum Road for a break....but not too long of break. :)

Serum Road a bit further on and in motion.

Eide Bluff Road.......

Carl Valley Road.......

We made it this time....Ben's Bear Place from last week's interrupted ride and we did it with no oil leaking and two finely running engines.

Senn Bluff Road......

Almost perfect planning by both riding parties had us in downtown Mondovi within minutes of each other....at the front end of the agreed upon time. Eric and friend Hootie were ahead of us by only a couple of minutes.

After lunch, a quick gas stop and then south, our group of 3 bikes and 4 riders had some exploring to do. We stopped here at a spot that should be marked on world maps as an official Overlook View.

Buell's Valley Road.......

Stop at County X to make sure everyone was still on board.

On to Nelson for that ice cream that I'd promised and when we came back out, saw that this nice old Honda was parked next to our group. I'd very proudly own this one and I've not said that about very many of those Golden Wings.

Ready to depart and head our separate ways. Eric and Hootie ready to head for home. It was great to meet Hootie and ride with you again Eric, it's always going to be a pleasure! Ben really enjoyed the day, thanks to you all for being part of it.

10 comments:

BluekatOctober 27, 2014 at 8:35 PM
Beautiful scenery. I'm loving those dirt roads. I stick to paved for now, but I hear those dirt roads calling.
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VStar LadyOctober 27, 2014 at 8:40 PM
That was one phenomenal weekend of riding. Love the photos ... they are making me think about what direction to ride in 2015.
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David MasseOctober 28, 2014 at 5:38 AM
That's quite a ride. That line on the map is as squiggly as they come.
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TrobairitzOctober 28, 2014 at 1:51 PM
I'm having riding weather envy. And those roads look awesome. Way to make us all jelly.
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DebOctober 28, 2014 at 9:46 PM
Wow! What a blast!
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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)