Coop's Corner: Slimey Crud October 2014

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Slimey Crud October 2014 - Saturday

I went outside this morning at 5:30 and yes it was cold, there were light snowflakes falling. It was actually quite pretty. Back inside my warm and cozy motel room, made my little pot of coffee and started listening to some BBC on the radio, decided that I wasn't in the mood for more dismal Middle East news so sat and stared out the opened curtains with some Pat Metheny, his 'White' album and appropriately enough, Travels right up there among my favorites, on my MP3 player, watching the practice snowflakes fall. That all gave way to doing some reading of a recent download from our library on the Kindle, the hours passed quickly so before I knew it 1:00 arrived and most of the rain had stopped. I enjoyed a couple of the meat sticks and Wisconsin cheese I'd purchased from The Meat Market yesterday for lunch, suited up and headed out for a ride.

There were only a few drops today, mostly just dark clouds though they finally broke up, at least partly, this afternoon for some actual sunshine. By the time 5PM arrived, the clouds got stubborn again and refused to let any more sunshine appear. My online temp reading at 5:00 reported 47 degrees that felt more like 40 with the wind.

A white snaky bale tube; the tube's filled with hay to control spoilage.

County KK disappearing into the valley and beyond.....

Slightly different view.....

Views that were simply luscious today....County F disappearing on the distant hill.

Found some wet gravel today (Dore Road) that really was more silt-on-top-of-gravel than real gravel. I had to pay attention since the softer stuff on top was perfectly willing to take control and decide my front wheel's direction.

Clark Road.......

I've been here before, remember Pekala Road very well.

Sure they misspelled it but I'll forgive them. How could I not take it??

Santa's Loop Road.....a new one for me today.

Yesterday's loop was southeast of Reedsburg, today I went the opposite direction, generally northwest. This is the overview of my roughly 85 miles this afternoon.

Here's a section with more detail of the roads I followed. Look at the choices of roads I did NOT take! How does a rider decide which to choose with choices like these?? The majority are paved; the gravel ones are jackpots when I'm in the mood and on the right machine. Just wandering works.

Depending on wind, cloud cover overnight, we could have freezing here tomorrow morning; skies are predicted to be bright and clear. I'll be checked out relatively early to make my way to Pine Bluff for the Slimey Crud Run.

10 comments:

VStar LadyOctober 4, 2014 at 8:38 PM
Despite the overcast sky and your mention of snow ... the ride looked spectacular. Glad you had the luxury to wait out the weather, down days are good too!
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SonjaMOctober 5, 2014 at 2:38 AM
I my the fall foliage never ceases to amaze me. Despite the temps it must be beautiful to ride through this colour composition. Plus the solitude. I can only dream to experience such a powerful change of season.
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TrobairitzOctober 5, 2014 at 10:45 AM
I am still loving all of the lush greenery.

Oregon has forgotten it is fall and we had 85˚ yesterday and are heading to 86 today, 80 tomorrow, and back into the high 70's by the end of the week.
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DebOctober 6, 2014 at 10:49 AM
Our leaves aren't quite there yet, but your rustic roads caught ahold of my heart and I am ready to roll out into the countryside asap.

Beautiful photos and of course, where I always want to be too!

Thanks for sharing the splendor... :=)
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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)