Coop's Corner: Hiawatha BMW Rally 2015

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Hiawatha BMW Rally 2015

It's been a whole week and I'm finally going to mention the highlights as I witnessed them.

My machine of choice for the weekend, set up in Touring Mode just like the big guys.

Eric and I arrived within just a minute or so of each other, quite by accident. I registered first only because I got to the tent first.

Leo's South was there once again with plenty of Demo machines for us to try.

Once Eric and I got setup and registered, we headed for Lanesboro for lunch, using Hwy 16 that follows the Root River. It's the paved one. After our dining, we followed the Root River again, only this time it was on the gravel. This road is on the north side of the river, the bicycle/hiking path is in between.

Once back to Rushford, we took the Scenic Overlook road up to the top of the bluff.

The expansive lookout view over the valley.

Dave was there with his new sidecar rig on a K-bike, Dan was back with his K-bike rig, each one of them with their pups.

Theirs weren't the only rigs with extra wheels......Someone asked him how he decided to make it this particular length. "....had a 10' piece and cut it in half...." On the back of his V-Strom, he's a happy camper.

Eric and I went down to Houston for dinner, totally on Rapid Roy's endorsement and we'd both agree that Roy knew what he was talking about. We got out of the cafe and saw what can only be described as black clouds to the west. We no sooner got back to the campground and off our bikes.....

The Demo bikes getting a rinsing.....

John returning to camp, he's been out searching landscapes during the last couple of rallies.

Saturday morning we headed back to Houston for breakfast and I returned to camp and left Eric to do more exploring solo. I was expecting my brother and Anna to ride down on their new HD and late morning that's just what happened so I wanted to stick close to the rally site.

My home away from home....

Dan's setup....hammocking once again....he and I both left our Helices at home.

Remember two weeks ago when I mentioned organized and tidy??

I spoke to Brad about his new big Yamaha....LOTS of machine for the asking price of this fine new '13 model. He and I both agree that the white was extremely attractive.

Saturday evening's banquet, once again I was a winner of prizes. A T-shirt and then a $100 gift certificate from a Twin Cities dealership. If I'm not careful I'll be banned from these rallies unless I start showing up with the proper branding.

The pulled pork food lines.....

Sunday morning was clear and very crisp, coffee drinkers were waiting extra early for something dark and hot. The sun was almost too slow in reaching the deeper parts of the valley.

Traditionally the Un-Quiet Zone but I happen to know the majority of these particular tent owners and they may have quite intentionally found the Quiet Zone. Some sort of reverse something or other??

Everyone heading out and on their way home.

I think I heard 252 attendees, a good turnout considering the forecast wasn't exactly conducive to record breaking attendance.

I joined Dave P for breakfast before seeing him off on his way back to Illinois. Rather than take the long way home, I did a very straight line so that I could take one last afternoon ride with Ben before he left for GA. I got home and asked, "which roads, which bikes?"

"Gravel!"

I'm already really missing my best riding partner, hopefully we'll be at it again someday.

3 comments:

TrobairitzJune 4, 2015 at 11:33 PM
Awesome gravel roads. Glad you missed that rainstorm. Best watched from under a covered overhand and not through the visor.

We are going to try and do more sightseeing on gravel roads this summer and maybe less of the single track in the OHV areas. The views are better and there are less people.
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Dar June 5, 2015 at 12:04 AM
looks like a good turn out. Love the sidecar rigs, that is ultra comfort. I wish we had more rallies around here, it would be fun. I think i need to venture out on gravel a bit more.
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RichardMJune 5, 2015 at 1:20 AM
Looks like a nice rally, not too many people. A good time to catch up with friends. A little rain but it sure beats too hot and humid...
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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)