Coop's Corner: An Un Rally Weekend

Sunday, June 26, 2016

An Un Rally Weekend

No Brand or Location Rallies this weekend, a break from my almost every weekend away for some event or other.

Saturday morning another visit to Diamond's finally, the weather fine, the turnout as well. It was British Bike Day, there were a fair number and at last count before I left, roughly 30 bikes.....and I didn't even ride mine. Rick had mentioned that he had an old Windstar fairing and wondered if I wanted it. Though not sure why, I did so I drove over for the carrying capacity rather than ride.

Feeling only slightly guilty about not really getting an early start to any of my rides yet this season, today I did my best to break that streak. Official sunrise for us was 5:26AM and I was out the driveway before that.

I stopped in Lake City (home of Water Skiing) to get a shot of the many flags lining the banks of Lake Pepin. This weekend is WaterSki Days....parade, carnival, beer tent, WaterSki Show, etc. Peg and Lauren are there as I write watching the on-water antics.

Yesterday's temps in the 90's led to overnight fog in the valleys and there was an abundance.

Between Minnesota City and Winona along the MRT (Mississippi River Trail Bikeway)

I could and maybe should have labeled today's Post "Wildlife Day". A pair of Sandhill Crane's with a pair of offspring, legs much less long, something I've not ever seen before. Firstly, a pair of spotted fawns with their mother, then later a trio of spotted fawns, all on the road as I rounded a curve. Do they have triplets?? Finally, another lone and much smaller spotted fawn all alone on a canopied narrow road. 3 times I came upon woodchucks sunning themselves in the road and each time, they stood their ground, got back on their little haunches and were ready to defend against my 19" front wheel, teeth barred.

Hemlock Road south of Eau Claire....

I wasn't seeking gravel today but it found me nonetheless.....

I started with no plan (almost forget how to do it that way) so all day I just wandered, then it dawned on me that I was making a counterclockwise loop. Before I knew it, I was on Double O and that of course meant that I had to turn onto Route 66.

I stopped for lunch in Mondovi at Double D's, my burger excellent. I shall return. Out of Mondovi I fell back into routine, up County TT, stopped at the small cemetery on the corner, the one with the excellent view overlooking the alley and then headed up School Road to find some shade.

Eventually to the church at County D/F where I made another shade and cold drink stop. Last night I stuck two water bottles in the freezer and today carried them in my small flexible cooler. Was that ever a good idea!!

There I noticed this street sign......"Cheesehead Whey" (Mike, where's that photo I took???)

Down County D to County I, then Rall Bluff and down into the river valley on Mike Varenick Road. An ice cream stop in Nelson for a scoop of Rum Cherry and the back way, up on the blufftop into Lake City.

A very, very fine ride day on the Breva, 235 easy miles.

8 comments:

David MasseJune 27, 2016 at 6:35 AM
My life is very un-Doug like :)

I should make more of an effort to get out and ride. I have at least three offers to take up for guided rides of our new surroundings. I need to pull the trigger on those.
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TrobairitzJune 27, 2016 at 10:54 AM
That fog picture is beautiful!!
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motormikeJune 27, 2016 at 6:41 PM
.. " street " sign..? mo' like dirt road sign.. wonder where " chessehead whey " goes... ? :)
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EricJune 29, 2016 at 12:33 PM
Test
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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)