Coop's Corner: Some Autumn Riding

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Some Autumn Riding

The structured Rally Weekends have reached their end and now that we're in October, it's every ride for itself. Last Saturday I got out for less than a couple of quick hours, Sunday a week ago I did a bit better. Yesterday's ride topped last Sunday's and today's adventure beat them all with not only the longest amount of time spent on the bike but with the nicest weather by far.

If I could blame the infestation of Nasty Beetles upon our political season I sure would but that won't work; the bugs have been with us these last few years and are pain in my proverbial butt. We've had our cool weather and now some really nice warm weather. Somehow, some way, the little pests are out seeking moisture, or so I'm told. I'd be riding with my face shield open but time and time again today, I was reminded about how futile that can be. Stopped for coffee in Independence and a woman there complained that she had tried "laying out" (resting prone in the yard to soak up the last of the seasons rays of sun) and literally ran for the house. I simply don't get how you helmetless riders can even stand it.

OTHERwise, it has been fantastic riding!!

The 2nd weekend in October's rides were both on the black Yamaha scooter, Saturday's miles around Lake Pepin. On Sunday I wandered across the river towards but not quite reaching Baldwin, then west to River Falls and home again.

Now you know.....

This round barn is (was) one of the few remaining in the neighborhood.

Yesterday (Saturday the 15th) I was again on the Morphous, the area explored primarily Buffalo County and never very far from the Mississippi River. Today I had the KLR probing further north and east in Buffalo County, duplicating some of the roads that had been run yesterday. I discovered more than once that totally by accident I was running some of my favorite ones from the other direction. I'm sure that I'll say it again.....it's amazing how different they look doing them backwards.

From the bluffs above Lake City (hadn't crossed the river yet), Lake Pepin wrapped around the two points that jut out into this wide spot in the Mississippi, Point No Point and Frontenac St. Park and our neighborhood on the horizon.

Now Wisconsin.....

Buffalo River near Tell.....

Had the DSLR today with only the 50mm lens....swans on this flooded area of the Buffalo River.

I didn't try but there are truck tracks between the sign and green bike.

Bedding already baled.....

Steeper here than it looks....

The harvest operation here caught my eye......corn is a row crop, at least here in the Midwest it is. Normally as the combine/cornhead are moving through the field, the stalks are as obedient as soldiers, all tipping forward in unison as the points on the cornhead sneak between the rows. He's not going with the grain here, rather against it. Moving slow, the head's points are establishing their own rows and the dried stalks are jumping willy nilly in every direction as the gathering chains snap off the stalks. As I remember it, some machines (designs) were more adept at this than others.

Another 'caught my eye' here and I saw it most everywhere.....This cornfield was chopped which means the corn was cut before it was dried; a certain amount of moisture is still present and the corn intentionally ferments (is not supposed to happen with much drier shelled corn) as silage. Silage takes the entire plant, corn harvested for grain separates the stalk, cobs, leaves, etc. from the tiny kernel, keeping only the grain. With our very wet fall season, most all of the chopped fields are growing healthy crops of very green grass.

I had time to wait and didn't mind taking it........

County "Q".....If I had to pick 5 of my favorite 20, this one would be in that group.

See my road tipping up just to the left of the barn's top?

It would seem that I need faster, more powerful machines. I must be stuck in the 30's though I did manage to surpass my last reading of 35......

Autumn is by far my favorite season, this Post shares some strong hints as to why.

I'm not done yet for the season and I say that with serious conviction.

6 comments:

EricOctober 17, 2016 at 7:47 PM
Spectacular, so well documented! I always look forward to reading about you adventures. You inspire riders everywhere to get out and enjoy.
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David MasseOctober 18, 2016 at 5:07 AM
Beautiful scenery Doug. We spent the weekend visiting in Ottawa and Montreal. Lots of driving, no riding but stunning fall colours nonetheless.
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HenryOctober 21, 2016 at 1:30 PM
Looks like the perfect day for a ride! Love autumn, great pictures thanks for the share.
Samantha
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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)