Coop's Corner: Easing Into The Last Half Of October

Saturday, October 14, 2017

Easing Into The Last Half Of October

Monday afternoon before our monthly VJMC meeting, we had a chance to inspect Roy's new '72 Honda, this one with 4 wheels.

A big 600cc engine....

Tuesday afternoon's short ride.....

The Mississippi River is at spring-time high levels, unusual for the second week of October.

Friday's mid-morning's sky to the west.....

.....and then a short 5 minutes later. Not long after that, some sprinkles which sent me back home; I'd not worn the right clothing for 50 degree rain.

Before I'd gone very far on my way back home, the rain quit and the skies got a bit brighter, contrary to the images I'd been watching on the radar. A boat launch in the Wisconsin back channel; the docks not very usable.

Red Wing's Back Channel which doesn't really belong to our side of the river at all. Here I was surrounded by water.

A bunch of bridge construction photos for Tom...

This worker was struggling to get his Lift positioned properly.....there was water everywhere, only complicating construction with the river's high water level.

Re-bar and more re-bar....

Looking through the boat docks over to the Red Wing (Minnesota) side.

Looking downriver, I was surprised to hear the splashing of her SUV approach, thinking that someone might be coming to get me out of there.

Then it dawned on me that she was most likely one of the construction workers' partner, trying to access the many large camper trailers that were on the downriver side beneath the bridge. Island Campground and Marina straddles the area under the highway and there were quite a few trailers beyond where we were.

I'm parked almost exactly where the Island Campground is marked below, the pavement ends where the white line does. With the high water levels, much of the island is now very wet.

Back out the way I came....this the longest (and deepest) section. Ahead there's an island where...

....I stopped...

to take another photo and to let some water drain out of the cowling. Now at home, I'm not smelling fish....yet.

You too could live on the island...in a "Tiny House".

On the way back home, one more stop for a photo of the bridge project.

Home for a late lunch...and then the skies got brighter. I'd thought about switching machines but the Morphous was working so well that I got back on to head out once more.

The late morning ride to Baldwin (clouds) on the left and afternoon ride up to Durand on the right.

An October Saturday afternoon ride wouldn't be complete without some gravel...Elk Creek Road was my chosen venue.

You'll note on the map above the SW vector in red....it ends along the river in the small town of Stockholm.

Whaddayahgunnado??

A pretty stop in Bay City's Park for a quick call to mom at the promised time, reassuring her that I would in fact be in town to do her shopping.

Home, a phone call to get "The List", the Morphous in the garage, the sidecar pushed outside (this pushing 'action' STILL makes me smile every time I do it) and on my way. The Shop went well at The Grocery, pleased with myself that everything is going to fit in the sidecar, jacket on, helmet on and glove, earplugs left out for the short trip to mom's Assisted Living location, I climb on. All I get is my very new relay clicking which was actually more of a buzz. Not putting 1+1 together, I slide my purchased items around, unload some of them to access the tool area behind the sidecar's seat, knowing that my custom made jumper cables will be right where I left them.

I wish everything was right where I left it but all too often, somehow, some way, things must get shifted to some other place.

Assuming (you know what they say...) that my new relay is at fault, I put the red clamp right over to the terminal on the starter.......Uhhhh....not enough battery to spin the starter. It's only then that I see a connector that was apart and apparently still is from my relay replacement. At that point, things are starting to finally gel in my mind. I remember thinking the neutral light seemed very dim in town and I didn't have my shaded visor down. I'd beep-honked my horn at a local rider I'd met in town and the horn sounded weird. So I was pretty sure that I knew why I was having trouble but what to do about it was still a puzzle.

Across the street, a store with batteries and I'd remembered, even some designed for Sport Vehicles. I didn't find a 12volt the correct size with the Positive terminal on the Right side but I did see some very nice, cheaper garden tractor batteries. I didn't need a bag, thank you and back out to the bike. Somehow I had the presence of mind to suit up, realign the groceries leaving room for my spare battery and confident that I'd figured out my problem. Helmet and gear on with the new big battery on the ground, red clamp again on the starter's Hot lug and the bike didn't have to turn over even once to be running. A very quick dance to get my battery, cables too in the car and I was off.

Road construction did me a favor, forcing a longer short route to mom's. The visit was briefer than we'd both planned on (I'll be returning today to take care of business) since I was still not all that confident about the fix and it was getting dark. When I got back outside to go home, I pushed the button and it again was running as designed. Just to be sure, I put the 1 amp charger on for a couple of hours before bedtime.

Just over 200 for the day and ready for another ride(s)!!

6 comments:

SonjaMOctober 14, 2017 at 10:35 AM
How does the scooter manage the slippery looking dirt roads? Looks like pretty difficult terrain to me.

With my few belongings I could live in a tiny house, but I'd need a garage for car and bike and bicycles. Would it still count as minimalism?
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redlegsridesOctober 14, 2017 at 5:43 PM
I must be hard on batteries, I go through them more often than most people it seems.
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TrobairitzOctober 15, 2017 at 9:52 AM
That old Honda is pretty cool, I remember someone in high school had a blue one, but it wasn't in that nice of shape.

Glad you managed to limp the bike/sidecar home. Smart thinking on buying the battery.
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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)