Coop's Corner: August 2018

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Michigan Wrap Up

I had a lot of fun and it was a trip I needed to make when I made it. Thought about weeks ahead of time, ideas of where to go, a few things I wanted to see or visit, nothing was definite. West had been an option, a strong one, but going that direction meant another trailer ride, SD or CO for some back roads and a short week, 7 instead of 10 days (Labor Day Weekend means Wildcat Rally back in Wisconsin) just seemed to rushed. In addition, I wanted to spend the entire time riding rather than driving, to put that sort of miles on the Himalaya.

A self imposed goal of taking even less along, the refinement continues and I regretted only one thing left behind and that was my helmet camera. It stayed behind very intentionally but more than once I wished that it on my helmet and was being switched on. The little $65 RCA 7" actually worked well enough and when traveling sans minivan, it will be my communicator of choice. The only thing I wish that I'd have done differently there was to have taken the time to use my Iphone app to process a few of the photos.....some cropping and some lightening. I seldom do much more than either one of those anyway and it really isn't that difficult. Typing (word creation) was cumbersome but certainly doable, the upside being that I wasn't as long winded as I would have been. The little unit had to be tipped vertically so that the entire soft keyboard didn't obscure where the cursor was. I can type well enough without watching but that never lasted more than a few characters on the small device.

I'm taking it along tomorrow to our 32nd annual Wildcat Mountain Rally, mostly because I can, doubting that I'll be Posting daily as I tried to do this past week.

Regarding the photos, I took my Lumix camera along and only remember pushing the shutter button once...I haven't even looked yet! Having no way to upload photos, I used my phone exclusively, Blogger making it easy to grab images directly from the phone. Normally those two have switched roles.

The total trip, 1836 miles.....

Michigan ......

Ontario, "Searchmont Road" Hwy 556....

A few photos that didn't make the daily posts.....that is if I can remember which ones did.

To my knowledge, he never made it to the campground the next day and I was disappointed. I got his photo, he got mine. Just maybe we'll get connected over on good ol' ADV; the most direct common thread we had.

My brother told me that there was a big 115 year HD gathering in Wisconsin...if there were 60 bikes on the ferry, 59 were from Milwaukee.

A long ride for the pup....once upstairs, passengers were not permitted down below. I;ll bet he wasn't looking forward to it as much as I was.

Recognize this place?? Eric, Jeff, Rod?? I had everything I needed, still a little money left and it wouldn't have taken much. But....the Wildcat Rally is this weekend, an absolutely necessary event on my calendar.

I stopped for pie but never even finished the Turkey Swiss Cranberry sandwich, so no pie.

Back to my river......home

The Himalaya was the perfect bike for this trip, can't wait for the next trip.

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

On The Boat

So far no one has corrected me; SS Badger ;). Pretty sure the USS units belong to the Navy.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Weather

The upper Midwest is getting the rain that we were missing all summer. With it, winds and lots of nasty. Last night was the worst weather my tent has ever protected me from. Audiobooks, music and BBC.

I was texting Peg last night, she with tornado warnings. I was camping in Severe Thunderstorm Warnings and now tonight Tornados up where I was last night. Based on recent and expected weather I gave up my campsite and made a reservation .in Manistee instead. It seemed wise to be closer and dryer before getting on the USS Badger tomorrow.

In my tent last night....

Currently......

A milestone.....

The nicest it was today....

Dunemobiles.....

Serendipity? All day I'd been planning to take the next Seasonal Road and not following through. Finally one was approaching on my screen.....COOPER ROAD!!

Branches in the woods and on major roads, I saw more than one guardrail buckled fromt large trees...cable and power line wires hanging.

I should have stopped Sunday...there was a dump truck, solid axles from front to back.

Arcadia Dunes....

Michigan's version of the Wisconsin Rustic Roads?

I did some dirty and muddy today, some fun roads as I just wandered. Saturday in Ontario on the Searchmont I essentially ran 80 miles...40mph, 4th gear, 4000rpm. Today was 2nd gear, sand wet enough to just get me through.. The OEM MT_60 tires are working. (and wearing) SO well .but they aren't sand tires. I'm no pro but I've come to appreciate the difference.

The Himalaya is working flawlessly; no question it prefers 60 to 70 but then so do I. It's on the center stand tonight, a wise choice.

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)