Coop's Corner: October 2018

Saturday, October 27, 2018

That Last Yamaha...A Honda Too

Didn't think it was going to happen, expected rain all day and though there were some drops early, by afternoon no more rain. I tried to start the TW and there wasn't enough battery to make sufficient spark, then put the Gentle Charger on it and pushed the Honda Auto 400 out instead. Even with good spark, that one takes some effort to get running after sitting for weeks. Since I'd hoped to go for a ride on each of them, it didn't matter in what order they rolled.

Some gooey roads...just like last weekend.

Sometimes almost blue sky.... my GPS batteries had run out.

This farm once belonged to my uncles; I put a lot of hay in that barn and later loaded/hauled a lot of manure back to the fields.

This farm belonged to my grandfather before I was born....I have the specifications for the home that our family had built. I'm putting together a package of documents that will be presented to the current owner.

The Red Wing waterfront and grain elevators...

Today was the Trunk and Treasures event at the city's Baypoint Park.

Hay Creek campground, a very popular place for horse owners to stay while trail riding in the area.

Another Minimum Maintenance Road...

A straight line after the GPS quit recording while I was on the Honda.

These two are now getting tucked away for winter....still a bike or two available for a ride.

Friday, October 26, 2018

The Three Yamaha's

Not all that different than The Three Tenors....mine all have distinctly different voices. Once again (hopefully a broken record) I had planned no riding for the weekend based on a wet, cold forecast. This morning's wind was calm, the temperatures moderate in the mid-40's and though cloudy, there were bright spots in the sky. It seemed like a good day to get the Yamaha's out for a run; getting all 4 out would be a challenge because there were actually some other things that needed to be done and yet, if the rides weren't too extravagant, the 4 of them should have been able to run long enough to get truly warmed up with a few more miles total on the odo's.

Today's numbers, the three bikes combined for 137 miles.

Blueberry/Raspberry to keep the home fires burning.

Bumbleberry consumed on the premises.

In the Givi hump bag...ride safe precious cargo!!!

Never had a tank bag on this one before but today the Volt jacket and my phone charger were plugged in. The Zumo could have been; the Oregon was along instead and doesn't need a cord.

2nd kick, how good is that??

The loop on Ol' Blue got cut short; sprinkles turning into real rain and besides, it was getting to be late enough in the afternoon that I needed to take care of some shopping for mom. So the TW200 awaits while these 3 will get pushed as deep in the garage as there's room.

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Makes A Better Photograph.....

By late summer I was quite sure that I'd pass the 7k mile total on the Himalaya this season and this evening it happened. A wet and cool weekend is predicted .... but the annual Swan Ride happens the first Sunday in November so we may not be done yet....:) I was almost home this evening from my ride when I saw the odometer read 6995 and a quick estimate of my distance from home told me that I'd get the 7000 mark before making it to the garage. Arriving home from work this afternoon, 55 degrees and quite cloudy combined with this weekend's forecast got me out quickly to the garage; Riding Weather!

It's been awhile since I'd been out to the Cannon Bottoms and it seemed like a good place to visit this afternoon. The Mississippi is still (again) high and it said, "ROAD CLOSED".

Prairie Island Nuclear generation is less than a mile away.

Wasn't gonna do it......

On the way to Welch....

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)