Coop's Corner: Undisclosed Location Rally Weekend

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Undisclosed Location Rally Weekend

It was a motorcycle rally weekend with very low attendance in number of attendees but not in the level of fun and we did it at an undisclosed location.

Thank you Cindy and Eric for hosting in your yard, we all had a great time!

Just because our usual summer rally schedule has now completely fallen apart doesn't mean we can't pick our gathering place and get some very high quality riding in.

669 for my weekend that began Thursday afternoon. Red Thursday, Green Friday, Blue Saturday and Yellow on Sunday.

I arrived around 5pm, Steve was already setup.

We loaded up and headed to Black River Falls for ice cream after some fantastic kabobs and burgers.

On the way to ice cream....

I had great fun with this....novel fun since I'm normally not at the back of the pack. I wonder...which way is Eric going to go?? I was right more than I was wrong....a Great Ride!

My brother Kevin was hauling down from Minneapolis and by shear luck, knowing that we planned for an ice cream run, amazingly managed to be enjoying his Sunday as we rode in. None of us can still quite believe the timing of our chance meeting.... same time, same place.

On the way back after ice cream. Eric was alone on the rig, Kevin behind in his van following us with Cindy riding shotgun inside.

Friday morning, Kev's KLR hauling trailer empty, the bike ready to go.

Steve suiting up....

Eric getting one last look at the Route?

Wildlife?? We saw plenty!

Coffee in Augusta.....and blueberry.....and peach.

One of 2 Bush's Best Baked Beans plants in the USA; their headquarters in TN.

Another mandatory, sitting down and being served, coffee stop.

This look will likely soon vanish.... it should before the tan gets more prominent....maybe already too late??

Saturday morning, not as many images taken, my video camera memory card full. A stop here not far from Wisconsin Paul's residence.

The Galesville Town Square....

Hillclimb location next to I-94...maybe this year later in June?

Burger time.....

Steve's very excited, his first burger 'out' in weeks!!

Hixton lunch stop....

Pie #2, Norske Nook.....rhubarb crisp.....raspberry/sour cream....coffee of course.

Sheep both large and small dotting the landscape....

I had the good fortune to try Steve's XR650L Honda...

Hesston.......

I had the good fortune to try Paul's KTM 690 Enduro. It has a bit more zippity doo dah than the Himalayan does.

Wisconsin Paul came over on his GS to say hello, really good to see you again!

Sunday morning, Kevin just about ready to head for home.

Three great evening campfires....

Steve just about packed up.... Paul had left not long before, heading home to KC.

After a bit more bike swapping and stories that needed wrapping up, Steve and I headed back towards Minnesota, he sticking with me until the Frontenac turn off. We started out on 54 and soon were exploring some side roads that I hadn't been back to for quite awhile. Lovely weather and a great ride back as we mostly paralleled the river.

Sacia Apple Orchards.....

Heavy traffic in Nelson....

Steve and I taking the Hwy 63 detour through Lake City, the 2020 High School graduates lining the streets as part of their ceremonies.

A wonderful, first gathering of the year. It would have been wonderful enough but Cindy's and Eric's hosting was the frosting on top. We knew Cindy could cook (thanks for the dedicated rhubarb cake!!) but Eric's culinary talents were on display as well and not to be overlooked, nor taken for granted. Memories are still being formed even though the last weekend in May 2020 is behind us.

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"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)