Coop's Corner: Friday around Richland Center (Thursday too)

Friday, July 10, 2020

Friday around Richland Center (Thursday too)

Cooler and drier today, a perfect summer day for most anything but especially so for exploring back roads in the area on our bikes.

Yesterday's ride cut short with all of that windy wet weather; I didn't have a chance to pull it from the GPS.

Today's ride, more complete, no rain, cooler, some breeze...just about perfect for a July day.

Eric headed for the shower right away last night when we got back; both of us were soaked and both of us cooler than we should have been. I added some layers without necessarily removing all of the wet ones. Eric's shower and dry clothes got him feeling better, his destination once back to our campsite into his dry tent. His wet hanging's were all safely still there this morning; our campground very quiet, just a couple of seasonal camper folks.

I toughed it out for awhile under the awning but the wind was blowing just enough to keep, if not real drops, a mist of moisture flowing through. I finally climbed into the van as well for some phone calls and an audiobook.

Didn't take a valley fog photo this morning, it would have been almost exactly the same image as had been taken each morning this week. I don't stop for photos like I do when I'm going solo so didn't use much film today.

We spent some time swapping machines.....

Today's GPS Route actually took us back to Pakala Road....I wanted to show Eric what it looked like from the other end. There were reports in the area of 5+ inches of rain yesterday and we did see lots of standing water but apparently Pakala stays substantially full with or without huge rainstorms.

From the south end where the rescue rendezvous took place.

The first puddle in from the south side (if you don't count the one right at the intersection).

Not sure where we'll ride tomorrow but it will great wherever it is!

9 comments:

motormikeJuly 10, 2020 at 7:25 PM
So.. swapped bikes.. verdict ? Did Eric see the error of his ways and converted to the RE ?
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayJuly 10, 2020 at 8:13 PM
It’s hard to beat a red Honda.....but I did the right thing. I’d need elevator boots to ride it every day.
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mohessianJuly 10, 2020 at 11:07 PM
"...so didn't use much film today." Funny.
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RichardMJuly 11, 2020 at 12:31 PM
That's a pretty big puddle. Which one of you went through it first?!
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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)