Coop's Corner: More Stops, Fewer Miles

Sunday, August 16, 2020

More Stops, Fewer Miles

Actually just over half of the mileage today that I did yesterday and on two bikes at that.

The morning started with the bright yellow '04 Helix being rolled out of the garage. Sometimes a stubborn starter after sitting for so long, it actually started rather well this morning. Bright blue skies, a yellow Helix burbling away, it wasn't going to get much better. I got 12 miles from home and decided to turn around and come back. Something that sounded and felt like a bad bearing, somewhere in the transmission system seemed to be getting worse. When under load, it was quite noisy, coasting it got much quieter and that wasn't going to be good long term, so I exchanged it for the Himalayan.

Just under 200 miles for the day, 25 of them on a noisy Helix. One more thing to work on in December.

When I went for my 2nd cup this morning, I noticed this in our backyard. This doe apparently doesn't understand Fence Rules.

But then I got into Wisconsin...

Up and down, up and down....

The tent caterpillars seem to be clustered in certain areas....this was one. This Shagbark Hickory tree was paying a price.

I've ridden past this for 15 years and never stopped until today. They just were never done this way around here.

I've decided to name these Wisconsin's Grand Tetons (Cty TT). I've long considered this one of my favorite roads but in the many, well dozens of times I've done this road, I honestly can't remember ever running it west to east.

I saw so many new things today!!

We called them water runs, places that don't get tilled and remain with plenty of cover vegetation to control erosion.

Lunch time in Eleva...

She must be a regular; Eric has seen her at the same table. I noticed that all of us patrons were giving her plenty of Social Distance.

I went with the Chili and Grilled Cheese Special.

I went with the Strawberry Cheesecake and it was Special.

A nice way to top off my 2 week vacation, the vacation that was supposed to take place in the Maritime Provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island (I had to promise not to take the rented Versys to NF). With plans and reservations made in early March, I thought I was all set for a spectacular couple of weeks in August, exploring the sea shore. As it turned out, I had a very fine couple of weeks in August in our own beloved Midwest. There was no Atlantic Ocean, no salt air and no Bay of Fundy tide changes. No red soil, potato farms or lobster traps. I've seen those things and thought it would be great to see them again. Instead, I saw and felt Lake Superior, enjoyed some very quiet time in the woods and heard my first whippoorwill. There was no salty air, rather dairy air instead that oddly enough I miss and it takes me back.

I have no idea of the total mileage ridden these past two weeks, instead patient enough to see how things shake out with totals in this year's mileage pie at the end of the riding season.

There a number of Posts already started going back to highlight some of the longer, larger August trips. I have a lot more to share about my initial weekend up on the Lake Superior South Shore and of course the trip West, the Almost - A - Sturgis trip. They'll be coming soon....look for them.

It's nice to be home, but I could have used a couple more weeks.

2 comments:

redlegsridesAugust 16, 2020 at 10:04 PM
I think you're going to either need a higher fence or guard towers and machine guns.... ;)
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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)