Coop's Corner: An Overnight - The Beast of Burden

Sunday, October 11, 2020

An Overnight - The Beast of Burden

Poor little Honda....stopped for a bundle of wood in Plainview. Probably a good thing I left the GPS at home this time, would have been just one more thing. Plenty of water and it was a good thing, the pump was broken. I've started to always have water and TP along...a guy just never knows.

Another quick Thursday evening overnight to our nearby Carley State Park, my third such trip this season. First time was on the Elite 250, next it was the much more modern RE Bullet and sidecar. This time the old Honda 400 Auto. Finally stopped this time to check out the plaques though I'm still curious about those huge and ancient white pines.

This was my first time using a backpack though. Cooler and the desire to pamper myself with more comfortable sleeping made for bulkier packing; the bigger bag and the Exped mattress only pack so small. Plus, I'm stubborn about not wearing my warm-for-moving riding gear around the campfire so I bring a redundant layer or two along as a result. Twice last year while carrying the drone in a backpack I almost left it behind but that was the drone backpack. Hasn't happened yet with the camping gear.

This tent hasn't been out since our Undisclosed Camp #1 so this was night #3.

I really like it.

My goal was to arrive early enough to enjoy some of the hiking trails in the park and it worked out.

I counted 9....

One of the 'bridges' crossing the North Branch Whitewater River. A great idea but when one side's bank washes away, that first step can be a doozy.

I made it without hurting myself or getting wet but was thankful we weren't there with our 4 little ones. The only things stable in this photo were the concrete blocks.

Looks fairly innocent from just a little ways upstream....and from the other side.

Dinner time...crisped Spam and souped up Ramen, something I've never had before, souped up or otherwise. I understand it's a staple in the dorms but I've never eaten anything in a dorm, my only dorm time has been moving students in and then out. Dinner was very good, some coffee too but I decided to not make the cocoa later around the campfire, saved for another evening.

Dinner at Carley

Up and outside at 5:30 Friday morning, it was dark but only technically. The moonlight was so bright that I made my oatmeal and first cup completely sans supplemental light! The moon was only half there but Venus seemed to be almost as bright, still visible at 7:30 which was after our sunrise but it finally disappeared by 8AM.

Almost packed up...

One additional tent stake...I've made a couple of tweaks and added this longer stake to the set which together makes the tent roomier, more weatherproof and easier to use.

I had thought that I was completely alone in the campground but late evening I saw a glow in the trees, over the ridge and in the other loop. I have to assume an older couple, quiet and all I heard was one door closing. The quiet was appreciated, the woods almost dead quiet. It's harvest season though and in nearby Plainview, multiple grain elevators are running non-stop with the harvest. Grain trucks were running all night long and were heard, tire noise when their exhausts weren't making noise. Not a bother but I was a bit frustrated with a few of the trucks using their Jake Brakes down this steep draw. The park is on the left (west) of the road in those lovely woods and this draw, deeper than it looks in the photograph is where the Whitewater River flows. With no reason to stop at the bottom, I questioned the need to brake going down when they had all they could do to get back up the other side. But that's just me.

Leaving Friday morning for home....

I stopped in for another cup of coffee before heading home at The Coffee Place. I was just putting my helmet on, earplugs almost in when a very snazzy black Buick pulled through the parking lot and stopped right in front of me. I can remember when Buick's were Grandpa cars but I could see myself in one right now.

"Hey, that's old!!"

I shot back, "Hey, so am I!!"

The old guy in the Buick just may have known his Honda's, couldn't blame him, both the bike and I probably look 40 years older than we are, properly patina'd I'll admit. Regardless, a bit of sunshine was shared between us old geezers.

A very windy, warm 2nd weekend of October. I'm guessing the wind brought the warm temperatures and now Sunday night, the wind will soon bring cold rain. Lots of riding this weekend, more Posts to come as I get time to put them together.

6 comments:

motormikeOctober 11, 2020 at 7:55 PM
I love Ramen noodles .. bur ya have to add either peas.. or corn. then Wa LA !
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David MasseOctober 12, 2020 at 1:27 PM
Very nice getaway Doug. I am slightly envious that you have drone. Oh, and I see that in America’s heartland data security is quaint and friendly, like never-locked front doors; and out-of-band transmission of passwords means if the login info is in metal, the password is in wood :)
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redlegsridesOctober 13, 2020 at 5:32 PM
Definitely more sites available when one is moto-camping...but I don't think I'll be going back to that....the URRV has spoiled me.
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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)