Coop's Corner: April 2022

Monday, April 25, 2022

Mix Follow-Up - 2022/04/25

I had intended to include a video with yesterday's blog Post but simply ran out of time. Here it is, meant to be a part of the rides that were highlighted in Another Mix and Mismatch - 2022/04/24

Sunday, April 24, 2022

Another Mix and Mismatch - 2022/04/24

The last couple of weeks have seen a little something of everything....~~little motorcycle rides~~ motorcycle rides of little length, little bits of garden work, other various little accomplishments around home and so on.

There were well/water supply issues....

When you can't get out of the car for coffee you know it's serious....

Peg found some ceramic eggs and we're using them to manipulate the Ladies' egg laying habits.

and they're working!

Two machines that went into winter (the TW200 in to Spring 2021!!) without running have been revived. If you remember, last September the Elite 250 let me down in the Target parking lot. New vacuum lines and a new fuel filter now have it purring like the kitten that she is.

Speaking of dirt, we had 8 yards of black dumped to top up our garden beds and hopefully fill some low spots in our poor yard.

Related to that process....

Our Easter meal and the hot cross buns that were delivered to mom and her sis....(I'm the designated QC Inspector...no failures here!)

Pleasant Valley Farm eggs, the stamp courtesy of Hanna. As Mike says, "helps prevent rustling"

Finally some serious 2-wheel content.

A brand new rear tire on the TW200 but in Saturday's gravel conditions, a bit more bite in front would have been welcomed.

A fella had to catch some of those ruts just right....

The diner in Kellogg for lunch....

A favorite stopping point where the railroad does and the Old 61 bridge did cross the Zumbro River.

KLR out for its first run of '22 as well....

Add a coffee table, maybe the Keurig too and this could be a furnished apartment!

Finally, today I met Eric for lunch in Eleva, a very windy 50 degree day!

Some old habits are hard to break.....

And finally.....it's been a long time since I've seen this and now, a full color 8 x 10 version in all its glory was received in the Post...just look at the detail! As the sign says, have a care!!

Thanks Dave!!

There will soon be a video of ride highlights on the TW200 and Scarabeo 500.

If this hasn't been a hodge podge mix, I don't know what is!

Thursday, April 14, 2022

Galveston 1977 - 2022/04/14

Forty-five years ago this week I at the very last minute decided to spend a week down on the Gulf of Mexico. I was working full time in a St. Paul suburb, had the Honda 750 packed and rode it to work Maundy Thursday morning. At lunch break I mounted the Honda and headed south, arriving late at a very affordable motel along I-35 in Ottawa, KS Thursday evening The following evening I was in a gulf-side motel in Galveston, even the air was full of salt.

Easter morning.....

Mom and dad were hosting the family for Easter so I found a phone booth and called home. It was hotter in Minnesota than it was in Galveston that day.

The ferry from Galveston Island to Bolivar....

Of course I wanted to visit the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Interesting story here.....I arrived early and parked way out in the parking lot. For some reason on my way in to the Visitor Center, I looked over to the opposite corner of the parking lot and noticed a Winnebago. Two attractive young women were milling about outside and then two big guys opened the door and stepped outside to join them. Without thinking any more about it, I continued through the parking lot and entered the building.

Before very long those same young women were spending a lot of time admiring the same exhibits that I was. They introduced themselves and were very friendly with emphasis on the very part of friendly. I was trying to see (and learn) from the exhibits but they were determined to be my very good friends. They told me about their parents' Winnebago out in the parking lot, wondering if I might be interested in some fun. I told them I was very interested in our Space Program, that it was the fun I was looking for.

I spent more time in TX than I'd really planned on, left Galveston, heading east to New Orleans. I stopped for a photo of Spanish Moss. My only real plan was to follow the river north.

I didn't really enter New Orleans, saw Lake Pontchartrain took a left and followed Hwy 61 home. I remember very little....the Memphis skyline... was anxious to slow down and revisit Hannibal, MO.

This wayside is just outside of Galena, IL. Last Friday (4/2022) I drove through Galena on my way home from the visit with Dave and Tim. I got a big smile when I saw this wayside again because a few of my motorcycle trips have involved a stop here, none as long as the one back in 1977 though. My first time here was back in the summer of 1973 when my brother and I stopped here on our way to Texas (only made AR).

It was a fun week, I remember a lot more about the first half than I do the last half. It was warm salty bliss along the Gulf. But I've never forgotten this spot outside of Galena.

Happy Easter 2022 everyone!!

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)