Coop's Corner: June 2022

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

On The River - 2022/06/28

Ben and I spent all of that time looking out, from shore, at all of that water on Lake Superior last weekend so that when we got home, it was time for us to actually be OUT there on the water. We chose the Shark and Salt Free section of the Mississippi, our very own Lake Pepin to do so.

I have no kayak experience but Ben has quite a bit of it, most of his actually Not Salt Free. However, the water in Prince William Sound is not temperate enough for most sharks so he and his group did not have to worry about those big teeth. Seals, eagles and whale spouts WERE seen.

We saw a couple of eagles and some fish jumps.

It was wonderful out there.

Monday, June 27, 2022

A Visit, A MN Guzzi Rally And Some Up Nort' - 2022/06/27

We're starting off this week with something that happened last week and that was Ben's and my great pleasure in meeting and joining Margaret and Dom (A Redleg's Rides) for lunch. Between family issues, that old nagging C-19 problem and scheduling, it didn't look like a rendezvous would or could happen.

Lucky for us, it did.

We met in Trempealeau for lunch, the 4 of us in 2 4-wheeled vehicles even though we are all fully capable of 2-wheeled travel. It made sense that day and I am not ashamed.

The Colorado couple was back in Wisconsin to see Margaret's family, rural folks that are and were Wisconsin based. They brought the TW200 and her Genuine Buddy scooter along, a nice gentle trip east across the plains with time to spend exploring, obviously their preferred travel pace and from what I've seen and heard, they are Accomplished at it. They are currently on their way back home and if not at the same relaxed rate, it will be close enough. No 1000 mile days necessary for those lucky two.

We ate, the food was enjoyable but the conversation and smiles even better. Yes, there was Army talk, 3 of 4 at that table had experience and there was not a single thing wrong with that. Dom and Ben really knew the lingo, Margaret could chip in but mostly Dom and Ben covered ground quickly with their acronyms and experiences. Margaret occasionally nodded, she and I both smiled a lot. If motorcycles were mentioned, I don't remember it....we had important things to discuss.

Have I mentioned that we smiled a lot?

Many of you know my preponderance and frequency of electronic communication with friends and Others. Just a reminder here that there's simply nothing like face to face time with winks AND smiles to make treasure happen.

We were all lucky to have the opportunity to make it happen, Ben and I thankful for Margaret and Dom's gracious sharing of their time with us.

Martha and Ben flanking (Army term??) me...

Martha with some flair and Dom...

Dom highlighted our visit with his own insights, take a look!

Early Friday morning (in the dark early) Ben and I jumped (harder for some than others 'early') into the van and headed north to Grand Marais Minnesota for the MN Moto Guzzi Rally. It's an annual event that happens in a lovely North Shore of Lake Superior town, almost on the Canadian border.

Here's what the event looks like on our National Rally Calendar....

Jun 24 to Jun 26, 2022

MINNESOTA MOTO GUZZI RALLY

Grand Marais, Minnesota. Recreation area campground website: http://minnesota.mgnoc.com. Camp on the shore of Lake Superior at www.grandmaraisrecreationarea.com. Downtown Grand Marias is only a few minutes' walk away. The Gunflint Trail starts here: www.visitcookcounty.com/communities/gunflint-trail. $40 rally fee includes two nights' tent camping with hot showers. Friday night pulled pork meal, Saturday night herring meal, "quick fix" breakfast both mornings. Coffee and lemonade all weekend. 50/50 drawing, awards. (Sorry, no pins). Weather permitting, a classic Italian motorcycle show at Kevin and Lynn Mackey's home. Contact Information and $35 preregistration (until June 1st): MGNOC State Rep, John Ulrich

Here's what it looked like to us....

No, no, no....that was Peg in Amsterdam.

Here we resume regular programming!

Friday after a record-breaking-bike-unload, Kevin, Ben and I headed up the Gunflint Trail. The further north and closer to Canada, the lakier it gets.

We walked downtown to South Of The Border....

After breakfast Saturday morning, part of the group rode up to Ely. Ben and I rode up to Grand Portage.

The Grand Portage Reservation, the narrow green path, the actual historical portage itself and our Hwy 61 path to the museum.

The relationship to Isle Royale.....

The Hovland Dock....

Grand Portage Museum....

From there we rode over to the Marina, the parking lot and launching site for the boat trips to Isle Royal.

The parking lot. Most of these cars are waiting for their owners to return from hiking Isle Royal.

This was the dock that my May 1977 week on Isle Royal began from.

Once again, our MN Moto Guzzi Rally went off without any noticeable hitches. Louise, Lynn, Kevin and John with helpers put on quite the event. As far as I know rain, not even warm rain was able to interrupt much of anything....the prediction was for worse. We were fed and coffee'd well.

It was our son's first rally. He's heard me go on and on over the years about how much I enjoy them, quite good at taking my word for it. Now he knows for himself. Hopefully the next time he's on Leave, the dates will align with another rally.

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)