Coop's Corner: October 2023

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Picnic Lunch At The Zumbro - 2023/10/23

After a morning's worth of chores, a quick ride was in order. I put a sandwich together, put some coffee in my thermos and headed out, quickly narrowing down where I'd stop. Lots of choices but I was after some quiet privacy, the Public Landing on the Zumbro River in Theilman would fit my bill.

Macintosh, my favorites!

It was really windy but the drone did very well!

A pleasant lunch in some very wonderful afternoon touch-n-go sunshine. The weather the predictions are going, this was likely my last ride.....in October.

Friday, October 20, 2023

The Open House - 2023/10/19

Somehow we'd heard of an Open House at a credit union in Black River Falls, Wisconsin just a few days prior and thought it might be a good excuse for a bike ride. Who wouldn't be excited about a CU open house....free coffee, brats, cake, money.....Ron's bike after all needed to be warmed up for his end of season oil change....a 300+ mile plus day for him should have been enough. My day was 231 and my oil was indeed warm. But as Thursday morning dawned I'll admit that we all began to have 2nd thoughts. A cool, potentially wet-enough day made free coffee (we didn't have a lot of hope for free money) sound like a distant 2nd when we could have coffee in our nice warm and dry homes.

Still, common sense prevailed. The ride was the exact right thing to do.

But before I highlight the day I've got to share last evening's beauty in the sky....a fitting wrap up to our day, doubles if you squint.

OK, back to our Open House adventure.....I took the yellow one, seemed season apropos.

Going To was the southern plan, we rode the From together until just before I crossed the river. Ron, Greg and Steve still had to get back to the Twin Cities area. By that time they had beautiful skies (warmer) in which to make their trips home.

Our leaves have to be at peak this weekend....

I'd encourage any open house visit to begin with a hearty breakfast...

I did.

There was a sign at one of the many Farm Markets and orchards along the way..."Honk If You're Hooty!" Believe you me, I was feeling very hooty and let my left thumb do its thing with abandon!

I was on the combined WI 93/54 right here, about to turn on to 54 at the upcoming split. The last time that my Honda Helix was on this road I crossed the entire state of Wisconsin on 54, Washington Island coffee my destination.

Stopped at the Melrose corner, a nostalgic and hand warm-up event. At this point,, my GPS was saying that I'd make the Open House at 11:50, our target arrival. Ten minutes here blew my schedule out of the water.

I did not know....

Garmin wanted me to take Cutoff Road....I disagreed.

Now I'm back on the plan....

I don't know what got into me....I certainly knew better. I turned off on 8th and rode up to the Drive Thru....NOT the main office.

Here we go, it's right over there.....

Steve kindly put this bundle together for a farmer guy we'd had contact with but had as of that time, not met face to face. We would solve that problem in an hour or so.

Note Steve's heated gear as he pulled up beside me....his thermostat on his 'Stich, the yellow knob just below his forearm. Multiple items of heated gear, not sure what all the knob(s) control. I wore my Warm Bib, draws only 30 watts, much more in keeping with my smaller, less electronically capable machines compared to Steve's big Concours.

This is my seasonal, Micky Mouse setup to run my Zumo on the Helix. In the early days, all of my Garmin's were powered by the cig lighter sockets. Now I have to run the Zumo/Bib cables to my SAE plug below my hip.

Lunch w/cake was served to very busy farmer in the midst of harvest.

I was excited....a chance to run a part of County D that I'd never ridden before. I forget a lot of things, but NOT something like that.

We had some drops along County's D, T and I (bridge out) .....

We pulled in to regroup and use the facilities

I was making up our trip as I went and right up until downtown Arcadia, I was in control. But a blocked railroad crossing required a new plan. An easy detour would have been easy but a new plan quickly came to mind....and I'm glad that it did.

Off the Cutoff and ready to turn right onto Pretzel Pass

A hard right onto Alligator Slide....

The famous church on County G....

Lower Eagle Valley....

I needed fuel in Alma, the red bar hadn't quite started blinking yet

We split up in Alma, they up WI 35, I crossed the river at Wabasha

Seems everywhere I go, Flagmen and Single Lane....

Coming into Lake City, almost home

A great day, thanks to the fine folks at CCU, Co-Op Credit Union in Black River Falls. We're all very glad that we made the trip, enjoying their hospitality!

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)