Coop's Corner: September 2026

Sunday, September 13, 2026

Wildcat Mountain Motorcycle Rally - 2026/09/07

A big change this year for the event, a new location after having been 'where it all started' for years and years. The Westby, Wisconsin location became unworkable for a number of reasons so a group of our volunteer leaders settled on this year's location, the Voyageur Inn in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. All in all, an excellent venue for our group, the amenities plentiful, their welcome mat for our group bordered on Red Carpet.

Some refrigerator magnets were provided for those attendees interested....

My trip down.....

Breakfast in Trempealeau....

Voyageur Inn....Reedsburg upon arrival....

and later.....

Registration.......

Entrance to the maze......(1st floor end of hall entry)

My Christmas-themed room....

Voyageur Inn lobby.....

Multiple V-twins.....

A few of us rode to Rock Spring for dinner Friday evening.

Saturday morning's very wet mist.....my weather App was reporting 97% humidity.

The motel's collection of all things Norman Rockwell amazing!

There were POST magazines from various months from the year before and after the year I was born, none from my vintage.

Roger and I went out Saturday on our Himalayan ride(s), almost 150 miles.

We revisited Pekala Rd, once a through road....and we thought that it still was passable, it started that way....

But soon we came to the section that was too low for the nearby Big Creek to avoid. See the forest ahead?? That was once the south end of Pekala Rd, easily traversed.

Formerly "easily traversed....."

I had friends Before Rescue.....

Luckily I had those same friends After Rescue....

After Rescue......

Only one small Perch and a couple of leeches...

So anyway, that was Then, this is Now....The south end of Pekala Rd is now blocked off, overgrown and hopefully some sort of Preserve. Definitely preserved in 4 of our minds. Again, thank you friends!

The plan had been to luncheon at Laughing Larry's but we enjoyed our burgers at Einstein's instead.

Further down the road....

Saturday afternoon back at HQ.....

After breakfast together, Roger went home, the rest of us split up into groups. I followed my South Route for the day.

North Freedom train museum...

Queued up for the Merrimac Ferry....

Cable that the ferry funs on between ports .....

Here it is....5 Corners, roads in all directions definitely worth exploring.

One of my stops for my 500 Barns book....this cluster of buildings still fascinates me.

Monday morning, Labor Day, time to leave Reedsburg and head for home. My goal to stay north of Hwy 33 and south of Hwy 71, this led me back to Ontario and Cashton. But before Cashton, I had to visit the annual Produce Auction, each year on my list of visits. This year it happened, my stop, in spite of the rally not being held in nearby Westby.

Lunch in/on the wagon...

Rasp. fruit pie....now there's some good eatin'.....

This year's Wildcat Rally a 'win' from every perspective.....weather, location, venue, rider safety, roads....fun. Already looking forward to next year!

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)