Coop's Corner: 2011 GR3 Rally (Great River Road Rally)

Thursday, March 8, 2012

2011 GR3 Rally (Great River Road Rally)

Between other rallies or other commitments in the past, I'd heard about and knew various friends that made the GR3 Rally one of the first if not the first (we're up north) rally of the season. It's a rally hosted by the Madison BMW Club, held in Soldier's Grove, WI and has been for 37 years. Last spring, mid-May 2011, was my first time. I was anxious to attend a rally with my newly remodeled '83 Honda Ascot, affectionately now known as TranZalp (last Post) and the GR3 was the one to be honored with the old Honda's attendance.

Soldier's Grove and the surrounding region is an area I spend much of my time riding in and around. As far as I'm concerned, it's about as good as riding gets for the roads I enjoy the most. There are lots of County roads designated as "O", "A", "T"(Letter Roads) and so on. When a short sectioned County Road links two of them together, connecting "H" and an adjacent "T", the designation of the link road would be "HT". The smoother, wider and faster County Roads are fine, but even more fun for me are the Named Roads, the smaller, neighborhood roads that often are rougher, narrow, may turn to gravel for a bit before returning to asphalt again. A good ride in my book is a nice blend of both.

Friday night at Veteran's Park, the rally site.....

Saturday morning, my usual early walk-around.....

Camp still mostly asleep.....

Louie's new Victory......

Following my normal practice, I left Saturday after breakfast for my previously planned ride, something I'd created a GPS Route for at home. Charged with (volunteered for) creating a Slow Ride for our annual Wildcat Rally over the Labor Day weekend, I was anxious to pre-ride the Route to see if the roads, conditions, etc. were suitable for a group of riders. Normally lucky with my pre-planning, I wanted to verify that the ride would cover some of the more scenic and interesting roads.

One of the stops was to be the interesting geological formation in the park at Rockbridge.

You can see the point ahead where it looks as though the trail leads into the formation......it does......

And through to the other side.......

Rockbridge was on the easternmost part of the ride's loop, from there it was west to one of our favorite spots for pizza AND/or ice cream, The Blue Goose. If you go, make sure you watch for the horse and buggy traffic on the road.

Finishing up my pre-ride back at Westby, satisfied with the Route. Or course, since this time I hadn't picked out a cone at the 'Goose, I made the stop in Westby for coffee and a scone....

Ole and Lena Coffee Shop.....

From there, south, the long way to enjoy gravel where I could find it, back to Soldier's Grove.

Saturday evening's pre-banquet meeting......

Once again, a BMW Rally allowed and promoted a great time for a non-German machine and its pilot.

Sunday morning.......

No comments:

Post a Comment

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)