Coop's Corner: AHRMA Road America 2017

Thursday, June 8, 2017

AHRMA Road America 2017 - Day Before

What a day!!

Lovely, warm and breezy....a fine day to be on the little V-Twin.

Other than a stop in Lake City and Ripon for some ice and firewood, I mostly drove straight through.

Checked into the motel last night right at 9:30; the trip to Fond du Lac an easy drive and found out this morning I was parked next to the big guys.

This year, a clockwise loop to the northeast.....an extremely pleasant 180 miles.

There's a high ridge running north/south on the east side of Lake Winnebago and the wind machines are very numerous; Lake Winnebago in the distance.

Eric (and Larry!) have me paying extra attention to old barns and silos. In this part of Wisconsin these solid concrete silos seem to be everywhere, old, original and still standing. Old, magnificently kept barns around every corner too.

Scenic AND a shortcut....you can't beat that!!

Before I left Two Rivers.....makes me wish mine was blue.

A few years ago I spent time along this shore with the Yamaha TW200 but didn't manage to find this particular park and beach at Two Rivers, definitely time spent here today was not wasted.

During that same trip a few years ago, I spent a couple of nights at Point Beach State Park. One morning I rode into Two Rivers and visited a coffee/bicycle shop, now closed. I also spent time at one of the nicest libraries I've ever been in, the Lester Public Library in town. When I went past today, the "Used Book Sale Today" sign was just too much for me to resist.

Right there front and center in the periodicals.....

My winnings......

It was getting to be lunch time so I looked for something interesting in Two Rivers. Connie's Cafe looked very closed, so I stopped at Schwarz's Pub & Grill for their Soup and Sandwich Special. Located in an old bank building, the former safe has been put to better use.

and this was out in the parking lot when I left.....

Since I'd already visited the great Maritime Museum in Manitowoc last time, I thought I'd go down to the Badger Ferry terminal to see if anything was going on. Having no clue about the ferry's schedule over to Ludington, MI I was glad that I decided to take a look.

I had been sitting on the berm patiently waiting for departure but had to move.....air got just a tad dirty.

The Maritime Museum and submarine that I visited last time.....

Helpers getting ready to make way....

St. Anna's church and park.....

Palm Tree Road Bridge......I rode over it with the Yamaha last time, decided not to disturb the boys that were fishing today.

Tomorrow they both get unloaded in the Carousel....we'll be there early.

8 comments:

TrobairitzJune 9, 2017 at 11:57 AM
Love that stone bridge.

And I have to ask what kind of trailer you are using. Hubby sold our heavy one and is looking for a lighter aluminum one to tow the bikes behind the Subaru.
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JasonJune 9, 2017 at 2:15 PM
I like your take on my home turf. There are a lot of concrete silos and restored/ well maintained barns in the area, I guess I never noticed that you don't see them that often in western Wis. My grandparents had a nice old machine shed and barn with a concrete silo.

This comment is a week late but, two of my favorite parks are High Cliff on the north side of lake Winnebago and Kohler-Andre south of Sheboygen. If you're ever camping out that way, those are a couple of gems.

Happy trails!
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BeemerGirlJune 13, 2017 at 8:35 PM
Shouldn't scenic be long cuts? :) I too am drawn to silos and barns. Most are definitely not in use down here.
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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)