Coop's Corner: Hiawatha BMW Rally

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Hiawatha BMW Rally - 2017

After our wet and very cool end of May rally 2 weeks ago across the river, all of us were hoping for some improvement in the weather and we got it. Rain and thunderstorms expected never visited the Moneycreek Haven Campground.

Thanks Kev

The vehicle of choice for the weekend proved to be a difficult decision.....the '81 Honda 400 Automatic (decided when the snow was still flying....) or the recently arrived Royal Enfield w/sidecar. In the end, my initial choice won out, the primary reason being the carefully laid out gravel Route that I'd been planning. It just seemed to me that the old 2 wheeler was going to be a better matchup for the group ride.

In front of someone else's bean field at 6:30 Friday morning, machine still clean.

459.6 miles later in front of OUR bean field and though it's never very shiny, it was much less so here than when I started. We had some dusty fun.

I stopped at Ma's in Plainview for breakfast, saw this sign next door and then it was on to Money Creek.

What we do.....

My riding partner's arrival....

You can tell right off how much more photogenic Eric is.....the pillow needs air the old fashioned way.

Eric is not ill....he's using the mattress's internal hand pump to inflate.

Where's Coop??

We wonder if they're going to fit.....

....but they always do.

We wasted little time in getting our tents up, loaded and then we were off.

The Cracked Egg for lunch in Lanesboro......

Eric followed me on this road of his own free will....

There was an ice cream/coffee stop at The Creamery in Rushford Friday afternoon.

Back to the rally, we got registered and found some old and new friends to visit with. My brother rode down in the evening on his KLR and we met him back in Rushford for dinner with one more lovely ride up and over the hill back to Money Creek for the day.

Thanks Kev

Band getting ready.....

Thanks Kev

Two Hiawatha Club members helping our buddy Dave get registered Friday evening; these 2 guys are incredible....still up late to help with registration and up early to make our coffee. Obviously jobs that few if any others have the ability to carry out.

Dave's presence at the rally a very wonderful surprise.

Early Saturday morning Paul came down to help us execute our day's gravel loop, his help much appreciated. We rode for awhile before stopping for breakfast in La Crescent.

Thanks Kev

Always a stopping point for me above Reno.....

Lunch stop at Little Miami in Freeburg....

We were expecting this and a lot more but all we really got were some Warnings and a few minutes of light drops. Most of the weather drifted to the north of us. A soft, small rainbow followed.

Camping.....

After dinner....door prizes, awards, announcements. I heard that attendance was 247.

Sunday morning.....

Kev and I left to the west, visited the overlook above Rushford and then stopped for gas and a coffee break in Plainview.

Red loop Friday, Yellow loop Saturday......

I had 3 great riding partners and yes, we did have fun.

6 comments:

motormikeJune 5, 2017 at 5:44 AM
.. the slush box Honda did well.. has that " industrial " look.... I'm sure the B ite M y W allet types are ck'n out ebay for one.
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TrobairitzJune 6, 2017 at 1:45 PM
Glad the weather held out for you.

You always manage to find great little cafes for a break too. I bet you were tired but the time you got home, but it was worth it.
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BeemerGirlJune 11, 2017 at 10:36 PM
Looked like a great weekend. Why do I get the feel that the tent pics were taken on the sly and lots of pointing and snickering was had? Glad the rain didn't hit hard and the rides were good.
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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)