Coop's Corner: S.K.U.N.K. Rally

Sunday, July 16, 2017

S.K.U.N.K. Rally - 2017

After a couple year hiatus, the SKUNK was held once again and I was there. Already under pressure to plan, host and commit to a date for next year, Kevin's got not quite a year to figure out what he's going to do.

Kevin (of Scrambler Cycle) at and along with help from the great and gracious Barron County Historical Museum folks, put on a heck of a fine rally. There were a few of us newbies that weren't quite sure what to expect, but there were old hands there as well, former attendees that knew the score. The Ontario guys came down, Indiana and Iowa folks came up and there were a few of us from Minnesota and even Wisconsin. I counted 25 people at Saturday evening's Lasagna Dinner. Saturday Bert, Diana and Maynard, Bob and Donna, Mike and Colleen all arrived, some for the day, others for the weekend. Tom was up from Iowa, a frequent rally-goer at both Guzzi and BMW rallies as are many if not most of these other folks. It's the cross pollination of riders and various groups that makes it all extra fun for me.

Two weekends in a row on the Royal Enfield, it has now earned a rest and will pushed a bit deeper into the garage. We sure have had a grand couple of rallies though.

Green Friday, Red Sunday.....Saturday only a breakfast run to Barron.

A nice ride up....

Setup at the Barron County Historical Museum, Cameron, Wisconsin

The afternoon was young and I had a nice Route planned, so off we went.

I was in the Blue Hills and wanted to revisit the place where we walked to the Felsenmeer a few years ago....I found it. We did some other walking that day and I found that place as well.

Stone Lake, Wisconsin....

A County Park that I used to camp at with my parents, with my friends and later with Peg and our first born.....hadn't been back for a long time.

I stopped for dinner, soup and sandwich in Rice Lake at the Norske Nook. As you can see, they take their pies very seriously.

I like to think that I do as well.....

Saturday morning I just happened to be stopped for breakfast and some motor fuel when Mike and Colleen were rolling through town.

I spent most of Saturday looking through the exhibits and museum buildings. The site, the displays, exhibits and collections are quite amazing and I was very impressed. If you're in the Barron/Cameron neighborhood, please stop and visit all that the staff, volunteers and donating parties have contributed.

From the Cameron box company....

Some serious machines....

Lined up for the weighing....not a prize fight, a weight distribution set-up. We had flat, mostly level concrete as a base.

Al brought 4 transducers (we only needed 3) and his laptop program (w/Bluetooth?) gave printouts of total weight, weight on each wheel, that percentage and the CG.....it was interesting to learn and to compare. This group knows their sidecars, an obvious fact when you see their rigs; all I could do was watch, listen and learn.

Al had Kevin lean both left and right, doing so subtracted and added sidecar wheel weight respectively.

Bob's rig, Kevin piloting and Bob in the car to get some more real-world numbers.

My numbers.....the red dot my CG. According to the accepted art, my numbers weren't all that bad.

Sue's and Jack's, Terry's.....

We ate well, some of us left with more Ural merchandise than we'd arrived with but we all laughed....I don't remember a single fight, certainly not before 2AM anyway.

Sunday morning pulling stakes....

Bert and I stopped at Elk Mound for a look see.....

Bert needed to go south....and stay in Wisconsin but he followed me as far as the Minnesota border, our vector mostly south. Terry, headed for NW Indiana, had left earlier, his vector was straight west to start with. St. Croix Falls, follow the St. Croix down to Prescott and then follow the River Road to spend the night up on the ridge at Wyalusing State Park. Just as Bert and I were pulling in to Beth's Twin Bluffs for a bit of lunch and a spot of pie, we met Terry on the green Honda, a quite amazing coincidence.

Terry, thanks for seeing, pointing out my broken bolt and for strongly encouraging me to get it fixed. Hope to see you down the road again soon!

Tom, your classic German machine was working against you all weekend, hopefully you persevered and made it home just fine....you'll get it sorted out.

Based on what everyone was saying about rallies past, after taking a break for a couple of years, Kevin once again managed to pull off a good one for some darn nice people to enjoy. Even I'll be watching for next year's date and time.

Again, thanks to Kevin and to the kind and generous use of the facilities at the Barron County Historical Museum.

And a final note......

10 comments:

EricJuly 17, 2017 at 3:56 AM
Interesting! Well documented as always.
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redlegsridesJuly 17, 2017 at 8:48 AM
Thanks for this writeup....your rig is looking good.

I liked the weigh-in sessions....good to know what one's rig weighs I think, fully loaded.
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TrobairitzJuly 17, 2017 at 2:30 PM
So much good stuff in this post. And more pie - you're killing me softly with the pie pictures.

Sometimes it is hard to believe what can be done with a cell phone/bluetooth/program. And to think it can help you tell weight distribution etc, just mind boggling. So much I don't know about technology.
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VStar LadyJuly 17, 2017 at 6:26 PM
I loved the black and white photo. Another fun rally for you, well done.
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motormikeJuly 21, 2017 at 6:11 AM
Most county museums are pretty much the same.. but this is one of the better ones. If in the area well worth the time.
Also... what does S.K.N.U.K. mean..?...
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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)