Coop's Corner: Road America - AHRMA 2018

Monday, June 11, 2018

Road America - AHRMA 2018 - Wrap-Up

Another great weekend, almost completely rain-free from our perspective.

This Sunday morning....but it stayed just to our south. To be absolutely accurate, I think there were a couple of drops and both Saturday evening as well as Sunday morning there was very light drizzle/heavy fog but that was it. The green stayed to our south.

A mix of images and thoughts on the week and weekend.
The Lester Library in Two Rivers Book Sale...

Jeff and I swapped on our way home from breakfast Saturday morning. The Barbie Honda was a jewel when I owned it and Jeff has made it even more so. An absolute delight to ride!!

I was impressed with the little chopper next door.

The bridge over the Carousel.....

The Roundabout in the pits to organize traffic....

Sunset Friday evening....

Mike graciously let us all try the Cushman, my first time with two-wheeled foot clutch/hand shifting.

We all had a ride.....

There were multiple times during the weekend when we all had our hats on.....Mike had more than one along and saved the Special One for Special Times.

As you can imagine, a race weekend draws the Ducati's from corners far and wide. They all sound good, some better than others. They all go well, some better than others. Of every model and state of tune in the brand, this one Sunday afternoon was my favorite.

Once Friday arrived, this was the limit of my riding, different colors for the 3 days. The only time spent off the track was going into Plymouth for morning and evening meals. 73 miles total for the 3 days.

Earth view of the Track, we camp in the ~200 degree circle (Carousel) lower left and our traditional spot is right off the SE apex in the loop.

What it looks like with our Tracks......the red "X" our campsite.

Jim had planned to camp next to us but things came up that prevented him from spending the entire weekend as our next door neighbor. He did come over Saturday on his bike and we ran into each other in the paddock area. Sunday he returned not on his bike but instead with his traveling rig. I got the full tour, inside, outside and around....my oh my what an impressive vehicle and way to Go! It would be enough for me to never go home again. Thanks Jim, really appreciated your showing me your home away from home and so, so easy to imagine a trailer behind with a bike....or two.

(See that TW200 stopping behind? Jim didn't know it yet when I took this photo but he was about to explain his rig one more time)

Miles for the week, 767 in all on the Himalaya, roughly 73 of which were around and in the vicinity of the track. 690 miles on the van to go the width of Wisconsin back and forth.

So much fun, the racing, the bikes, the friends and a week's break. In an hour or two, I could do it all again.

6 comments:

motormikeJune 11, 2018 at 8:39 PM
Great time.. good friends....I enjoy the BS camp fire and the BS breakfast mornings.
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EricJune 12, 2018 at 10:40 AM
Well done!
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EricJune 12, 2018 at 10:44 AM
Looks like a great week
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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)