Sunday, September 29, 2019

Threatened Cold And Snow

No, not today but it does feel like it could do those things after what we've recently become accustomed to; we do know it's coming.  That's what I honestly admitted to myself Wednesday afternoon.  Partly sunny, clouds that looked very cold up there to the south though pleasantly warm down here on terra firma, the very dark grey clouds harbingers of things to come.  So, for the 2nd time in a week on a weekday afternoon, I climbed on the Himmi and crossed the river.....to see what I could see.

My start from home....


This was what we saw Tuesday evening as the cold front blew in.  A small tornado (sure it didn't feel small) in Lake City caused quite a bit of damage.


 The next afternoon, looking South across the Mississippi from the park in Diamond Bluff.


But this was typical going North which is the direction I started....same day, same ride, same locale.


Probably best to approach one of the other neighbors....





One needs to be cautious when executing this maneuver; I can just barely count on one hand (and I'm a machinist maintaining 5 fingers) the number of my friends that have direct experience with the  possibilities of failing at this.







Leaving the park in Diamond Bluff....


 Work on our bridge continues....


A very nice 112 mile late September afternoon, once again, not a single road planned.  The Himalayan was given its head.


Friday I finally got the tractor running again.  Carburetor and distributor rebuilt, the old 9N runs and seems to be happy about it.  No pie in this cake pan, a sad state of affairs but I'll bet you thought about it.


Yesterday morning, Saturday, I finally got back to Diamonds for some coffee, hadn't been there in awhile and I heard about it. Mike was there with his spiffy yellow Ducati 450 and my sibling was there on his Ultra.  More machines rolled in later.




Another work week ahead, planning and packing for this coming weekend's Autumn Slimey Crud Run has already been underway.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Playing Fort 2

Eric had it all set, a reserved campsite at Pineview, GPS Routes created, both inside the fort and out...we were ready.  Eric rode down, Kevin and I drove w/trailers having left early to make our 7:30 meetup.  As so often predicted this summer, the forecast wasn't all that great but I'll break the news here;  we had almost no rain while riding.  In fact the rain didn't start until we had the campfire going at a mature pace Saturday evening.  All of us tired enough from a couple days of riding, it wasn't necessarily a hardship to be sent to our sleeping bags early.

The plan had been to spend a lot more miles on the fort itself and that's how we started out Friday morning.  We later were made aware that a rule change had taken place last winter, a new definition of Recreational Use had been established and as a result, the roads that we were most interested in were no longer accessible to motorcycles, street legal or not.  Eric did a magnificent job of adapting and almost as if it had been meant to be, we discovered some absolutely prime avenues to the east.  Prime to the point that we did some of them multiple times, changing direction or even repeating those!  They're out there to be discovered.

355 miles ridden for the weekend, Eric had more since he'd ridden his bike from home rather than haul it like Kevin and I did.

7:30 Friday morning...


We went out for a ride and then returned after the park office opened at 9.  Registration complete, we moved the rigs and got camp cozy.



Ready for the all important coffee....thanks Eric!


Then we were out on the trails...


Here we stopped for a bit after a section of extra deep sand.



Later, root beer floats at Rudy's in Sparta....


Potter Road, Bear Road, Goodyear Road, McKenna Road....





Merlin Lambert County Park, Potter Flowage



In Warrens, we made a stop at Cranberry Discovery Center...




Cranberry Festival next weekend.....many, many people expected to enjoy the berries.





Dinner....Twice....at Club Oasis.


After our dinner and outside, this young family were exiting their car with the little guy absolutely ignoring his mother, eyes focused on our bikes across the parking lot.  My brother offered a "sit" on his Kawasaki.  Both the young man and his sister sat on a KLR and a KTM.  Horn honking was both encouraged and practiced.



Eric left early Sunday morning for home, Kevin and I a bit later with a breakfast stop together in Sparta.  Rain off and on all night and this was the radar image at 8:30 Sunday morning.


Here's a look at where, what and how we rode.

























Monday, September 23, 2019

First Autumn Evening

I was out for one of my rare mid-week rides.  Still composing last weekend's adventure and that will be ready soon; this evening's ride needed to be made public before our late summer weather gets away.








Monday, September 16, 2019

A Few Roads I Missed Saturday

Another lovely late summer day, almost too warm and sticky, almost as if summer is reluctant to leave.  I can tell you the geese and swans have been discombobulated.  They go north, then they swirl around, seemingly unsure of where to go.  The next day they go the other direction....Mixed up Marvins.

Anyway, Sunday a very nice enough day to go for another ride.  Our border state football warriors were battling, the bars were all full and the roads empty, making great conditions ideal.  My new Himalayan battery was installed mid-week and it was the first chance to get it out for a ride.

151 miles with plenty of up and down.




I don't have the exact median/mean speed data but I can tell you that there were many spots of bodacious pea gravel on chip-sealed roads.  The contractor with the roundest rocks must have won all of the bids.  A person truly needed to have a care on the roads I explored Sunday.

Highlighted with a set of Motion Pictures....


Rode past "The Home Place" as I seem to do more and more these days.  Flower Valley is what it was known by for many years; this cornfield and trees right-center were part of the 128 acres that mom grew up on.



Directly above my shadow is a huge Burr Oak tree that had a wooden swing suspended from an almost horizontal branch, allowing us to almost swing out over the road below.  Many things have changed, the road was narrower, the slope was steeper, the driveway moved.  All buildings gone except the house.  The front porch and time spent there remembered very well.



What it looked like in the early 50's....


 What it looked like to me, Rusty and my little brother about 61 years ago.