Coop's Corner: Craziest Darn Thing

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Craziest Darn Thing

Sunday, a very nice October day, bluebird skies and time to get out. The forecast even a couple of days ago was looking good so on Friday I pulled the Honda 400Auto out from its deep spot in the garage and after a bit of cranking, fired it up. Chain adjusted, a spot of air in both tires and it was ready. Gassed up at 80 miles in the middle of a very cool and dark 20 mile ride, I had high hopes for Sunday.

My Uncle Glen bought this Honda brand new from the once mighty Frontenac Cycles; I keep his key fob on the bike and think of him every time I ride it.

Friday's ride, harvest brown and harvest busy everywhere, primarily soybeans so far.

Today's ride...warmer....sunnier and we're slowly getting to the Craziest Darn Thing. GPS says 99 miles, as if planned.

The corn picker finishing the row really caught my eye....so I stopped and watched, then decided to pull the drone out. Counting on him making another round, he did not so all I captured from the sky was him pulling out of the field and heading for home with his wagon full.

I realized at this stop how appropriate a cup of coffee would be so I made one.

Stockholm pie (and coffee) wasn't far away at this point but I decided to be and stay self-sufficient. My coffee and my Frosted Strawberry 'tart, topped off with a handful of trail mix hit the spot. Properly social distanced too, the mask stayed in the tankbag!

So here's the crazy part, finally!!

I often come upon birds of prey on my travels, literally sneaking up on them with my quiet, slow bikes on the forested gravel roads. We saw one last weekend up north, that one a hawk that uses the 'channel' of the road to gain enough speed to finally gain enough altitude to get out of our/my way. Today was no different, not that part anyway.

Today it was an eagle, confirmed early though for a second or two I thought it was a turkey vulture. Nope, it was a young eagle. Slow to start and slow to gain velocity, it flew ahead of me, no more than 25' feet off the ground, working hard to stay in front. We went quite a ways that way, around not only one corner but a second one, almost as if it was a game. Finally and suddenly, it rose and settled in a high tree branch, essentially in the road's canopy. I craned my neck, looked right at it sitting in the branch, hoping beyond all hope that my helmet cam (30 second intervals) would capture it, knowing full well that was nigh impossible.

It seemed like we made eye contact.

Riding past I was pleased about the close encounter and suddenly I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, startling me. My eagle was flying right beside me, helmet high. 10 seconds, 15, then it passed me, flew up ahead and settled right by the Stop sign at the fork in the road.

I stopped, pulled out my phone and we both watched each other for a number of minutes. Then it rose and flew up to the left, the direction I was going. I started the Honda, rounded the corner and the bird had again landed along the right side of the road so I stopped again, remembering that I had my real camera along.

I got the feeling that the eagle had more patience than I and finally only flew away when a car was approaching, this time into the woods to a place I couldn't see.

Goat Back Road. These used to be 3 dogs here, reliably. First the 2 smaller ones would come out and then the big boy would surprise. Fortunately, a thing of the past.

Back in Old Frontenac...

And finally, around home....

6 comments:

TroubadourOctober 4, 2020 at 10:10 PM
What a pleasant autumn day for a slow, quiet ride.
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motormikeOctober 5, 2020 at 5:23 AM
We hit the river road last weekend...cherry pie at Stockholm.... the Mustang car club.. the Vett guys.. the Porsche guys... every over look... busy....pie spot busy.. cheese spot Nelson's busy... parking at the Red Wing overlook... packed.... think everyone was try'n to get in a day before Jack Frost rules.
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DanOctober 5, 2020 at 8:57 AM
So you have a new friend?? Did you name him, or did he mention the name he'd given you?? :)
I was helping a friend get his bike ready for sale, and we both remembered it was Slimey Crud weekend. Missed another one.. Seems like it's my 2020 theme.
Great photos, Doug!!! Thanks again for letting me live through your wanders!!
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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)