Monday, May 30, 2022

Coop's 85 Miles of Gravel - 2022/05/27

Brother and I have been promising to make some Day Rides happen.....it's supposed to be easy, he being retired and Ol' Coop working 3-day weeks.

But lots of stuff happens, even just between 2 brothers that supposedly now have a lot more time on their hands.

Friday of Memorial Day weekend we got out.  Both of us thought some gravel roads (on the gravel road bikes) sounded like just the ticket and since it had been quite some time since I'd done anything with my 85 Miles of Gravel ride, I doug it up from the GPS Route archives.  Actually, I made a new one since I knew that a couple of adjustments to what I had been doing would be good additions.

Here's the GPS Route.....nowhere are any points more than 13.5 miles from our home (I actually measured it!).  Sure there are spurts of pavement but in total not more than a few miles.

However, with a few spurs away from the Plan for lunch, coffee and evening Fish Fry, this is what we actually did.  Our 85 miles turned into just over 115.  Of course my brother's day was longer since he had to travel back home.  His Touring KLR easily up to the day's tasks.

These roads were both of our first riding roads, some of them a bit before we were legally supposed to be using them riding motorized transport.  During our modern day visit to these old haunts, we stopped a lot, we talked a lot and reminisced even more.

The fields beyond saw my brother and I doing fieldwork 50 years ago.

State horse trails now.....if only the equine folks knew how much fun a couple of kids use to have here on a small Honda and Yamaha!

Something new to me on this our 4th Minimum Maintenance Road of the day.  A farmer's runoff dam/pond now has a Glastron and fisher person.  It was some distance away, I only had my phone but even from this vantage point, you may be concerned about this person's need for sunscreen.  My concern is for the dangerous situation that is sure to occur when the sunshine finally reaches the bursting point....this person has an air valve doing its best to contain PSI.

Lunch stop in Red Wing at The Bayside....Jen always takes good care of us.



Fish at The Bluffs, Hager City Wisconsin

Here's the more fun part.....  


 Garden update....





And finally, Peg's first loaf of Shokupan....toast this morning that would make a freight train take a dirt road for.


Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Great River Road Rally - 2022/05/22

I'm not sure how many of the GR3's that I've attended but I've only missed one or two since whenever that first one was.  A variety of machines ridden, last year I had one on the trailer behind the van.  A first this year....I didn't pre-register and as such, I was surprised by the changes in the Madison BMW Club's plan for the gathering, this Soldiers Grove the first rally of every season.

This year there was no Saturday evening meal, ceremony or after dinner gathering.  As such, the reduced rate of $20 for the weekend was a huge value.  Free will donations for dogs and brats both evenings and the coffee and drinks flowed all weekend as always.  Hopefully our reported attendance of 158 was enough for the club to not be in the hole.

I had vague plans for more (some) videography, certainly photos but I believe I took fewer rally snapshots than I ever have.  We had some new faces, faces I often see around a coffee cup'd table at Diamonds in Mpls.  Four of those drinkers attended the rally as first timers...and it was good.  We did some riding and lots of talking.  As far as I'm concerned we got the balance of those two endeavors just about perfect.

Great seeing old friends, some new ones made.

Andrea and Curt not only met us in Genoa for lunch but made several trips to meet us at multiple locations.  A lunch, dinner and breakfast were shared with our group.

Paul made the trip up, Kansas City his home.  He's made this rally a good habit, returning once more.

It was cool but not wet...

452 miles on the Classic Stealth for the weekend...smiles for each and every one of them.





Monday, May 16, 2022

South Shore - May 2022

Just a quick upload here of some photos from my weekend camping in Herbster, Wisconsin, no time to do much of anything with a great deal of video that was taken.  This week will go by quickly, it's already short and next weekend is the Great River Road Rally put on by the Madison BMW Club.  We will once again return to the Lion's Park in Soldiers Grove.

When I left home, 97 degrees with a heat index of 105.  Thursday evening on the shores of Lake Superior...
















My first bannock in too long....mixed too much, a bit too thick for my pan.

But it was good...

Especially good with this T-bone from Scholze Family Beef in Humbird, WI.  Thanks Will, it was wonderful!










I took a bunch of video, there will be another Post....in the future.