Coop's Corner: Circle Full, The Wrap

Monday, June 13, 2022

Circle Full, The Wrap - 2022/06/13

I thought my Wisconsin circle idea was a good one and it has been, it was fun, informative and educational too in some interesting ways. As a Minnesotan, there have always been strong connections with the State. Dad grew up there (born in MN though) and as anyone knows that has visited my blog, I've spent a lot of time traveling there. It's interesting to me that a big river makes visiting our neighbor to the east a bit of work....it does change things in many ways...but is a hurdle I overcome rather easily.

I feel a connection to Wisconsin and enjoy being there, it's that simple. Nuanced differences and yet mostly the same as here, at least in my eyes. I watched people speak and listened to their smiles.....there was a lot of that, a part of travel that opens up and brightens even the darker days. Two couples stood out and both were near the end of my trip.

The first, an afternoon conversation in Ashland. They were returning home to NH from a trip west. He, a BMW rider that told me something about a new Moto Guzzi (had the T-shirt on) that I knew nothing of. We met again over motel breakfast, some very kind and generous compliments about my blog before each heading our opposite directions.

I turned off Hwy 13 in Cornucopia (there only a few weeks ago on the Himalayan) to get my obligatory photo of the scooter in front of the Twin Sisters, Peg's grandfather's fishing boat. A gentleman was jogging past, noticed and asked if I'd like my photo taken on the bike. I thanked him but declined.

Back on the bike, I stopped downtown, curious to see if the Coffee Shop was open and it was. I parked, took my coffee and scone outside on the patio in the warming-sun. The same gentleman and his wife followed me outside a minute later.

"Hello again"

I asked if they were residents and soon we were sharing people, people's names, locations and events in Cornucopia history. A bit younger than Peg whom had spent time each summer with family as a little girl there, she knew town during the same era. Even I was familiar with a lot. If only Peg had been there.....it wasn't until later when I was back on the bike that some of the names and faces came back to me of those I had met, knew of and about. Many connections, our chance meeting and reminiscences brought back smiles to each of us. Back in the late 70's Cornucopia seemed special to me as I rode through, who knew that it would someday be part of my future wife's childhood?

Around the State, there were young people working, old people not. Way too many of us in self-imposed hurries, I'm hoping a habit broken some day. 80 mph so that we can stand in line 10 minutes while our coffee is being created? I had no idea that 45 mph speed limits on the edges of town means 65, slowing to 25 or 30 only happens half way through to the other side.

It's always intriguing to me, eastern Wisconsin along the lake is older and it shows in itsarchitecture and the way towns and villages are laid out. Older agriculture but especially older industry, notably along the lake where transportation started early. Things are different over here on the western side.

Fish Market, Bayfield...

Rittenhouse Inn....

Gruenke's....

West on 13...

Cornucopia's artesian well...

Cornucopia Marina...

Corny Coffee...

Herbster....

Waterfront campground...

Leaving Herbster, back on 13 to Superior...

Cooled to 51 degrees along the lake....

A bathroom break at the Wayside...

Coolest I saw...49 degrees. It took a long time to get back to upper 60's.

It really is "13 North" but here I'm going south, soon to turn west. Wisconsin 13 starts at Wisconsin Dells and works its way north and then west to Superior.

The famous Windmill ....

A stop in Danbury, if it's not the capital of Quads and Side by Sides, I'd be surprised.

Luck, Wisconsin, home of Duncan YoYo's.

Light showers...

South of Hudson...

Back to the Mississippi River in Diamond Bluff.

Crossing the river at Red Wing, back in Minnesota. Almost home.

A week-long trip, 1411 miles in total. One short ride in Illinois, two short rides in Michigan, otherwise Wisconsin all the way. I had fun, the Scarabeo was flawless....I knew it would be and have been anxious to go for just this sort of trip.

2 comments:

motormikeJune 13, 2022 at 1:18 PM
Enjoy'd following your adventures. :)
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

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)