Coop's Corner

Sunday, April 28, 2013

First Real Ride....

this season. I was on the scooter yesterday, but on roads that I drive on 5 days each week and by my definition, that wasn't a ride, only a variation on the commute. Today's excursion fit the proper definition. Though it wasn't as cool overnight, I wasn't in a hurry to get started this morning; there was going to be plenty of time.

On the road by 9, which is late for me and down to Alma for breakfast. It was great to see everyone at Pier4 again, our first meal 'together' since Thanksgiving dinner. Carol, my waitress, updated me on her plans at school and had ridden her bright red 250 Ninja to work today. She's probably more excited about the new 300 Ninja than I am, so that's a lot. More than likely there will be a 300 in her near future.

The restaurant was fairly busy this morning, so it was easy for me to pick the one remaining free table on the porch. As Marietta said, 60 degrees in September and no one would have been on the deck, today T-shirts and shorts were the rule outside.

The tug Miss Jessica held my utensils and menus today, though I never need a menu.

The #4, locally produced cranberry, apple and strawberry/rhubarb jam. If I knew what was good for me, I'd eat like this everyday.

Typical of these river towns squeezed between the bluff and the river, the restaurant is between the river and the highway. Actually, Lock and Dam #4 is 50 yards from the diner and the BNSF rail line is 10 yards from our spot on the porch, so a lot is packed into these long, narrow, river-hugging towns.

On Blank Hill Road, heading downhill. I stopped to document the deep sand on top of the asphalt, just about the only choice these hill country Counties have for winter driving. Some if not most of the counties do eventually sweep up the sand and try to reclaim it for the following winter. I can never wait for them to accomplish that, using care, experience and slower speeds to avoid the deep stuff.

A favorite spot, the intersection of Alligator Slide and Pretzel Pass. You can see Pretzel Pass snaking away over the top of my tankbag, a fairly steep climb.

Another view.....

Moe Road, this north facing ditch just hasn't seen enough warm sun yet.

Stopped in at the Nelson Cheese Factory for a Rum Cherry cone, lots of business there today. Happened to run into the crew from the Red Wing Ironworks Motorbike Club as I arrived, they were finishing up and heading out to the general area I'd just come from........we know where the good roads are.

Just a tad over 200 very casual miles today, my wrists slightly strained but it went well considering this was my first real session of miles and hours on the bike this season. I always go through this, now maybe more so than 20 years ago. The riding position necessary on the Hyo is probably a bit more challenging than the other machines, not that I'm complaining though. This thing still makes me smile every time I'm on it.

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)