Coop's Corner

Sunday, December 6, 2020

Wrap Up 2020 Style

Here We Go!!!

Here's How We Went!!

And a new chart for your viewing pleasure.....we'll save the Trailer Loaded/Trailer Rescue graph for next year; it just wasn't exciting enough for '20. I wish I had numbers for the missing years since 2004 when I again revved up my favorite past time but I did not record them. There were a couple of years in the '70's that would have far outpaced these more recent ones.

A positive trend if ever there was one!

Trying to avoid C-19 mention here, more than enough of that everywhere else. I will acknowledge that some of you couldn't, some of you wouldn't ride much if at all this year. I understand. As you can see, I rode and the timing of this year's goofed up plans is interesting if you will give me a minute to explain.

There's been an internal struggle the last couple of years....fewer rallies/more camping I told myself. Problem is, when push was coming to shove, I wasn't able to cut any rallies out, all of them too much fun with too many people I enjoy spending time with and won't see otherwise. Yes, I've become addicted to the gatherings and those that attend. 2020 almost completely took the rallies away from us.

Well, the lack of rallies certainly ramped up the camping and apparently the miles as well. I honestly wasn't able to guess at the accumulating mileage, that number always a fun surprise at season's end.

The big pitcher....what 14,401 miles looks like on a map. Reminds me of that string the kids spray out of cans.

Wisconsin....as you can see, I like our neighbor. Poor Iowa this year, only some itty bitty contact in the very extreme extreme NW corner and a buzz down into New Albin in the extreme NE. Hadn't really thought about it until I see these maps. Eric did what he could to entice me to the Yellow River State Forest so he can not be faulted.

But, if I highlighted my DRIVING miles in Iowa this year for the day job, it would resemble this Wisconsin image.

If you remember, I'd hoped to share some lovely ribbon colors throughout this Provincial map. The only thing rented this year for 10 weeks was our apartment while the remodel took place; the borrowed Versys just wasn't in my cards. Still not sure about how or if to resolve this Canadian Maritime issue.

I as well as my riding mates have been seriously concerned for our many local, mom/pop diners being able to stay in existence. We've already lost many of them and it's not over. I did a few Take Outs to support them and continue to try but with all of my soft luggage, Styrofoam can be a challenge. I made it work for the pattimelt...

The Friday fish fry? I carried it 50 yards and ate in the tall grass. Lucky for us all, the soft luggage had capacity for most of the used Styrofoam...the unused deep woods were nearby.

Only a couple of times on the carry-out, mostly it was a sandwich here, there on the curb at my coffee gas place.

When I wasn't cooking that is....

Here they are in order. The 90cc trail bike was out early and only briefly, 10 miles-worth. The little bugger really buggered up my kicking leg....there was a time there when I really should have gone to the doctor, you shan't see the photo. How can a Honda 90 that you can start with a stiff wrist and elbow hurt a leg so badly?

Improper technique and a bare steel footpeg might do it....I really get it now.

And finally, the Mileage King, the major contributor!

I'll try and be ready to do it again, hopefully winter will last long enough for all of this to be ready set for going again.

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)