MUFFIN RUN

The Nobodies believe every day is a good day to ride. Backflash and I rode up to Two Harbors last Saturday meeting Jawa The Puttz at the Vanilla Bean for breakfast. This traditional ride is call the Muffin Run.

It was a rather cool day about 40 degrees at best. Flashback had the classic look with his nine zipper motorcycle jacket while Jawa and I wore our stich.

Lake Superior had some nice waves.

We have a good number of folks who windsurf and kayak on Lake Superior in these conditions. They mainly do it along our sandy beach on Park Point. The rocky shore along Highway 61 pose more of a danger. http://www.lakesuperiorphoto.com/surfing_wind_surf_kayaking/photos_lake_superior_surfing.html

I may look cold, but looks can be deceiving. I'm just struggling to stand up due to the furious wind.

This picture was taken at Brighten Beach on the city limits of Duluth http://www.superiortrails.com/duluth_1.html Here is a link to stuff to do in Duluth.

BRIGHTEN BEACH Back ground in photo is Duluth

When Flashback and I got back to Duluth we went an visited a friend in St. Mary's hospital. I took this picture from the sky walk connecting the hospital's buildings. You see the Aerial Lift Bridge and Park Point (narrow strip of land).

You may be able to see the kite surfers on Lake Superior in this picture. What a sport.

Check this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z7oTfJsVOE

So the Nobodies' Muffin Run in the cold weather is quite tame compared to what these kite surfers were doing!

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF MY YOUTH

Hello, My name is Kickstand and I am going on a journey. Not just any journey, but one to my youth. This journey is even more exceptional, because it is to the very center of my youth. If you are not familiar with the phrase "center of my youth", let me get you up to speed. The center of one's youth is where a person's personality, values, beliefs, hopes , dreams and sense of humor are formed. My center was on a small farm with two Norwegian, bachelor farmers. My dear biker brother Jawa the Puttz and I decided to go back to Fertile Minnesota and encounter the voices of our past. We also happen to have living, breathing relatives in the area of our uncles former farm, who we were able to visit.

State Highway 2 was our initial route from Duluth, though Floodwood. We then we took State Highway 210 west.

One must be brave when they ride into the past. For memories are only a shadow of the truth. It is a good thing I am a determined and brave person.

Our first night we camped at Hill City at their City Camp Ground.

I like motorcycleing and tenting. It is an earthy experience. When one is traveling back into the center of their youth it is very important to stay grounded, therefore camping is essential.

One also needs a loyal travel partner. Jawa The Puttz is such a person. I have heard and read that a person is fortunate to have one loyal travel partner. I am a fortunate person.

All significant journey requires documentation.

I just really like this tent.

This is Leech Lake. There was a very important battle here once and the plaque Jawa is standing by explains it all.........but I don't remember anything about it.

After a good nights rest, I am ready to face the reality of the past. I keep telling people; I may not be smart, but I not stupid. So I am bracing myself for some surprises that may shake the very core of my insignificant person hood.

Before we headed out I was trying to explain to Jawa how a person can become one with a rock wall. I gave up after a few minutes, as he just kept asking me really dumb questions that I could not answer.

We took a break at a park where their was a classic car show. I think it was Walker Minnesota

Every important motorcycle trip needs a good dose of symbolism. So we stopped at Lake Itasca, the headwaters of the Mississippi River! We watch children walk across the Mississippi River. Just think of that for a moment; children walking across the mighty Mississippi. I was struck by the fact that these children did not realize what they were doing; crossing one the the greatest rivers in the world. I started shouting to the kids, in an effort to help them understand the symbolic act that they were performing. A number of parents gave me "the look"and as I continued to proclaim to the children the significance of their act of faith; Jawa very wisely pull me away as a crowd gathered and several people were using their cell phones to call 911. "Don't you understand, Jawa, we are watching ourselves. We crossed many Mississippi Rivers in our youth and now we are going back to see them as adults", I exclaimed. Jawa just kept pushing me down the trail back to our bikes.


http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/itasca/index.html

What were your Mississippi Rivers in your youth?

You crossed them as if they were small creeks!

All the riding and activity got me real hungry. We stopped at Mahnomen for lunch at the Red Apple.

Jawa was once a contortionist in the circus.

This is my auntie Opal. She is a very amazing person and very funny too.

This is my auntie Leah. Yes another amazing person with a great sense of humor.

These are my cousins with their men folk and also a couple of second cousins too. They are warm hearted, hard working, genuine people who also happen to have wonderful senses of humor.

This picture has the oh so famous cousin Linda front and center

Jawa and I stayed one night with cousin Linda (right) then the next night with cousin Marcia (left).

The center of my youth was watching and participating in hard work on The Farm and enjoying life with family.

Our ancestor are still working the soil.

This church brought them together with their neighbors to worship the risen Lord.

My life has taken me on many different roads, but the roads I traveled with my two uncles, aunts and cousins shaped my life.

This is the driveway down to my uncles' farm. They sold this farm in the mid to late 80's.

This is the view of their west pasture. You can see their barn in the background.

I was great fun traveling the roads around The Farm.

This is a picture of our uncle's house.

I heard a voice calling me back to the past, but I realized it was a road that can only be traveled once.

This is the driveway down to a neighbor's farm. Alfred was a very unique man. A character that could only be created in real life, no writer could have conjured up this guy.

Jawa painted that little white granary for Alfred one summer. It ended up being a very big job. Ask Jawa some time.

All journeys come to an end. It was time for Jawa and I to return to our present lives.

The road home can be long and difficult, but it must be traveled.

PICK A ROAD (A LESSON IN WANDERING)

I am not a wanderer. My personality is such that wandering goes against my very core. I would like to think that I am not a typical American, who is driven to achieve and who has little time for leisure, but in some ways I am.

When I relax, it usually means I fall asleep! Now when motorcycling entered my life, I was given a taste of relaxing while on the move. In one sense my bike was my psychiatrist. Biking was exhilarating, stimulating and yet relaxing, offering a time to just be. The feeling I get when riding is that of being connected with the surroundings I am passing through.



When I started taking motorcycle day trips and long distance tours, I discovered I was more willing to interact with people, take in the sights and was interested in the road as much as the miles. Taking secondary highways, county roads, going through small towns, following rivers, ridges and dipping into valleys got me to relax. I started wondering about wandering.

So I am going to try to learn a bit about the art of wandering. Maybe there are principles to be learned, or perhaps there are techniques. I am not sure, but I want to try to find way to cultivate the art of wandering into my motorcycle riding.


This summer Flashback, Puppy, Lizard and myself used a wandering technique I call "Pick A Road".






It is very simple. Just pick a road you are familiar with and ride it until you have to pick another road. It is like starting with the familiar and traveling to the unfamiliar.

We started our wandering after stopping at a motorcycle junk yard 10 mile outside of Duluth. We continued on the "Junk Yard Road", a road we have never traveled on past the motorcycle menagerie.

It lead us to another road that we were some what familiar with. So we continued on that road the Morris Thomas wondering where we would end up.

We continued this technique for a couple of hours allowing ourselves a lunch break in Cloquet Mn.
We did not do any thing unusual. We never got lost, but we had our moments of wondering.

Remember when you are wandering, stop and smell the train along the way.

I would like to get Puppy to lead us on a ride some time. One bark means turn left, two means turn right.

It is easy to know when you are done wandering.......... now to find our way back home.

I'll follow you Flashback.