103 Summer 2014

      It seemed that summer went much to quickly this year.  I believe I started the summer with 31 items on the list and then added to it.  I have made it a vow to not work so hard next year, more time for family, friends and fun activities.   I will start saying "No" more often and not feel bad. (correct me if I've said this before, but this time I mean it.)   We did some landscaping around our little place, 12 yards of dirt hauled in, pavers, landscape rock, grass seed, fertilizer weed killer and irrigation supplies

Good memories!

Ruthie, plastic bag and gift?

    ,  When we were done we sat back and admired a small lawn, some beautiful flowers and an irrigation system that automatically directed water to every flowering pot and our small patch of greenery.  We turned what our friend John called our Sara Palin "Bridge to nowhere."  Into a path over an imaginary stream made of flowers with rocks lining the bank we liberated from a nearby roadside hill using our tiny construction trailer.  We dug the shallow stream path and I placed each rock one by one to form a meandering creek.  Ruthie laughs when I said I now knew just how Michelangelo felt as each stone talked to me as I placed it in the perfect place. (Some of us have artistic gifts, and the world sometimes laughs at us.) 

          We did take time off to accept an invitation ride to Rockton Wisconsin for BBQ chicken.  It is located down in the Kickapoo area.   Great roads, fun people and delicious chicken.  Most of the time we ride alone or with one or two other riders so it was different riding with a large group.  The fellowship of the people you get to meet and share experiences is hard to explain.   I'm sure some of the vehicles we meet just see a bunch of bikers out for a good time.   Okay we did have a good time.  Here's an example.  In a small shop in Rockton I seen the perfect gift for my friend Bill.  I purchased it and as you can see by the picture there must have been some misunderstanding about it's purpose.  What was it?  How was it used?  I will give you a little time to think about it and either put the answer in the next post or as a comment.  Keep it clean please!   Friends, fellow riders, we must do this again.
     I continue to work with horses however recently it has prompted me to ask two additional questions.  How many trainers has your horse  had and how many trips to the hospital.
 
Ruthie lost her 92 year old father this summer about the time her brother Jim suffered a massive heart attack.  The resulting surgery went well and in a short time he was back to work.   The human body is amazing in recovery. 
     I thought I would share the memorial that Michelle wrote for her "grandpa" for two reasons, it gives you a good picture of the man.  And it makes me think, what memories will I leave for others.

The Legacy of Lavaine

Dad, Grandpa, Lavaine and probably even a few other names are what we knew him by or, heard him called. We all have our favorite memories of him and when we think of them we smile. He had a way of making you laugh with his funny and sometimes, well actually more times than not “quirky” comments. You could always hear him saying: You’re getting pretty foxy there aren’t ya? Or….don’t be getting foxy with me you little rascal.

Ralph Lauren, GQ and Prada are words I would not use to describe my Grandpa. In all actuality he probably had never even heard of them. Now, K-Mart, Wal-Mart and Fleet Farm were more his style and BOY………….did he have style!! A style ALL his own. He loved his John Deere suspenders and he loved to wear them with everything. You could see him sporting a shirt decorated with fish with his suspenders and mis-matched plaid shirts and pants, but that was who he was. He was care free and always had a smile on his face.

You always saw him with cough drops or his favorite “Wiggly” polar ice gum, nothing else would do. Most of you know it as “Wrigley’s” gum but to Lavaine it was always called “Wiggly”. He would always eat soda crackers to settle his stomach and if you visited him you were sure to hear him say as you left, thanks for stopping.

He was born August 13^th, 1921 to Bert and Ella Parsons and he lived most of his life on the same farm in Troy where he was raised. He had a younger brother Lyle. Anyone that knew Lavaine, knew he loved to fish. He would always take his kids and grandkids fishing and when on those fishing trips you usually had the pleasure of dining on an egg salad sandwich. He also enjoyed deer hunting with his boys and son in law. Those are memories none of us will forget.

You would never hear Lavaine curse but you knew he was upset if you heard him call someone a “Dirty Pup” or a “Dirty Dog”. He LOVED the show “Walker Texas Ranger” and he believed the show to be true. You could over hear him saying: I don’t know how Walker does it but that rascal will figure it out. He had a love affair with Bloedow’s (pronounced Blaydough’s) doughnuts in Winona. He loved the fact that Vernon worked there and would bring over glazed doughnuts when he was done working. He always had a story to tell and he had a great love for his family. He was a hard worker and a lover of life. He was a father….. a grandpa….a husband……. and a friend. He was Lavaine,…….. dad…….. and grandpa………and he WILL be missed. I can picture him now, sitting on a cloud, baiting his hook and telling a “fish story” to whoever will listen. I picture him at peace as he casts his line out and watches the ripples cascade across the water from where the bobber landed. I see him smile and I can hear him calling someone a little rascal, which in turn makes me smile. As the saying goes….you will be missed…..but never forgotten. Thanks for the memories.

Michelle

June 3, 2014

     On a lighter note Granddaughter Mikayla graduated from High School and her Sister Briana got married.   I'm not sure what I think having a Granddaughter married,  can you say Great Grandpa?  I can't either.
     I spent a Friday shadowing Grandson Spencer at his school, quite the education for me, where's the school books?  You pass your tablet (computer ) to your neighbor to correct the test?
     As a change we had a fun couple from Canada use the motorcycle travel club we belong to and stay with us on their way to Alabama.   We were impressed with the size of their bike, its luggage capacity and the fact that they were traveling on it for two months.  I don't think we could do that.  They are real riders on their way to a BMW road training track.  I'm impressed.
     We took our now annual little excursion with


Arvilla, Ruthie, me, and Etta.  A Pie stop of course!

my sisters Arvilla and Etta from Lake City.  They seem to be enjoying these little trips to the motorcycle roads of Wisconsin and this year had a request to extend it to two days.  Done!  We took them thru Lansing Iowa to visit a variety store filled to the ceiling with 5 and 10 cent type merchandise, don't scoff, it is really quite interesting,  Thru the apple orchards by Gays Mills on our way to visit friends (Verne and Vonnie Shea) in Jamesville Wisconsin.  We missed the trolls in a nearby town but we found the Midwest's largest shoe store and all came out

Wisconsin back roads,  Gotta love em!

with packages.  It was fun, glad we siblings are close and get to do this together.
     For the next section I should point out that this is my view, Michelle's even though completely wrong is entitled to her own opinion.  
     Michelle, known to all as Bandanas by Michelle  was scheduled to have a booth at Sturgis for the second year in a row.  Knowing it would be to busy for her to handle alone (expected attendance 400,000) Her plan was to go on craigslist and hire someone to help her in her vendor booth.  Even though we have had much success with Craigslist Ruthie was concerned about the type of help she might end up with so we were volunteered for the job.  After visiting Sturgis in 2001 we had swore we would never attend Sturgis again   Oh well.  A



Mother and Daughter leaving the Pioneer Club Wabasha Minnesota.

new adventure.  More accurately an eye opening adventure.  Bikes, trikes, riders, outfits and lack of outfits of all kinds.  We soon learned how diverse and loyal her Facebook followers were.  They traveled from all parts of the country,  It was interesting to see and visit with the couple from Scotland that would be hosting her in a few weeks.  Fun times.  We

Two extremes on their way to Sturgis.  Big Bucks on
the left and Michelle on the right.

worked the booth for 12 days, I have a new respect for Michelle and how hard she works.  She said everyone is jealous that she gets to go to so many motorcycle rally's however I can attest that about all she sees is the inside of her tent and the path to the bathroom.  The heat press goes on first thing in the morning and sometimes it is still going after eleven pm.  Just to keep life interesting we had a couple of ongoing jokes with her.  First we teased her about Wall drug.  On the way out Ruthie and I followed her on our trike, we had been traveling for some time and the bill boards were getting our attention, free water at wall drug, souvenirs, rib eye's,  steaks, souvenirs and treats of all kinds.  I do hope we stop.  

Four blocks doesn't seem like a long ways to me. 

Michelle said once you've seen one drug store
you've seen them all.  Not funny!

We were pretty excited when we seen the signal come on her camper at the Wall Drug exit, Wall Drug, here we come.  We filled with gas and then came the crushing news, she didn't know Wall Drug was so far and we didn't have time to go there.   Back on interstate 90 we went, Wall Drug maybe next time.  We carried this on during our time in Sturgis, Michelle's facebook friends added fuel to the fire and soon people that stopped in the vendors tent asked if she was going to take her hired help to Wall drug.     Next the promise of free food and lodging. Oh by the way bring yourown camper.  When we arrived in Sturgis we sat up the vendors tent, then her pop up camper right behind it and then our pop up between hers and the fence.  Free lodging?  We were 50 feet from the loud American bar and twenty feet from the busiest motorcycle street in the world.   I think we may have grounds for a employment complaint here. (at the minimum parental abuse.)


Bab's riding a snake, I told Michelle I didn't think this
was proper parenting.

.    As a joke Michelle carries a Harley Davidson Barbie doll she has named Bab's she then posts pictures with Bab's in all sorts of predicaments (similar to the flat Stanley experiment that elementary students participate in)  with the difference, Bab's gets in some adult situations.  What fun, even her followers join in.   One brought their flat Stanley from California for a picture with Bab's.  I posted an apology to the South Dakota department of tourism after Michelle posted a picture of Bab's sitting on a small replica of Mount Rushmore in a hotel lobby with the caption.  "Stay home save your money, I thought it would be bigger than this."

Badger Bob as Seen on TV, demonstrating how not to
use a chainsaw blade on a grinder to make rally helmets.

I told everyone he was my dental hygienist.

Michelle pretending to be afraid of the snake.  I think
Bab's got the worst of this encounter, look at the
death grip she's in.

     One morning I gave Michelle a ride to the bank (she hoped no one would see her on a Gold Wing Trike).   When our trike warmed up and the idle slowed it had a strange noise, somewhat like a large diesel engine idling, this couldn't be good.   One of our fb friends who couldn't make it to Sturgis took pitty on us and gave us a motel room to use in rapid city for a few days.  I took the time to check the gold wing forums with our trikes strange noise.  They referred to it as a "Death rattle" now I know it can't be good.  It seems that some of the Gold wings built between 2001 and 2005 (our year) are known to have a alternator drive gear that goes bad.  To repair the entire engine has to be removed from the frame, the rear half removed, parts replaced, and  reassembled. A daunting and expensive task, would we make it back home?  Would this put a damper on this years winter ride?   To busy to think about it until Sturgis is over we continued on.  The last day turned out to be frightening.  We could see the storm clouds rolling in from the West.  This was going to be a real doozy. (by the way do you know where that word comes from?)  There were two customers still in the tent as we started to batten down the hatches..  They helped us pull all the Bandana's down and into plastic tubs.  We dropped the sides of the tent as the wind started to increase in intensity.  I drove the trike around to the West, it was starting to rain.  Using tie downs I secured the tent to the trike wheels.  I figured it wasn't going to move a 1300 pound motorcycle.  We all, even the two hapless customers grabbed a piece of tent and braced against the wind.  It didn't let up for 45 minutes, when it was done debris was floating in the streets and some vendors had lost everything.  Like other industries you are at the mercy of things you can't control.  Since the next day was Sunday the last day, we just finished packing for the trip home.
     As a thank you for helping she treated us to a couple of wonderful days in Deadwood, she's not so bad after all.  A tour of the Lehman trike factory in Spearfish and we started for home.  At stop signs we kept our engine idling above 1000 rpm to keep from hearing the death rattle and we made it home.  Put it in the shop and we will decide what to do with it later. 
     The summer continued with countless hours spent in clinic waiting rooms or holding on the phone for CenturyLink (internet), surface (computer) and direct TV.   Aren't electronics wonderful time savers?

A Sturgis joke I hope.

     After trying and failing to trade our trike for a decent price we elected to bite the bullet and have Trimbles a Honda dealer in Austin MN do the repair.   To save some money I removed some of the unnecessary trike parts for the repair.  A week later and we had it back home.  New gear, clutch, throw out bearing and fluids. 
     Ruthie had two clinic procedure with opposite results.  She has a back injury, and in the past she has received a cortisone injection to relive the pain.  The last one helped her for six years.   Unfortunately the doctor this year never asked her opinion to pinpoint the tender area, missed the spot, didn't call back when she called to tell him the pain still remained.  Instead had the nurse respond and said to contact her primary Doctor,  I think it would be like your mechanic after not repairing your car telling his secretary to call you to contact another mechanic, where can you do a google review on a doctor?  I still get upset and think evil thoughts about him when I see her fight the pain to rise from a chair.


An Indian bagger.

           Her next procedure was the complete opposite.  It turns out she needed cataract surgery on both eyes before we could leave on our winter trip.   The staff Doctors were booked, one of the residents had a cancellation, how fortunate.  A caring skilled physician, her luck has changed.   The day of the procedure Erica her nurse made her feel at ease, the surgery was quick, without pain and the results were all but miraculous.   For those of you that know her you will not be surprised that the Doctor asked her to stop talking during the surgery.  She didn't see how this was a problem until I reminded her that she doesn't even like me talking when she is cutting my hair.  For several days she wore me out covering first one eye and then the next marveling at the bright clear beautiful colors of passing road signs,  Wow!  Is she going to love the scenery from a trike, can't wait.
.   

Beginning of the storm.

Well we had too.  The surgery's were not completed until the 18 of November.   The trike needed reassembly, road testing and some preventative maintenance when we picked it up from the shop.        We spent some long hours getting ready for our next adventure. 

     One blanket apology before we leave.  One day I was on the way to Wabasha and my eye caught an amazing site.  It seemed strange and I couldn't believe my eyes.  I slowly and quietly turned around to get a picture, surely no one will believe this.  I rolled down the window and took the shot, the noise hadn't disturbed it. I got out of the car and stood on the running board to get a close up, it was still there.  Am I the luckiest person or what?  After some time I realized the pheasant was stuffed and placed there.  Was anyone watching me?   Well, since I had been taken in I used this local prop often this summer to prank visitors.   A special apology to my Sisters!