Rethinking Things

Saturday’s 45 mile trip through Stoddard, Chaseburg, Coon Valley and St. Joseph was only the third outdoor ride of the season. But that’s not what made it remarkable. No, it was something else. Something I saw on the ride. Something so unexpected that it changed the way I think about a number of things. Sure, I’d heard the rumors, but I wrote them off as simply urban legends. Here's what happened yesterday...

It was, so it seemed, a perfectly normal day. Cold, to be sure, but no snow, sleet or rain. And after turning at Stoddard, the wind was kind. Chocolate milk and a doughnut at the Coon Valley Kwik Trip provided fuel for the last and, as it would turn out, most eventful leg of the ride. Little did I know what was coming.

It happened pedaling up the hill on highway 162 out of Coon Valley. I was comfortable enough to be able to enjoy the winterscape, bare trees starkly outlined by the deep snow that has been visited upon our region this year. This under a gray, but not too threatening, winter sky. It was at about the halfway point of the climb that I spied it. At first I thought, “this cannot be,” but, looking again, I saw that it was, in fact, a raccoon. That's not so unusual, I can hear you say. But this was a LIVE raccoon. Never in a million years…

I guess now I’ll have to re-think my views on Bigfoot, Yeti and the Roswell aliens. If you follow the long white line long enough, you'll see amazing things!

In addition to this most unexpected sighting, I spied a young deer, two bald eagles right on the side of the road, a large turkey in flight ~ right over my head ~ and a pair of quail. Tells you what kind of winter we are having that all of us decided to get out on this day that was cold and windy, yet springlike in comparison to our so far harsh winter.