Rays Retreat Ramblings

Thinking of Winter

The Farmers Almanac released their winter forecast, and it looks promising. If you read comments, you read the excerpt Dan shared... but just in case you don't think to read comments I'm sharing it with you here;

Dan Thiessen said:

Here is an excerpt from CNN.com talking about the Farmers Almanac for this years winter. Looks Good!!! The longtime periodical, published since 1818 and famous for its long-range weather predictions, is out with its annual winter forecast, which says Old Man Winter is really going to hammer folks in the Midwest and upper Great Lakes region with very cold and very snowy conditions. The almanac puts it this way: "A large area of numbingly cold temperatures will predominate from roughly east of the Continental Divide to west of the Appalachians. The coldest temperatures will be over the northern Great Lakes and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

We are thinking of winter now that summer will be fading away.............although this has been one of the nicest weeks we've enjoyed all summer. Sure wish we could have been camping! Daytime filled with sunshine and pleasant temps in 70s, slight breeze. Evenings cool. Its going to continue thru the Labor Day holiday.

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Snow Friends are Gone

Where have all my snow friends gone?

There's still snow out there... but no sleds.

Its so lonely without them.

Bob and Bob

Woke up to a beautiful 9 inch layer of fresh heavy wet snow!

Its been quite awhile since I've posted any pics of The Bob & Bob Show that keeps our dining room entertained and the kitchen running efficiently through the winter months. So here they are!

Riding with the Big Boys

Notice an imbalance in this picture? .. Like a mirror missing?

The problem with riding in a pack, especially when it comes to a small pack of men/boys.. someone always has to try to show they can keep up, pass up, and try to be top dog. See what happens? Especially when its icy conditions!
The three of them (Bobs and Mike) are in town now at Extreme ordering a mirror and a bar. Guess it was quite a side roll that threw Mike over into somersaults into the snow. But thats his story.

No rain today. Here's some pics of our sloppy ice rink of a drive, and still lots of snow in the yard.

whopps nope, that picture is from our ride on Thursday.

Just Great Fun Riding

    Its been an awesome week of riding. Lucky Mike has been able to ride everyday except Wed. Some of us have day jobs though..... still managed to get in two great rides this week.

Tuesdays ride up north to Indian River, and thru Chandler Hills was just as much fun as it was the first time we did it this year. Very few other riders out there, great trail conditions and beautiful scenery. Just a bit cold that day, I did come home chilled as an icicle. Hard to believe that was just 48 hours ago. Today was a very mild temperature and comfortable riding.

When we were coming home from Indian River Tuesday, we were sailing along on trail 7 and decided to drop onto trail 4 just to check out what shape it was in. Good. Anyway, we had cut back onto Dodge Lake Road for the home stretch, just a mile to the motel. Both of us were flying along.... when Mike flew by the road going to the right, and skidded as he must have been thinking to backup/turn around to go that way. As I said, we were both flying, and so as he was stopped there I came around to his left. Just as I am coming around he decides to do a U turn, right in front of me. As he got horizontal across the road, he looked up and saw me coming right at him. I swerved, he swerved......luckily in opposite directions! Very narrowly missing. The yellow 'rocket ship' and the 'red bug' nearly crashed. Just by milimeters did we miss. It would not have been pretty. I flew on by, with my fist raised! .... good thing we didn't have communicators on.

So that ended the day with a little heart pounding excitement.

Today's ride was just fun! Great trails again, and the weather so nice. Cloudy all day. Trails didn't even get sloppy.

I can guarantee you, if I didn't have to go into work tomorrow I'd be back out on the trails again. Even after 90 some miles of riding today, neither one of us really wanted to come in... except for responsibilities and two dogs....

Vintage Sleds

Saturday afternoon a group of Vintage Sleds were in the parking lot, down at Waters. After awhile they were down to the sledding hill where they enjoyed a cookout and just fun together.

     

 

Great Riding Feb 28

It was good riding on the trail Saturday, Feb 28. Alot of riders were out enjoying the great conditions. Groomers managed to keep those trails in good smooth shape. Here are some of the beautiful pictures taken on the ride enjoyed by The Bob's... that would be Good Bob, Better Bob, Jim Bob and family.

All our guests this weekend went away happy with the trail conditions and the fun they enjoyed.

 

 

 

     

Don't Wish Winter Away

Top Ten Reasons NOT to Wish Winter Away

10. No crowds at the beach.

9. Ice cream won’t melt on the way home from the store.

8. You don’t have to mow the grass or weed the garden (in most places anyway).

7. Winter comfort food - soups, chili, hot chocolate, homemade breads. . .

6. Fires in your fireplace. There is something magical about watching a fire (don’t forget the marshmallows).

5. Cold weather is a good excuse to do nothing, without the guilt. Stay inside and catch up on good books, movies, or crafts. Especially good when temperatures really dip, and snow starts to fall.

4. Winter sports - winter is the only time you can go skiing, snowboarding, sled riding, ice skating, and more.

3. No humidity in the air (good for hair and for exercising).

2. No biting bugs.

1. Snow. There’s just something magical (until March) about the pretty white stuff that blankets the ground and trees. It’s almost like someone dusts our landscape with powdered sugar. Enjoy it – make snowmen, have a snowball fight, go sled riding, take pictures of it.

      I took this from the Farmers Almanac. And I agree. NUMBER ONE REASON:Beautiful Snow. It makes the world so pristine, innocent, and blissful. The pics below are from The Bob's U P Adventure 2009.

Great Week Ending

This past week was an excellent week for riding. We enjoyed our ride starting out the week on Monday, and sure wish we could have gotten out one more time. Just too busy.

We had the Brady Bunch staying with us all week and they enjoyed great rides everyday. Each morning they headed out in a different direction to return and enjoy their potluck suppers together. Sparky and Gizzy were especially sad to see them leave.

Bob & Bob returned from their Upper Peninsula Adventure Saturday early afternoon. It was good seeing them return 'home'.

We're deep in prayer, meditation and chants to induce the cold weather 'gods' to overpower the warm south winds and keep it cold here in the north, as well as giving us a dumping of snow.... we'll just have to wait and see what mother nature gives us this week.

Another Great Day on the Trail

90 miles of great riding. As I said in my trail report, only about 10 miles that was rough. Easily forgotten with the awesome riding we enjoyed the rest of those miles.

It was a perfect day to be on the trails. Mild temps, sunshine on/off, and very few riders. The first 40 miles we only passed one rider, and one groomer. We ran into more riders when we go onto The Blue Bear and over by Starvation Lake way.

 

A stop along the trail.

Train Coming. Word to the wise.... cross railroad tracks at designated crossings only. This past weekend DNR and RR ran a Snowmobile Sting (per the news) giving tickets to the many riders who cross the tracks where it is not designated.

 

 

This picture just amuses me... from last night and Dan and Mike having fun watching the Super Bowl. It does make you smile doesn't it?