Just Ride - Update

Well we got off to a reasonably good start on Wednesday for the our Lake Michigan ride. Rather than taking the back roads to Muskegon we jumped on the highway. We have done that so many times to Grand Haven we made the decision to save a few minutes. That was fortunate as we needed that time later.

Stopping in Ludington for food and fuel we continued our trek north through Manistee towards the Leelanau Peninsula. The bridge that crosses Glen Lake in Sleeping Bear Dunes park was out so we made the long trip around the lake. Windy curvy roads mad the detour a delight on the bike.

The worst part of the trip had to be when we were just about taken out by a black pick-up truck in the middle of nowhere. We were running up the road and I saw the guy up ahead and to the left at a "T" intersection with our road. With not enough time or room to stop the bike, he pulled right out in front of us. All the screeching, skidding, sliding was not going to prevent us from becoming a part of his rear bumper. Our only option was to swerve to the right to prevent an impact.

At this point I was not looking at the truck but where I wanted the bike to go. While hard on the front brake, the rear tire would lock and I'd release. This cycled a number of times until finally I figured we were going to clear the truck and be on our way. Evelyn saw it another way. She saw that the truck was full of people, and the shocked look on the passengers faces as we went by missing them literally by inches.

Later up the road we saw the truck pull into a winery... Go Figure.

Anyhow it was only about a half an hour later when we reached our destination for the night. Leland MI is a quaint historic fishing village that has retained it's ambiance of it's origins while adjusting to the times and people.

Leland Waterfront

The image above was take from a stone (very large) levy that created the breaker wall that protected the harbor. The building are original equipment and most of the tools for netting and fishing from the past remain. The boats in the picture above are not quite as old.

Below is one of those shots that you just have to have even though it may not make the photographic hall of fame. If you look close above the breaker wall, you can see a sliver of Lake Michigan and then North Manitou Island.

Killer Sunset in Leland

Thursday was definitely our longest day as we had to get up to Mackinaw City, cross the bridge, and shoot over to Escanaba across the upper peninsula. We had our work cut out for us. It seamed like very town was having some kind of event this week, the traffic in both Charlevoix and Petoskey was miserable. We did finally make Mac City, stopped at the Harley store to pick up my brother-in-law a tee-shirt and off we went.

The bridge was not nearly as ominous this time as it was a couple of years ago but it is a little freaky having the front end wanting to track differently than the rear.

Evelyn and I in the U.P.

We made it across, to St. Ignace, got some gas and grub (no it was not a pastie) and we were off and running towards the western upper peninsula. Oh, by the way, don't bother doing a Wiki search on Pastie, it's not the same thing!

So last night was in Escanaba MI and tonight we are on the north side of Milwaukee WI. The ride from Escanaba to Green Bay was to be the most scenic while in Wisconsin but we were in rain the whole way. South of GB it cleared up and we had a nice ride the rest of the way.

We found a Courtyard to stay at and immediately went for the jacuzzi upon arrival. Tomorrow we will ride the Lake Express over to Muskegon and slide on home.

That's it for the update.

Cya Monday... Doug