July 1st. With great regret and excitement simultaneously, we set out for Ohio today from Bay City , MI. What was supposed to be a short day turned into 330 miles because we were detoured about 5 times. I actually lost track. There were 2 or 3 detours just on route 13 as we were leaving Bay City, which took forever, and then a few others later. Going around Toledo was pretty stop and go traffic, and I was glad we weren't closer to the city, or worse going through it. We were on US 20 and the contrast between the US routes in Ohio compared to the US routes in Wyoming, S. Dakota, or Montana was extremely dramatic. We were both exhausted the whole time. I think because it was our last day our bodies finally gave into the fatigue, not to mention that we somehow ended up riding about 40 miles more than we were supposed to. We took US 20 which got better after the Toledo suburbs, to US 18 through Medina and down Market Street in Akron, arriving home safe and sound at about 8:30 in the evening. We were glad to see home and the dogs, but sad that our adventure was over and it was time to face life again. I got most of the attention because of the size of my bike. More than once someone commented on the fact that I had ridden a "dirt bike" from Ohio, or just commented on my general fortitude. I actually enjoyed my little bike immensely. I liked the upright sitting position, it performed amazingly, and I don't need to go any faster. We covered some 4800 miles, saw some of the most amazing National Parks and just generally amazing landscapes in all of the US and we did it at a rate where we could actually enjoy it. We camped about half the time and did motels when we needed to because of weather or rest. We stayed at some great private little motels and got some great bargains and felt cozy and safe. We left our helmets on our bikes when we ate, and only felt like we had to lock and alarm the bikes twice on the whole trip. It was an amazing journey and we are already planning our next one.
Ps. Check out the wear on my tires after 4800 miles.
June 30th. We left Manistique and headed out for Bay City which was our destination of the day, which is north of Saginaw, MI. The ride was fairly windy at first, more than a little uncomfortable, but as we moved away from the water it got better. The biggest obstacle was crossing the Mackinac Bridge, which is very long and high off the water. Normally it begins with two concrete lanes and then in the middle it switches to an interior steel grate lane and an exterior concrete lane. Noticed I said normally, can you see where this is going? There was construction on the concrete lane, so on a nice windy day, over the crossing point of Lake Michigan, about 200 feet over the water, I got to ride my lightweight bike with knobby tires over a lane that causes me to track like crazy. Luckily there was a big slow truck and everyone was going about 20 miles an hour, because my bike was all over that lane. I was trying to relax, but it was just impossible, and this bridge is long. I made it though. Micah on his sport bike with sport tires, did fine of course, although he did feel the effects of the wind. Luckily the rest of the ride was calm and cool (not cold), and I am just enjoying our last full day of our vacation. We stayed at the Euclid Hotel after driving all over Bay City trying to find something downtown, but all the downtown hotels were truly dives.
June 29th. We left Duluth and headed out across Wisconsin, which I think we crossed in all of 2 hours, and headed into Michigan. This area looks so much like NE Ohio except that it is disturbingly Caucasian. The sites of interest are a little different out here. We saw an old guy on a bicycle with shorts on that I might have worn in 7th grade in 1980. You remember those Nair "who wears short shorts" commercials of the 70's and 80's, well these would have put those to shame. Tried to get a pic, but didn't manage it. We ended in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan after a 340 mile ride that was very wooded and hilly. Micah had made a motel reservation the night before in order to push us to ride all the way to Manistique, but he didn't count on it being absolutely frigid outside. Now, you non-riders won't get this, but it was 50's and 60's and windy. With the tree coverage we were in the shade a lot, and it was partly cloudy. I was colder than I had been in the mountains of Big Horn, Yellowstone, or Glacier, because in those areas when you headed back down it got warmer. We were already down and it was just cold. When we would stop the sun would warm us back up again, but I would usually have at least one white if not blue fingernail at each warm up break. We made it to Manistique, and we pushed through the last 54 miles with the setting sun and cooling air at a higher speed in order to get there quickly, but I was like a Popsicle when we arrived. I realized about 10 miles from our destination that I couldn't uncurl my left hand. I had forgotten to keep it moving. It warmed up quickly and despite the late hour (about 9:30) we were able to get some dinner, and we were literally on the shores of Lake Michigan.
June 28th. Last night in the tent, I woke up to the sound of rustling plastic, unzipped the tent and saw nothing. It happened again later, and I was much faster, and looked out, saw an animal and was about to shoo it away when I realized it was a skunk looking at me from a distance of about 3 feet (from my face). I let out a quick "oh my god" and zipped the tent shut and hid my head in my sleeping bag. Micah asked me what was up, and I whispered that there was a skunk outside. We both laid there as still and quiet as we could. That could have been very bad.
Took the day off from riding and hung around the campsite. This campground has such potential and if you people are reading this pay attention. The location is great, but they get $28 for a tent site ( which is more than a freakin' KOA) and they have pay showers. The bathrooms were not well kept up and were dirty. They had some flooding but the flooding was over, and someone needed to spend some time cleaning it up. At least prop the door open so it can dry out. We paid for a site without water, because to get water you needed to be at one of the RV sites, away from the bay. That was fine, but the only way to get water was in the bathroom or the laundry. There was no spigot outside. There was also no indicated dishwashing area, and the only utility sink was in the laundry, and I wasn't going to wash my dishes where people clean their clothes. They just seemed terribly unorganized.
Now the positive. The sites were large and relatively private, especially compared to some we have had on the trip and the campground is waterside, along a bay. We did use our day to visit Aerostich which is made in Duluth, they do have a tiny storefront there, and we noticed that a lot of the local riders wear their product. I spent most of the afternoon just gathering dry wood for kindling for a great fire to cook our Nathan's hot dogs on tonight.
June 27th. We have decided that we are going to give ourselves and actual non-riding day and give our butts, and my wrists, which have been killing me since leaning on them too much coming down the mountain at Glacier, a much needed rest. We want our journey home to still be a vacation, not just a racking up of miles. So, we left East Great Fork and crossed Minnesota. It was rather uneventful. Although we had been warned about a possible lack of gas, compared to other areas especially, the opposite seemed to be true. Even towns with populations of 1200 would have 5-6 gas stations right along route 2. Only the large expanse of the National Forest in Minnesota seemed to be gas free, and if you were cutting through that at a diagonal, I could see how that would be a potential problem, if you hadn't planned for it. We only went through about 40 miles. We ended in Duluth, MN and we got a campsite at a rather overpriced campground called "Indian Ridge".
June 26th. We rode 340 miles across North Dakota, stopping at a mall in Minot for tools as my electrical gremlins are at it again. On the way back, before Havre Montana my clock and my tripometer suddenly reset and did it a couple times in a row, about every 10 minutes for about 40 minutes. Of course this meant that I lost my total miles for the trip, and made it more difficult to know when I needed gas. Every day I have had a glitch at some point and then it goes away again. It hasn't affected anything else, seems to be just the electronic dash, but I realized that I did not have the right tools if it became more serious. The ride was relatively uneventful, sometimes windy but not bad, ending in East Grand Forks, MN, which is right across the bridge/river from Grand Forks, ND. We got an inexpensive motel room (no tax!) as a thunderstorm was headed our way and set out to get some dinner. We walked a bit over a small bridge and yes, we were back in North Dakota. We ended up at a small bar that smelled like pizza, and it was awesome. The name was Rhombus Guys and it was known for their pizza. We had a backpacker's pizza, which I can only assume was named because it had ingredients that you could not take backpacking with you, fresh mushrooms, green peppers, tomatoes, artichokes and feta, yumm.
June 25th. On our way our of Montana I had to lament that I may never again see the sheer volume of horses that just lie on their side and lounge in the sun. I had always thought that a horse lying down was a sign of distress, but here in Montana the horses think differently. Whole herds on their sides, sometimes rolling on their backs like a Labrador in tall grass, kicking up their hooves playfully. It is an amazing site, and I never got a picture. We rode over 300 miles and barely made it into North Dakota. Montana is almost 700 miles across, just massive. In the very last section of Montana we would occasionally see street signs hanging over an intersection that simply said, "Canada" with an arrow pointing left. We thought at the first one when we first saw it that it was the name of the road to the left but we realized that it was simply pointing to Canada, as in "do you want to go to Canada?, then turn this way." Now, if we can just make it out of North Dakota without encountering a tornado, everything will be fine.
