John Turner

I used my Verizon MiFi to catch up with email and some other web sites in the hotel. Got packed up and met Peter in the lobby for our free breakfast. They had a cool self-serve waffle maker that I had never seen before (I don’t get out much). We ate, checked out, and headed out to Route 2 and stopped to gas up. I grabbed some gum and a bottle of water, then we headed west to Manistique.

Made it to St. Ignace, no problems. Only my second time ever in the U.P. Man, it feels good, and I’m going to be coming back a lot…it just feels good up here. Big Mac was no issue whatsoever…the grating was a little unusual but I had caught a bunch of it on my trip around Lake St. Clair so I wasn’t surprised. I noticed Peter in the rear view giving up on the grating and weasling over to the safe pavement lane. I won’t tease him too bad because I know his KLR has knobby dual-sport tires but it was nice to know I took the whole stretch in stride. Only downside was that I was paying so much attention to the lane in front of me and making sure I didn’t dump the bike that I missed the scenery while crossing. Oh well…next time. The bike handled fine, I am very satisfied with my choice of the Kawasaki as a first bike. People are getting friendlier the farther north we go…what a nice change from Detroit. We decided to stay in the Comfort Inn in St. Ignace…we’ve got first floor rooms right on the lake and it is absolutely gorgeous. Had dinner at The Mackinac Grille. Pasta with blackened Great Lakes whitefish…yum! Fun place. Going to meet Peter outside on the patio right on the water, chill out, smoke a cigar, and relax. I’m going to sleep like a log tonight, that’s for sure. Tomorrow will be an easy run to Green Bay via US-2 through Escanaba and then down through Menominee. The new plan is GB tomorrow night, then Chicago on Saturday night, then home to the D on Sunday. Based on our mileage today, should be no problem whatsoever and if we pushed it we could do it in 3 days easily but this isn’t an endurance test. The day’s mileage: 360.

The ride out from Traverse City was awesome. Cruising along on US-31, the lake on the left, just great. A little cold but not a big deal. I decided to try wearing the ear plugs I had brought along to see if it would help with the wind noise and it made a huge difference. Stopped in a park outside Charlevoix that was right on the lake and snapped some pictures. Absolutely beautiful. Charlevoix the town seemed a lot more touristy than TC…I liked TC a lot better. I got into a bit of a food coma (lunch was good!!) outside of Petoskey and signaled to Peter for a stop so I could grab an energy shot from my pack. The bike is running and handling great. We kept going, bound for the Mackinac Bridge and St. Ignace. Made great time…traffic not nearly as bad as we thought it would be.

We got rolling pretty quick out of Clare. Peter had driven the route earlier in the summer so he was familiar. We took US-10 to US-115, headed for Traverse City. We gassed up and hit the restrooms in Cadillac. From US-115 we took US-37 N right into town. Last time I was in Traverse City I was in high school, the ski team was there for states. Big difference now. We rode around downtown for awhile, and I must say it looks like a great place to live. We parked the bikes on Cass just planning to walk around to find someplace to eat, and amazingly noticed that Mackinac Brewing Company was right there on the corner of Front and Cass. Perfect! Lunch was great, the place was nice. I could definitely see it as a Johnzilla hangout. I got online with my netbook and the Verizon MiFi to check our route. Peter and I realized that we were making much better time than planned. We thought we would stay the night in Traverse City, but here it was about 2 PM and we were having lunch. That changes everything…new plan! We decided to push through across Big Mac and stay the night in St. Ignace. If we do that, looks like we can go all the way around the lake instead of cutting across on the ferry and skipping Chicago like we had planned. Sweet!!

After breakfast at Cracker Barrel, we took off on I-96, headed for Clare. The route plan was I-96 W to Lansing and then take US-127 N to Clare. No big deal, nothing much happened except we caught some rain north of Lansing. And it was freaking cold. We rolled into Clare just after 11 AM and took a break in the park next to the police station. First thing I did was layer up with an extra sweatshirt and put my windbreaker on instead of my jean jacket. The ride from Lansing was just too darn cold and the rain did not help. I also noticed that my new 3/4 helmet was leaving a red mark on my forehead…guess it didn’t fit as well as I thought it did. I put on a bandanna as a cushion…the last thing I need is a blister on my head for the whole trip. I noticed a big difference once we got north of Lansing…no more Detroit attitude. Everyone is a lot friendlier once you get away from Detroit…the cops were waving to us as they pulled out of their parking lot. Nice.

I have to laugh a bit…Peter and I agreed we would meet at the Cracker Barrel in Brighton for breakfast before heading out on the Lake MI trip. The freeway ride was no big deal but it was cold. And the I-96/US-23 interchange is not nice for bikers, where the traffic merges from the left onto I-96. Anyway, I get off at the Grand River exit and get stuck at the light. While I’m sitting there wondering who’s going to be there first, me or Peter, he coasts to a stop right beside me at the light, almost like we each timed leaving the house perfectly. A good sign for two people who will be riding for 4 days.

Getting ready to leave the house. Today is day one of Lake Michigan 2009 – Long Way ‘Round, a 4 day motorcycle trip. It won’t be a true circumnavigation of the lake, but it will be close enough for government work. I’m very excited, I’ve been planning this trip for weeks. The bike is as ready to go as it ever will be…I changed the oil, checked the tire pressure, checked the fluids, got the new hard bags installed (Tsukayu Patrol), and spent a couple hours late last night editing my gear down to the bare minimum. Basically if I can’t wear it or use it to fix the bike, I won’t have it. I’ve gotten all the gear down to the two hard bags with room to spare, and a Macroloader backpack I got from eBags which I will strap to the passenger seat with a couple of Rok Straps. I decided to take the 3/4 helmet, it looks like it is going to be pretty cold and the 3/4 should help a bit. I’m leaving the faceshield at home and only taking the visor.

I caught this blog entry today and thought it was a great read. I wish more people down on the auto industry, Detroit and Michigan could tour an assembly plant and see things with their own eyes. Maybe then they’d understand what it means and what it takes to make a machine as complicated as a modern automobile that is customized to the buyer’s preferences, safe, fuel efficient, stylish, powerful, capable, compatible with all federal regulations and cost effective. And essentially do it on demand. Most folks like to dismiss us as “flyover country” but they don’t have a clue.

For more about Ford, check out The Ford Story. Hint: if you think you’ve got us figured out, you don’t. You owe it to yourself to see what Ford is about, to see our products, and to be on the lookout for some absolutely amazing product coming down the pipe. Soon. And it only gets better.

Just got home from my longest motorcycle ride to date: 335 miles. Detroit to White Pigeon via US-12 (Michigan Ave), then White Pigeon to Kalamazoo via US-131. Lunch and a lager at Bell’s (excellent pastrami sandwich), then back home via I-94. I-94 was smooth sailing until Mt. Hope Road, where it started backing up. Peter and I got off the freeway there and hit the back roads back to Ann Arbor where we split off and I continued home. The bike worked like a champ, and did so well passing on I-94 that I’m giving serious thought to keeping it instead of trading up next season.

The ride was relatively uneventful…rode with some Harleys through Irish Hills but other than that Peter and I were pretty much alone in both directions. Unbelievably hot…mid-90s with a heat index of 102…yowza! Glad my Kaw is water-cooled, I would have been one cranky rider if I had had to sit in traffic with a mega-hot V-Twin in my crotch. Big lesson learned: hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I’m going to buy a small bag I can put on the handlebars behind the windshield so I can keep a couple bottles of water in there. That way I won’t have to stop to hydrate.

This ride and last week’s Lake St. Clair circumnavigation were shakedown rides for the big Lake Michigan ride later this month. 225 and 335 on two separate weekends with zero problems, I think the bike will be fine on the Lake MI trip. Oh, and this trip was a shakedown ride with the new Tsukayu Patrol hardbags installed. No problems there, either!

Took the bike around Lake St. Clair today. 217 miles total. Basically up to Port Huron and across the bridge to Sarnia, then south through Chatham and west to Windsor, and back across at the Ambassador. Here’s the Google Map of the ride, and there’s also a Dipity timeline, too!