Any ride- good or bad - begins as an idea or conversation. This one is no different. I have done a couple rides with Designflaw06, my rain gear is in pretty good shape, so why not another? Our previous ride included exploring the Lake Michigan shoreline along Michigan’s western front and some of the Upper Peninsula. We talked about a few waypoints for a ride that would let us reach the western half of the U.P. and a route started taking shape - we planned to see parts of Wisconsin and the U.P. during this adventure. We installed some trip insurance a few weeks before the trip – new tires on both bikes along with some minor maintenance items like a sticky rear brake pedal. The potential for other mechanical issues still exists, but at least we nearly eliminated a spent searching for tires while off the beaten path. for a wasted day searching for a new rear tire mid-trip (we hope…). CJ - De Oppressor Libre - will be joining us as well on his 2008 FJR. The three stooges or 3 amigos were ready – we would see how these ancient 2nd generation FJR’s can handle a few days on the road. No factory cruise, no rider modes, and suspension you have to manually turn a clicker to adjust – I know – call us bold or stupid – Either description may work by the end of this ride…
“Lube makes everything easier…”
This will be the longest (day wise) motorcycle ride we’ve taken in some time - the plan calls for 7 days on the road departing home on Saturday, July 17th and returning the next Saturday or Sunday. Weather could modify that plan, but I’m sure most would agree that any day spent on a motorcycle is a fair bit better than one spent at work. Vacation time for me has gotten much easier endure from a work perspective. During 2020, managers at my level and above served 4 weeks of furlough. Policy for that meant we were 100% unplugged; if we responded to even on phone call or text, that furlough period was nullified and rescheduled. Our company phones and emails were disabled. The silver lining with this meant that critical activity like approving employee time cards and billing submissions had processes refined and tested so the world didn’t come to a grinding standstill if my role is unplugged for a week. No more spending evenings checking emails, approving time cards or other items – it’s either covered or will wait until I return. I’ve got a sharp team and a solid senior member on my team to cover things for me – it’s a great feeling to be able to focus on something other than work for a few days.
Day 1 - Saturday - July 17th, 2021 - Home to Muskegon, MI
Day 1 is a short leg for us riding solo. During the planning discussion, we decided that getting to Milwaukee via expressway through Chicago 2-up would not be all that enjoyable. Pillion attitude would be at a much more enjoyable level if we utilized one of the Lake Express ferries to cross lake Michigan. The Sunday crossing had a departure time of 10am. I knew better than to attempt a zero dark thirty Sunday morning departure attempting to make the 10am ferry departure. Those who travel with a pillion will understand. We departed Saturday afternoon for a relaxing transit to the West side of the state. Our accommodations for the night were an Airbnb that was about 25 minutes from the ferry dock. We were greeted by a well camouflaged toad and some interestingly positioned ‘hens-n-chicks’ plant. Dinner was at very good – a local spot called Lefty & Romo’s. Looking back at pictures on my phone and gopro, there’s zero chance of food porn at this point in the trip, but take our word for it – it was excellent.
Day 2 - Sunday - July 18th, 2021 included Muskegon, MI to Manitowoc, WI
First order of business was breakfast on Sunday – Cherokee Restaurant in Muskegon near the ferry dock was a great way to start out the ride – good food and company. Sorry, no food porn because I suck at that. The ferry dock was just a mile or so away, but we managed to get in our first u-turn of the trip before finding out that a small party of pirates were in line ahead of us. We elected to take the ferry across Lake Michigan from Muskegon to Milwaukie in order to keep the pillion comfort levels towards the upper end of the scale for as long as possible. I mean, we are traveling with the moisture magnet after all, so it’s only a matter of time before we hit hurricane level precipitation, right?
The ferry didn’t sink, apparently icebergs don’t make it that far south in Lake Michigan – who knew. We disembarked in Milwaukie with minimal drama and made our way north out of the city. Lunch was at “Juice’s Ghost Town” Tavern”. It wasn’t’ scary and I saw no ghosts. But apparently Rudolph didn’t fare so well last year. The food was great – bacon cheddar chucks, tots and a Ruben sandwich. Food porn level 1 achieved. Something I enjoy when traveling is not eating at chain restaurants. Seeking out local places usually nets an added layer of adventure. We did fairly well with lunch and dinner stops – hopefully my food porn game continues to improve.
Is that you, Rudolph?
Food Porn, Level 1 – Ruben sammich and…
Tots and cheese and bacon lumps…
One ‘trip planning goal’ I had was to do our best to avoid chain restaurants as much as possible. Between breakfast at the Cherokee Restaurant & Lefty and Romo’s in Muskegon, then Juice’s Ghost Town, we were 3 for 3 so far.
You never know what you’re going to come across on back roads. For those who may not be golf aficionados (paint me in that corner), Whistling Straits Golf Course is located on the Wisconsin Lake Michigan shore just north of Sheboygan. What’s unique about Whistling Straits, as our traveling companion would share, is that the Ryder Cup was scheduled to be hosted there in 2020. The event was canceled last year but is being held this year in September. Here’s a little history on the event (link). We made a u-turn (no penalty assessed for this one) to go back and check it out – maybe they have t-shirts and ice cream. They don’t have very good signage at these places; our first loop through ended up dumping us back near the entrance – probably on purpose, because I can tell you the only way we would have gotten more looks is if we were in true biker trash garb and riding open-piped v-twins. On the second pass, we went bold – parking right in front of the club house so Tim could check on t-shirts and ice cream.
While we waited, I entertained myself. Every time someone walked by with that ‘biker trash-ish’ sideways look, I would loudly ask no particular audience, “but the sign said they had ice cream here.” One kind soul even went so far as to inform us that we were at a golf club, not a motorcycle club. Luckily, Tim emerged from the pro shop before I made my move for a calendar picture scene I’d just thought up – a FJR parked on the putting green of Whistling Straits.
You’re not supposed to be here, are you.
On the way out, I almost made a wrong turn, but Tim corrected me – the joy of mesh intercom – “Those are not twisties, Wayne – they are golf cart paths.” Oh, right - I knew that.
Our destination was Manitawoc, WI for the evening. We arrived early and had to wait a few hours for our rooms to be ready due to staffing shortage. We wondered a few blocks and found “Ryan’s on York” – a small local joint that served a great 1st and 2nd Mojito along with whatever I had for dinner. CJ caught up with is – he had to catch the afternoon ferry out of Muskegon and made it into town to catch desert.
The ride from Milwaukie was pretty hot, but the evening was cooling off nicely – so I opted for some mint chip ice cream instead of more salted nuts.
There - now I have to finish it. Additional portions will be posted as responses here but also added to post 1.
Next Chapter:
Day 3 - Monday - July 19th, 2021 included Manitowac to Green Bay via the Door County peninsula.
Now that our transit across the lake is complete, we were ready to get into a more relaxed, scenic pace. We stopped for breakfast at the Water’s Edge Restaurant just north of Manitowac. Took this picture in the lobby – inspiration for the day – should be a light house or 3 along the route today…
Oh, and food porn level minus one – no pictures of breakfast.
There was a construction detour that had us headed towards Kansas, but I did manage to avoid a u-turn penalty through denial and not listening to the comms chatter. From Sturgeon Bay, we followed Route B along the shore – it was a nice. We made it to the ferry dock in Northport where we doubled back to Sister Bay for lunch at Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant. Rt42 has a nice curvy section of road right before the ferry dock – there may or may not be gopro video of that coming when we get to the filmography portion of this little adventure.
Al Johnson’s if famous for having goats on the roof of the restaurant and accompanying buildings. There was grass growing on the roofs, so an obvious solution would be to put goats up there to keep them trimmed. Unfortunately, on this day, all the goats were enjoying time elsewhere.
Traffic in Sister Bay was heavy; everyone was maneuvering for parking to access the beach, marina or the goat restaurant. I learned that they take pedestrian crosswalks and sidewalks seriously in Wisconsin. So serious that when a minivan that is attempting to pull out into traffic sees someone approaching on the sideway, they back up to give them room to walk past. That beeping sound they heard was the feeble horn of an FJR, hoping to not get crushed as they backed up. Short legs have a hard time pushing a loaded FJR backwards at much more than a crawl. The sound heard across the Sena was that of someone who must have hacked our channel – high pitched, loud, and panicky in tone, “hhhheeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy….” Very not manly, according to descriptions.
Fueled and fed, we headed towards our destination – the northwest side of Green Bay. I realized we’d not seen one light house except the one’s in the picture at breakfast. To remedy that, we made a side trip to the Cana Island Light House. If you look at the image from Google Maps, you’d be led to believe you could drive right out to the visitor’s center. Well, that’s not exactly the case. You don’t have to walk to the lighthouse – thankfully – from the parking lot. There’s a tractor and wagon to provide a ride across the now underwater path. It’s a short but rough ride across the strait that is about 18” deep this year.
We slid into the hotel and had dinner options narrowed down to an A&W (root beer floats, anyone?) or local place called “Gilligan’s Bar & Grill”. This was a treat – the bartender who took our order was great; I’m pretty sure she was half tanked, which elevated the entertainment factor.
“I am deathly allergic to pickles.” was the quote of the day.
Day 4 - Tuesday - July 20th, 2021
Green Bay, WI to Wakefield, MI
“ Do you have two beds?”
We walk of the hotel after breakfast to a bright, clear and beautiful Tuesday. Odd, but we’ll go with it… Our destination this day is Ironwood, Michigan which is about 200 miles north and west. Once we got rolling, we spent a little time getting away from Green Bay on WI-29 – a 4 lane divided highway. We picked up WI-55 near Kenosha and followed that to Crandon. Wow – great road through the woods – a little curvy with some elevation change – a great way to enjoy the morning. We stopped in Eagle River for lunch. It was a busy place – over an hour wait at the first place, so we wondered a few blocks over and settled on “Friendship House Family Restaurant”. Nothing to write home about – crowded and busy, but decent food.
On the way back to the bikes, we found this gem – this place must be a sister property to Tim’s lodging project in Owosso.
Our route took us along the Wisconsin – Michigan border after lunch, turning north on County Road 519 into Wakefield, Michigan. The dinner option local to the hotel turned out to be a breakfast and lunch joint, so we order dinner from a local place that delivered. We camped out in the lobby lounge for a bit enjoying the evening. As we were getting ready to turn turn in, a couple stopped to ask where we were headed – they were on a pair of Harley’s. Turns out, they were traveling a simlair route as ours but in reverse. They’d been to Copper Harbor the day before and shared what a relatively traumatic experience they’d had riding up to this scenic overlook above Copper Harbor. Said scenic overlook was on our route for the next day. Hmmmm…
Tim and CJ missed the best part of this conversation, just barely. When the couple stopped to talk to us, they were on the balcony of the 2nd floor that crossed above the lobby. They were on their way back from the pool. Ever have a conversation with someone that was really enjoyable, yet couldn’t keep eye contact with them? They were friendly enough, as fellow bikers would be. The catch was, as I said, they were coming from the pool. She was in a bikini and towel. Did I mention they were on the 2nd floor above the lobby? Yeah – so there we were, carrying on a conversation about where we’d both been, us looking up, them leaning over the railing looking down.
Let that image unfold in your head; to provide some scale, I’ll add these two pictures…
Sometimes, you just have to stop smell the flowers. That one if for Tyler.
Next up – Lake of the Clouds, Copper Harbor and some rock hunting…
Day 5 - Wednesday - July 21st, 2021
Wakefield, MI to Copper Harbor, MI
Wednesday morning arrived in the form yet another clear and sunny day. I’m beginning to get concerned at this point. So many consecutive days traveling with you-know-who can only mean muther nature has something special in store for us. Highlights on tap for today would be visiting Lake of the Clouds in the Porcupine Wilderness State Park on the shore of Lake Superior and the section of US2 that runs along the Lake Superior shoreline into Copper Harbor. Mileage would be right around 190 total.
Starting out the day right – Tyler style – as today was going to be a stop and smell the flowers type of day.
County Route 519 passes through Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park ending at the shore of Lake Superior. We made the left turn and headed up to Lake of the Clouds. We parked and made the short walk to the overlooks – it was spectacular.
We had lunch at the “Up North Café” in Ontonagon. The service was great and the food was awesome. Someone had desert.
This one is for Bikergeek – food porn level -10.
Wait – maybe this is how you’re supposed to do it – I can never remember…
Underway again, we continued northeasterly towards Houghton, crossing the river / lake to Hancock and onward towards Copper Harbor. We stopped at Prospector’s Paradise so Annette could shop for rocks. Who know there were so many different specifically named rocks. Geology, right?
“What kind of rock is this?”
"It’s asphalt, Tim.…"
M26 is a very nice stretch of road that runs from Eagle River through Eagle Harbor and on into Copper Harbor. It runs right along the Lake Superior shoreline. The quote of the day that applies here would be:
"I have no interest in going 100mph today…"
Just before Copper Harbor, we made a quick detour up to a scenic overlook. From there, you can see the town and harbor as well as the light house on the far side of the harbor – this was another spectacular view.
Once settled in at the Bella Vista Motel, we walked to dinner at the Mariner North restaurant. It was crowded, but the food was good and the company even better. There was no A/C in our room – but this far north and being right on Lake Superior, we had the heat on by morning. The weather was fantastic and we sat outside for a bit after dinner enjoying it.
Tomorrow brings a light house, more good food and some gambling.
Intermission – aka why is it taking so long for the next day of this RR??
It’s been a couple days (or longer) since my last update. The past few days have been spent at the local fair grounds (Armada Fair) with our youngest and her horse for the 4H and open horse shows. Long days where somehow instead of kicking back in a lawn chair under a canopy I found myself in the ring and announcer stand on ring stewart, gate keeper, and ring setup duties. Wednesday was an 18+ hour day ending with putting Dolly back in the pasture around midnight. If you have lost faith in today’s generation of young people – spend a day with these kids during fair week.
For now, I leave you with this – my daughter, her pony and the Stars & Stripes…
Day 6 - Thursday - July 22nd, 2021
Copper Harbor to Christmas, MI
Thursday morning began overcast and cool. We had breakfast at a local café in Copper Harbor – The Tamarak Inn. Breakfast was prompt and tasty. CJ demonstrated the proper technique for finding the maximum capacity of the provided coffee cup – coffee + cream + extended pinky to balance it…
We left breakfast and planned to visit the Copper Harbor Lighthouse. In my trip planning, I missed a small detail about accessing the lighthouse – you can only get there via ferry. The “road” on google maps is gated and private. Good job, Wayne. So we settled for viewing the lighthouse from Astor Shipwreck Park. We spent some time enjoying the morning stillness. Tim, being the more bolder drone pilot, decided to visit the lighthouse with his drone. He captured some very good pictures and video of the lighthouse – hopefully he will share.
We traveled back towards Houghton along the east shore of the Keweenaw Peninsula. We traveled through Gay, Michigan with a quick stop at the Gay Bar.
After getting through Houghton, we stopped just outside L’ance for lunch. They had these huge cinnamon rolls at the Hilltop Restaurant that I remembered from the 2019 dual sport ride we did in the U.P. I thought one of those would be a great appetizer…
From there, we made the run across US41 towards Marquette with a quick stop to see the old ore chutes – they used these for loading ore mined in the area onto ships.
From Marquette it was a short run across more of MI28 toward Munising. Our destination for the evening was the White Pine Lodge – chosen for it’s proximity to Froggy’s Steakhouse as the option for dinner. The White Pine Lodge was an interesting place – tied to the casino across the parking lot no doubt. The hotel lobby had a convenience store and gas station attached. Super convenient times three.
At dinner we learned that when you order a beer with berries, sometimes the berries float, sometimes they sink, and sometimes they float again…
Like I mentioned earlier – the Hotel shares a parking lot with a casino. It just so happens that when you check in to the White Pine Lodge, you get a $10 voucher for the casino. Upon further exploration, it was discovered that the $10 voucher turns into $23 when they add in all their ‘freebies’ like $4 for crossing the Mackinaw Bridge to get to the casio (which we hadn’t done). So there I was, standing in a Casio, with a $23 voucher / play card burning a liquid lava hole in my pocket. I went immediately for the high roller area.
Yeah, I was on track to break the house.
I cashed out at $23 & change. So, for making the walk across the parking log, I cleared $23. That’s a win-win no matter how you look at it.
And that brings us to the end of the day. Tomorrow we’ll tour Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and visit Whitefish Point on the way to St Ignace.
Day 7 - Friday - July 23rd, 2021
Christmas / Munising to St Ignace, MI
The main attraction for Friday was the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore tour. You can view some of the rock formations from the shore, but the best views are from one of the water based options – tour boar or kayaking. We chose the tour boat option and it was fantastic. The weather was good with some haziness. We arrived early to get in line for decent seats on the boat. The tour was just over an hour to travel along the 12 miles of shoreline; this included some pauses along the way for photo opts and tour guide commentary.
The video footage is not very good; new camera and the auto settings didn’t do well with the position of the sun and haze against the rock face. An evening cruise would net some very nice footage I’m sure, with the sun being behind the camera illuminating the rock faces. Maybe next time…
After the boat tour, we grabbed lunch in Munising and were on our way east. US 2 across that section of the U.P. is pretty boring. We made the left towards Newberry and headed north towards Tahquamenon Falls. We’ve stopped at the falls a couple of times in the past 2 years, but Tim, Leanne and CJ had not. They split off to see both the upper and lower falls; We continued on so Annette could do some rock hunting at White Fish Point. It was a beautiful day to take in Lake Superior and the beach.
What do you do while your S.O. is rock hunting on the beach?
We met in Paradise (Michigan) and headed south to St Ignace. Option one for dinner – Joe’s Diner – did not fair well through the last year; the backup plan – Jose’s Cantina– was just a short ride down the road. Our pre-meal entertainment included large Margaritta’s and a dude pushing his Harley up a ramp into his trailer that was contructed of a 2x8 and a cinder block – you can’t make these things up.
I did not select the Burrito’s of death.
But the award winning fish tacos where indeed award winning…
How to load your Harley clinic in the parking lot:
“Push dammit”
After dinner, a quick glance at the forecast reveals that mother nature intends to make up for the 6 days of clear and sunny weather. Stay tuned, we’re almost to the end of this one! Thanks for tagging along on the journey so far.
Day 8 - Saturday - July 24th, 2021
St Ignace to Home.
We went to bed Friday evening knowing inclement weather was emanate for Saturday. The unknown was timing - would it allow us to get across the mighty mac - Mackinaw Bridge - dry and in calm conditions, or would the heavy rain and wind arrive before daylight forcing us to delay our departure.
Around 4am, heavy rain had moved in and a quick look at the radar image did not bring much hope for a dry run south. I was back awake just before 7am and the rain had stopped. Dawn broke with cloudy skies but no rain. Radar image confirmed that we could get across the bridge dry and figure things out from there. We hurriedly packed the bike and grabbed breakfast from the hotel’s continental offering. Tim and Leann had the same idea – getting across the bridge dry. They had decided that once across, they’d wait out the weather before heading south and west towards home. We were headed south and then east once below Saginaw Bay. The radar images displayed what appeared to be a decent gap in precipitation that would allow us to move south and slice through a small band of moderate rain before breaking free of it. Mother nature had laid the perfect trap.
This first clip is just the footage of us crossing the 5 miles span of the Mackinaw Bridge. Trailing video footage credit goes to Tim and his GoPro mounted on the nose of his bike. Side footage is from my GoPro.
This video clip captures what we rode through over the next 2 ½ hours. From clouds, light rain began and slowly ramped up to the point of WTF are you doing. The storm moved in and that blob of heavy rain exploded and engulfed our path. We were all in at this point, so we pressed south knowing that at some point we’d break out of the weather.
After stopping for gas near West Branch, we managed to break out of the heavy rain about 20 minutes later. I was soaked through by this point. Annette was too, even with an additional rain jacket over her riding jacket. The rain aided by the speed of travel worked its way past the water repellent properties of every piece of our riding gear. The only thing that remained dry (besides the items packed in the side bags and Givi top box) were items inside my tank bag. Once out of the rain, clear skies brought warmer temperatures and the drying process began. At a rest stop about an hour from home we peeled layers off and finished warming up & drying off.
Home after 8 days and 1566 miles of fantastic riding and adventure! Lessons learned include we need better rain gear or I need to learn how to not ride in the rain. Every meal was at a non-chain based establishment – support your local restaurants and businesses where possible. Thanks for following along.
Wayne
