Road Trip - Great Lakes Mitten Run - May 2018 |
The Complete Map - Northeast & Great Lakes Zoomed Google Hybrid Map
The Complete Map - Lower 48 United States Google Terrain Map
The Complete Map - Northern Hemisphere of Earth Google Terrain Map
The Ride Plan
This is designed top be a 4-7 day riding plan. It is weather dependent, and I will have rain gear, but I won't be dumb enough to go our in a thunderstorm or such a downpour that my clothing will be nothing but a algae collection point. At the time of this posting, I have been developing Google Maps, converting them to GPX files, and performing edits so they can be loaded in my motorcycle's RideCommand navigation system. Part of this is test my write-up on using RideCommand in a way to make life easier while on the road. I will be tracking my movements with a few different applications.
Day 1
So, staring form home, the goal was supposed to get to Buffalo NY and spend the night there. I wasn't super tired when I was almost there, and I was so close to Canada, I decided to go there instead of waiting the next day. Comparing the points to stay in Buffalo vs. Canada, I choose to cheap-out on the points and go over the border. This became a great idea on two counts (that I knew of at the time). First, it was about a 60 minute ordeal to get over the bridge, through customs, and pay the toll with the EZ-Pass. Second, the weather I was tracking was showing 10% rain for Niagara Falls for Tuesday. By the time I got to the DoubleTree hotel (which I had to pay to park at) about 4 blocks from the Niagara Falls museum and lookout point, I was told by the front desk people that it was Victoria Day and that later in the evening there would be fireworks that I could see from the room (great idea number 3). Now, I considered venturing outside, but it was getting steamy and muggy, so I had dinner and came back to the hotel to watch the show. The first shot went up at 9:45PM, and the show began at 10:00pm, which lasted an entire 6 minutes. Happier that I was inside, I did record the second half of the show with my phone.
Day 2
So, the great idea that Niagara Falls, Ontario had a 10% chance of rain was the allure of riding through the area. Unfortunately, that 10% chance was pouring outside at 7:30am. I put the rain gear on before heading out, but I did not go out until the rain stopped and I saw signs of some dry-out... burning daytime hours I really wanted to ride in. The majority of the ride was cold and brutal until I got to Michigan, where I toughed it out and got to a hotel to stay the night. The last 2 hours of riding, heading through some small towns on the left-outer thumb of Michigan was awesome... especially since I did hit about 90 minutes of sunshine. I ended up in the Hampton Inn at Bay City. They did not have a place to park the motorcycle under any "temporary car loading areas," but there was no sign of rain at all.
Day 3
At some point in the day, I made the decision to go home because at noon (which was the first time I was hanging around in the lobby of the Petosky Hampton Inn's lobby) I made some phone calls and watched a weather channel report that there would be thunderstorms back in my home town. At this point, I wasn't feeling content with my progress, so I continued towards Traverse City. Along the way, I stopped at a place called Royal Farms in Ellsworth. They had a hand-made sign that said "Hard Cider made here," and it was mid-afternoon, so in I went for some tastings, a pint, and some food rations I had with me (South African Biltong). I took off again and continued to go through lots of small "Main Street" towns, and ended up at M.C. Beach in Traverse City. Between this spot on the lake, and others I pulled off to take pictures, and bask in the cooler air, that feeling of being content with my ride just hit me.
Now in conversation with the young lady at Royal Farms, we were chatting. She had asked me where I was headed, and told her (from someone else's recommendation and websites) that it was the western side of the "Michigan mitten" I was aiming for, southbound from where I was currently. She made a comment, and said "Oh, so you probably already did the Tunnel of Trees just north of Petosky?" And this is where a new seed was planted in my head. I was determined to get to the left-mitten side of the state, but after resting and feeling the crisp air and the light lake crashing at M.C. Beach, I made a change to my plans. I now have considered I am as far west as I can go to get home at a decent hour on Friday afternoon.
So I did hear about the Tunnel of Trees on may websites and many people talking about the best roads in the USA. This website link (https://matadornetwork.com/trips/12-best-motorcycle-roads-america/) lists the top 12 best roads in the USA. On that list is the Tail of the Dragon (done all of it), Cherohala Skyway (done that), Blue Ridge Parkway (did a small piece of that), but last on the list is the Tunnel of Trees on local route M-119. It was a big factor that made me change direction and head back to Petosky. I did not double-back on the same road, and decided to ride M-72 and US-131 instead. Other than some significant construction on M-72, I'm glad I hit US-131. Finally after ending up in Petosky at about 5:30pm, I continued to the tunnel of trees, got some grub at The Legs Inn up in Cross Village, then decided to triple back to Petosky. When I got to Cross Village, since I was now going to most likely triple-back on a few roads, I turned off my tracking app on the Samsung phone, and restarted it after having a small meal and another cider for the day. Turns out, I ended up right back at that Hampton Inn to go to sleep for the night.
Day 4
Not too much to say (or maybe not) since I was trying to get home, and thought maybe I can do this in a day... just over 850 miles. To simply state it - there was no possible way that was happening! As I left, I ran into a man and a woman heading to southern PA (some town south of Pittsburgh) riding a Kawasaki cruiser and a Yamaha Star cruiser. I know this, because after riding several hours, and well over 360 miles after seeing them get gas at one station, and me passing them later on the I-75, they pulled up to a rest stop in Ohio's I-90 corridor... and I shouted out to them "Ah, I get the feeling you're following me. Am I right?" The guy on the Kawasaki said "Hey, I think you're following ME!" We chatted for a bit. They were headed to her relative's house (they were BF and GF), and stopping in on the way to Washington DC for the Rolling Thunder event. I left and continued to ride quickly into a town called Clarion PA, where I ended up at a Quality Inn hotel for the night. It was 9:45PM and the restaurant in waking distance was closing in 15 minutes. I ended up in my room and leaving because it was stuffy, and decided for a late evening meal at a local College-town style bar and gastropub. I'm glad I did, as I spoke to Will, who was the son of the family that owned the place, a musician, and gave me the name of a local NJ band that does cover songs for all the different "band member generations" of Yes. By the time the day was over (according to the motorcycle's GPS, not the tracker which was recording my off-bike movements), I had finished with 551.5 miles on the day; the L-O-N-G-E-S-T run for me on Blue Destiny to date.
Day 5
Continued to get home form here as quickly as possible, but I suffered from insomnia the night before. With only 3.5 hours of decent sleep, I took off from the hotel late at 10:30am, where tons of daylight have been burned up already. I went I-80 to I-476 and wanted to continue with the PA Turnpike's I-276. Unfortunately, there was an aggressive driver in the right lane as I was trying to make multiple merges to get to the eastbound direction of the PA Turnpike. I got rerouted and I knew this was going to suck! Mostly because the way I knew how to get home without the GPS was to head to I-76, making the last 40 miles and 90 minutes of travel just ugly. But I survived it (barely - there was one young lady that move into my lane from the right when I was next to her - amazed that she didn't hear my engine or the music blaring from my bike as she DID hear my yell and blow my horn, and just proceeded to move into my lane even after making eye contact with me as she was 1/4 done with the merge and JUST CONTINUED TO DO IT). Finally, I got to where I needed and pulled into the garage, with a grand total of 2,054.2 miles logged on the odometer for this trip.
This is designed top be a 4-7 day riding plan. It is weather dependent, and I will have rain gear, but I won't be dumb enough to go our in a thunderstorm or such a downpour that my clothing will be nothing but a algae collection point. At the time of this posting, I have been developing Google Maps, converting them to GPX files, and performing edits so they can be loaded in my motorcycle's RideCommand navigation system. Part of this is test my write-up on using RideCommand in a way to make life easier while on the road. I will be tracking my movements with a few different applications.
Day 1
So, staring form home, the goal was supposed to get to Buffalo NY and spend the night there. I wasn't super tired when I was almost there, and I was so close to Canada, I decided to go there instead of waiting the next day. Comparing the points to stay in Buffalo vs. Canada, I choose to cheap-out on the points and go over the border. This became a great idea on two counts (that I knew of at the time). First, it was about a 60 minute ordeal to get over the bridge, through customs, and pay the toll with the EZ-Pass. Second, the weather I was tracking was showing 10% rain for Niagara Falls for Tuesday. By the time I got to the DoubleTree hotel (which I had to pay to park at) about 4 blocks from the Niagara Falls museum and lookout point, I was told by the front desk people that it was Victoria Day and that later in the evening there would be fireworks that I could see from the room (great idea number 3). Now, I considered venturing outside, but it was getting steamy and muggy, so I had dinner and came back to the hotel to watch the show. The first shot went up at 9:45PM, and the show began at 10:00pm, which lasted an entire 6 minutes. Happier that I was inside, I did record the second half of the show with my phone.
Day 2
So, the great idea that Niagara Falls, Ontario had a 10% chance of rain was the allure of riding through the area. Unfortunately, that 10% chance was pouring outside at 7:30am. I put the rain gear on before heading out, but I did not go out until the rain stopped and I saw signs of some dry-out... burning daytime hours I really wanted to ride in. The majority of the ride was cold and brutal until I got to Michigan, where I toughed it out and got to a hotel to stay the night. The last 2 hours of riding, heading through some small towns on the left-outer thumb of Michigan was awesome... especially since I did hit about 90 minutes of sunshine. I ended up in the Hampton Inn at Bay City. They did not have a place to park the motorcycle under any "temporary car loading areas," but there was no sign of rain at all.
Day 3
At some point in the day, I made the decision to go home because at noon (which was the first time I was hanging around in the lobby of the Petosky Hampton Inn's lobby) I made some phone calls and watched a weather channel report that there would be thunderstorms back in my home town. At this point, I wasn't feeling content with my progress, so I continued towards Traverse City. Along the way, I stopped at a place called Royal Farms in Ellsworth. They had a hand-made sign that said "Hard Cider made here," and it was mid-afternoon, so in I went for some tastings, a pint, and some food rations I had with me (South African Biltong). I took off again and continued to go through lots of small "Main Street" towns, and ended up at M.C. Beach in Traverse City. Between this spot on the lake, and others I pulled off to take pictures, and bask in the cooler air, that feeling of being content with my ride just hit me.
Now in conversation with the young lady at Royal Farms, we were chatting. She had asked me where I was headed, and told her (from someone else's recommendation and websites) that it was the western side of the "Michigan mitten" I was aiming for, southbound from where I was currently. She made a comment, and said "Oh, so you probably already did the Tunnel of Trees just north of Petosky?" And this is where a new seed was planted in my head. I was determined to get to the left-mitten side of the state, but after resting and feeling the crisp air and the light lake crashing at M.C. Beach, I made a change to my plans. I now have considered I am as far west as I can go to get home at a decent hour on Friday afternoon.
So I did hear about the Tunnel of Trees on may websites and many people talking about the best roads in the USA. This website link (https://matadornetwork.com/trips/12-best-motorcycle-roads-america/) lists the top 12 best roads in the USA. On that list is the Tail of the Dragon (done all of it), Cherohala Skyway (done that), Blue Ridge Parkway (did a small piece of that), but last on the list is the Tunnel of Trees on local route M-119. It was a big factor that made me change direction and head back to Petosky. I did not double-back on the same road, and decided to ride M-72 and US-131 instead. Other than some significant construction on M-72, I'm glad I hit US-131. Finally after ending up in Petosky at about 5:30pm, I continued to the tunnel of trees, got some grub at The Legs Inn up in Cross Village, then decided to triple back to Petosky. When I got to Cross Village, since I was now going to most likely triple-back on a few roads, I turned off my tracking app on the Samsung phone, and restarted it after having a small meal and another cider for the day. Turns out, I ended up right back at that Hampton Inn to go to sleep for the night.
Day 4
Not too much to say (or maybe not) since I was trying to get home, and thought maybe I can do this in a day... just over 850 miles. To simply state it - there was no possible way that was happening! As I left, I ran into a man and a woman heading to southern PA (some town south of Pittsburgh) riding a Kawasaki cruiser and a Yamaha Star cruiser. I know this, because after riding several hours, and well over 360 miles after seeing them get gas at one station, and me passing them later on the I-75, they pulled up to a rest stop in Ohio's I-90 corridor... and I shouted out to them "Ah, I get the feeling you're following me. Am I right?" The guy on the Kawasaki said "Hey, I think you're following ME!" We chatted for a bit. They were headed to her relative's house (they were BF and GF), and stopping in on the way to Washington DC for the Rolling Thunder event. I left and continued to ride quickly into a town called Clarion PA, where I ended up at a Quality Inn hotel for the night. It was 9:45PM and the restaurant in waking distance was closing in 15 minutes. I ended up in my room and leaving because it was stuffy, and decided for a late evening meal at a local College-town style bar and gastropub. I'm glad I did, as I spoke to Will, who was the son of the family that owned the place, a musician, and gave me the name of a local NJ band that does cover songs for all the different "band member generations" of Yes. By the time the day was over (according to the motorcycle's GPS, not the tracker which was recording my off-bike movements), I had finished with 551.5 miles on the day; the L-O-N-G-E-S-T run for me on Blue Destiny to date.
Day 5
Continued to get home form here as quickly as possible, but I suffered from insomnia the night before. With only 3.5 hours of decent sleep, I took off from the hotel late at 10:30am, where tons of daylight have been burned up already. I went I-80 to I-476 and wanted to continue with the PA Turnpike's I-276. Unfortunately, there was an aggressive driver in the right lane as I was trying to make multiple merges to get to the eastbound direction of the PA Turnpike. I got rerouted and I knew this was going to suck! Mostly because the way I knew how to get home without the GPS was to head to I-76, making the last 40 miles and 90 minutes of travel just ugly. But I survived it (barely - there was one young lady that move into my lane from the right when I was next to her - amazed that she didn't hear my engine or the music blaring from my bike as she DID hear my yell and blow my horn, and just proceeded to move into my lane even after making eye contact with me as she was 1/4 done with the merge and JUST CONTINUED TO DO IT). Finally, I got to where I needed and pulled into the garage, with a grand total of 2,054.2 miles logged on the odometer for this trip.
