Short Trips & Lessons Learned

8/7/2020

Well I signed us up for the 2020 Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride. Originally our plan was to be in Chicago on 9/27 to ride in that event as it has been one of the larger groups. Well the COVID has changed plans. The event is not going to be ridden as group rides, but instead riders riding solo. I totally understand that decision, and it will work out for us.

We had intended on trying to get some larger groups, especially leaving from Traverse City, and then from Sarasota to Key West. Given all that’s going on we aren’t going to do that. We have had several people that have reached out and want to ride some of the ride with us, and that is fine. We just aren’t going to organize any group rides in conjunction with our trip.

What has been going on since my last post you ask. Well we have done two long weekend trips to get some longer overnight trips in as kind of test runs.

Our first trip was in mid-June just as the state lifted some of the restrictions on the North Region. We did a Tip of the Mitt loop leaving TC heading up to Harbor Springs and the Tunnel of trees. Stopped at Wienerlicious for lunch in Mackinaw City.

We spent the afternoon wandering down the East Coast side of the State. Neither of us had been past Cheboygan before so we enjoyed the views of Lake Huron and spotted some campgrounds we want to check out. We ended up stopping in Rogers City for the night.

Next morning it was cold. Lesson #1 pack layers more than you think you’ll need. We headed south restaurants were open for carry out only, so we did drive through McDonalds for breakfast. That’s kind of a pain in the butt on the bike…

In Oscoda we headed west on River Rd. This is a very pretty stretch along the Au Sable River with lots of beautiful over looks. All in all, it was a good trip we figured we can probably get a bit more mileage and still have ample time for breaks and scenery stops.

Our next ride was a scheduled 3-day trip in the UP. The plan was to head out to Marquette on Friday. It was a beautiful day and an awesome ride. Any of you that know Kathryn probably know she absolutely hates going over the Mackinaw Bridge. She usually leans her seat back and covers her face, and that’s in a car. I had originally figured we would use the bridge authority to shuttle her over in a car, but she decided she was going to do it.  She made it over and back!

 Victory!!  She’s really not mad I promise. The GoPro died so she didn’t get to see what she didn’t with her eyes squeezed closed.

We road on to Marquette after a great lunch in St Ignace. We saw some of Alex’s hang outs. We relived a lot of good memories of our visiting Alex during the 4-1/2 years he was in college there.

 Drop off Freshman year.

Saturday morning, we got up, packed, and fired up the bike. At 7:30 we pulled out of the hotel and hit the gas. The bike suddenly lost power and then shut down. “Oh SHIT!” was all I could think. I have never had any real issues with my bike before, a dead battery has been the extent of it. After about 5 minutes the bike started again and was running fine. We went and had breakfast at a spot Alex had taken us to when he was in school at NMU and discussed what to do. We decided we would hang out until Bald Eagle HD in Marquette opened and see if they could check the bike out. They were awesome, they got the bike right in and ran a diagnostic on it. Turns out we had a MAP sensor that was going bad. They didn’t have the part but felt we should be able to make it back home. So instead of heading to Sault Ste Marie we headed back south. Ended up having a burger and shake sitting in the sun at Clyde’s in Manistique. Then spent the night at our family’s cottage near Boyne City. Another spot that is filled with a ton of great memories of all of our big extended family.

The lessons learned on this trip, be flexible shit is going to happen that is out of your control. Just like life, you have to roll with the punches make sure you talk to the people you love, and things will work out.