Ridin'Ard (The h is silent)

Miles today: 229 Hours in the saddle: 5:26 Total miles: 2,684 Total hours in the saddle: 53:23 11 riding days (+ 1 R&R day) Friday morning we were only 3 hours from home taking the fast way. But, we decided to take the fun way since we'd had so many crap rainy days recently. So we had a good old fashioned twisty ride day and had ice cream at Hoffman's in Westminster, our go-to ice cream stop.  This was across the street from one of our stops today. Turns out it's a flea market, but I think it'd be a fine name for a church.  This was a fun trip. You go to Michigan for the lakes, not the roads. The roads were pretty straight with a small number of exceptions. I'm really glad I went on this trip and "proved" I recovered from my wrist surgery. We had zero issues or incidents. Neither one of us even dropped a bike.  The food was pretty "meat & potatoes." We had local fish a couple of times and it was really yummy.  The camping was beautiful. I...

Miles today: 376 Hours in the saddle: 5:35 Theme music: Metallica (both cello & guitar), shake it playlist Today was one of those days you don't want to have too many of. We left during the rain when it was 45 degrees out. Not early or anything -- at 10:30. It was rainy and cold with the temperature oscillating between 45 & 55 all day -- a stark contrast to our outbound trip when it was 91. It was like an auction -- when one of us would see a higher temperature we'd shout it out. 48! 51! Big 55!  The rain wasn't very heavy, but it was a roller coaster. It would quit and some blue sky would peek thru, and then we'd go under a gray cloud and it would start again. That blue sky was a real tease.  We stopped a lot to warm up. A minimum of 2x per stop, people would make some comment to us about it being a great day for a ride. Yep, heard that one before. No, you're not clever.  We were on the Ohio & PA turnpikes pretty much all day, so just straight, boring i...

Miles today: 248 Hours in the saddle: 3:55 A storm is forcing us to change our plans. We tragically have to skip the Tunnel of Trees. ☹️☹️☹️ We are headed to Lansing to hunker down for 2 nights while it passes, and then we'll have to hightail it home. Just not interested in riding in pounding ass rain.  At our first gas stop we saw the two lady riders from the restaurant the night before!   We had dinner and hung out with a friend and are staying at a B&B downtown.  Miles today: 0 Hours in the saddle: 0:00 Rainy lazy day. Our B&B host takes a lot of pride in his work! We hung out until dinnertime (man, did that breakfast stick to our ribs) and then went on a walkabout downtown. We had Thai for dinner, ice cream, and browsed around a used book store until closing.  We ended up buying mugs from the Wild Goose Inn. Seriously a great B&B. Lots ot little thoughtful details and an excellent host. 

Miles today: 317 Hours in the saddle: 6:23 So last night after that hot day, we were really looking forward to showers. Buut...the cottages were "air cooled." We opened all of the windows before we went to dinner hoping the evening would cool off. The low was only 68 for the night though so it was still pretty warm when we got back. So we took cool showers hoping to avoid the Texas effect we both grew up with, when you start sweating again as soon as you get out of the shower. This, in contrast to the night before when it was cold and we almost didn't have any hot water. Aye yai yai.  Today we turned back towards home. ☹️ Got an early start. Ran in to a couple of construction spots on two lane highways and got Julie down to under 15 mi to E. Again, wind screwing with our gas mileage. (How is it that we always have a head wind no matter which direction we are going?) That, and all of the overtaking. We slowed down for better fuel economy when Julie's gas light came on ...

Miles today: 197 Hours in the saddle: 3:38 Theme music: Dubstep, Techno (classical), Teen girl music Laundry day. Got bkst at noon while our clothes washed. Man, as soon as Jaron leaves me alone, the vultures descend. After several minutes of frustrated sounds, a middle aged man asked me if I could "show him the ropes for how to to do this" [laundry]. I was kind of surprised and he shakes a box of powdered soap at me and says, do I put this in here, or in this drawer? I said my husband started ours (true), sorry, we don't use that kind of soap (also true). I'd had my back to him folding my clothes at a table near the wall. There were a lot of other women he could have asked other than me and he just seemed like an angry creeper. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I actually don't know where you should put powdered soap in a front load washer, so I wasn't just being a bitch, either.  Onward to Copper Harbor today. The temp on the upper peninsula has been, on average, 5 degrees lower than...

Miles today: 174 Hours in the saddle: 4:30 Theme music: 80's The Pictured Rocks were the main thing that Jaron wanted to see. Since we were going to be in this area on a Saturday, we booked the cruise tour ahead of time. Then we looked at hotels and were like.... We found a cabin at a reasonable price 15 mi away and had time to go there first so that we weren't finding it in the dark -- which ended up being a really smart move since it was in the sticks off of a gravel road.  Anyway, today we packed up camp and got rolling. Julie slept until 10:30. We only have one small camping dinner left so we'll need to find a supply store to get more food before we camp again.  The riding today was ok. There were a lot of motorcycles around. There was a cool drive for part of the way, but Julie's book said it was dirt. According to one of the bikers we talked to at a gas stop, it's now paved. Which is one of the issues with a travel book that was published in 1997. So maybe we...

Miles today: 220 Hours in the saddle: 4:35 Theme music: 90's Not a lot to report today. Had a nice morning packing up camp and got on the road. Stopped for ice cream. Took a break at a park and secured lodging at a B&B. Had dinner at a restaurant recommended by our host. The B&B was perfect.  Tomorrow we'll hit the Makinac Bridge.  Miles today: 138 Hours in the saddle: 3:21 Theme music: Reggaeton Had an awesome breakfast this morning at the Presque Isle Lodge. We were the only guests last night and still got a hot breakfast from our host. He has hosted 4 biker weddings and came out to see us off because he wanted to hear how our bikes sounded. This would be a great place to have our annual Sibling (Dys)function, but I'm not sure about the location relative to everyone else.  We went to the Presque Isle Lighthouse to see some carnivorous plants Julie read about. The Lighthouse guide knew what I was talking about but said they were really hard to find. So, no dice....

Miles today: 190 Hours in the saddle: 3:17 Theme music: Mad Max & Sireena After a quick stop at REI this morning, we headed towards Detroit and The Thumb. My Mad Max on the headphones made sense given the view of Detroit from the interstate. We passed the exit for 8 Mile road and may need to go back and see it on our way home. I will make sure to listen to Eminem the next time we go thru Detroit.  We took the last exit before all roads led to Canada and stopped for gas and hit up Anne's Diner in Port Huron, the most efficient diner ever, for second breakfast. They took our drink order before we even sat down and brought menus with our coffee. The waitress came back to take our order as soon as we looked up from our menus. Food came right away and the check came as soon as we finished up our plates. Did not have to ask for a thing and we didn't feel rushed, either. It just struck me as incredibly and exactly efficient.  We transitioned to a more scenic route and my music g...