5.7.08

Day 26- July 17

Day 26: July 17th 35,171 miles on my odometer.

The campground is a bit noisy overnight; a few inconsiderate campers and the occasional passing freight train. Not surprisingly, we break camp late. The campground is nice, but not worth dallying for, so we just gear up and go. We stop for breakfast at a place that serves it all day.
The restaurant has a good view of Lake Michigan. The roads up here in the U.P. aren’t great but they’re pretty good. We look through some local real estate magazines while we wait for our food and find water view property to be somewhat reasonable. Now that we have eliminated the Black Hills of SD as a possible future residence, we decide that the upper peninsula might be a viable option.
Our route today spends a lot of miles following the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The temperature is nice, as is the view. We still find no beach glass for Ceci, but I do get another bit of sand for Ma. Mackinac bridge is a pretty bridge. More importantly, the right lane is paved so I don’t have to put up with an annoying ride on the steel grating. The toll costs us $3 each to pass.
Now we pick up Hwy 23 which follows the Lake Huron coast until Bay City. Again we find no weathered glass on the beach, but we do find a few nice rocks and another sample of sand. The waters of Lake Huron are a lot more calm than Lake Michigan was. There are, however, more clouds overhead.
We stop for some fast food in Bay City and have a nice view of a thunderstorm sending bolts of lightning into the lake. Pretty, but a bit ominous. We have had to contend with almost no rain for our entire trip so far, but it looks like things might be about to change. It is my hope that as we leave the shoreline we will lessen the threat of rain.
No such luck. The rain is an absolute downpour as we get to Saginaw. Idiot that I am, I left the vents open on my jacket, so I’m getting pretty wet. Ceci’s gear is doing a good job of keeping her nice and dry, except for her hands and feet. More troublesome for me than the soaking is my Bandit. It is not liking this weather at all. It spits and misfires for about an hour as we ride through the deluge. We slow down on the wet pavement, and I have to downshift to keep the revs up so it won’t die as we ride. Sounds like I need new plug wires.
As it starts to get dark we stay at an AmericInn south of Flint. We get a room with a fireplace and hot tub. The rate really isn’t much more than we’ve been spending on regular rooms anyway. I’m actually pretty disappointed with the rates we’ve been paying so far. I would have thought with the price of gas averaging well over $4 a gallon and the economy tanking, prices would be a lot more reasonable. Things look particularly bad in the lower peninsula. It seemed like every other house we passed was for sale, or had a vehicle of some sort for sale. No such luck for us though. Not much luck with the room either. The fireplace is an electric model that does nothing to dry us out. We end up staying up late drying clothes in the laundry room. My luggage is still doing a great job of keeping out the water, but Ceci’s is not. The hot tub works fine, but the AC in the room does not so we end up sleeping in a warm muggy room. The motel’s solution is to knock $10 off our bill. I am not happy.
The ride today was pretty good, at least until it started pouring. We had hours of scenic lakeside driving, and roads that weren’t always straight. By my odometer we covered 352 miles, not bad for us. Should have a fairly easy day tomorrow getting to Akron where Ceci’s stepmother lives. Doesn’t look like it will be a particularly scenic, interesting, or fun route though, and we are one day too late to catch her brother on his way west.

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