Grayling Michigan to Sudbury

It was still unseasonably warm in Grayling when we climbed on Quicksilver for the last day of the trip. I didn’t realize that the south end of town fed directly into the southbound I-75 so we took a little warm-up run down to the next exit before flipping over and headed north.

The leaves are changing colour in a sporadic manner. Some areas between Grayling and Gaylord were ablaze with reds, oranges and yellows, but most trees we saw were still green. I guess the 80 degree temperatures have them confused. I know I am.

We stopped for fuel at Mackinaw City and then assaulted the Big Mac. As usual, the outside paved lane was closed for maintenance and we were forced onto the steel grate centre lane. However, as I have found throughout this trip, the last vestiges of my anxiety when riding are gone. This is the first time in a long time that I have crossed this bridge without having a single twinge. Life is good.

They are doing a lot of work on I-75 in the Upper Peninsula. This was badly needed since this road had been making me think of the cowpaths that Sudburians travel on. Someday soon, it will be a fine place to travel. As we approached the Soo, we came under some serious looking cloud cover. Fortunately, the border crossing was quick and trouble free. This is the 16th time we have crossed this year.

As a strange tie-in with Sherm’s trip home, the passed through Albuquerque, New Mexico while the balloon fest was in full swing. The big news in the Soo was that a balloon from the festival, trying for distance, had come down near Ranger Lake north of town when they ran out of burner fuel. Apparently another one came down north of Thunder Bay. The crews were fine and I guess both bush locations beat a descent into Lake Superior.

We stopped at Mom’s for a bit for coffee, lunch and catching up on some details. Dave is doing well and has made it back to Edmonton. Keeping and eye on the weather, we left after noon.

Forty miles east, the clouds let up and we found blue sky again. Near the old round barn, I saw this clump of brightly coloured trees surrounded by green.

We stopped at the OPP detachment in Blind River looking for a friend, but she wasn’t there. Then there was another pit stop at the scenic picnic area alongside Serpent River.

The rest of the trip was uneventful but a little bittersweet since we won’t be riding anywhere else, other than a few local rides, until spring.

The ES trip took eleven days and covered 5,102 Kms or about 3,000 miles and averaged 40.1 MP(US)G on the highway at 75 MPH or more. After almost not going, I’m glad we did. Old friends, new friends and (now) twisty roads.

This will probably be our final bike post of the year. This Blog was intended to just cover 2005, but I just changed the title bar and will continue to use it next year. I’ll spend the winter re-reading what I wrote this year. Also, stay tuned because I expect I may add some snowmobile trips and other winter travel to the Blog in the meantime.