» 2009 Michigan Trip

In August of 2009, 'my brother from another mother'  Chef Scott and I made a cross country motorcycle trip to Michigan to attend a traditional Life Celebration cerimony for my father who had passed away in 2008 after a long hard battle with cancer. It was the first time Scott had ever attempted such a long ride but we had been planning for well over a year and I was sure he could do it without much trouble at all. We were planning on leaving the 1'st of August in order to make Ontonagon Michigan by the following weekend. I was to head to Temecula at 5:00 AM that morning, have a coffee or two with Scott and Cindy and then we'd hit the road and get moving. Scott was pretty excited about getting on the road but I just kept telling him that the first day was really going to suck. We had to cross the Mojave desert... in August... and it was going to be HOT! DAMN hot as a matter of fact. But I figured that by the time we got to the other side of it, the worst of the trip would likely be behind us.

Getting out of Southern California was our biggest objective of the day. Get over the border into Nevada and leave all the traffic behind! By the time we hit Las Vegas the temperature was well into the 100's but Scott had thought far enough ahead to toss a couple of frozen bottles of water in his saddle bags so we were able to make a couple of cool-down stops along the way. At one point we had stopped to fill the bikes up but it was so hot that the fuel started to boil up out of the tanks just we had finnished filling them. I had done a trip like this twice before but had completely forgotten about that so naturally we were both caught by surprise.

When we finally hit Utah the clouds were starting to build a little and so I knew we were going to get at least a little rain out of them.  We were also gaining altitude by then so the temperature began drop a little. Sure enough, after a fuel stop in Ceder City we started to get some moisture but we never bothered to stop to put on the rain gear. There really wasn't any point in it since the rain felt so nice and cool. We just kept going until we made Salina where we'd stay for the night.

The next morning we were up bright and early to get breakfast and then hit the road again. Wy noon we had already reached Colorado just west of Denver making several stopps along the way for fuel and snacks. At one point I had gotten a voice message from my younger brother Todd who was traveling to Michigan as well but had left a little later than we did. Turned out he and his wife Cathy were just a few hours behind us. We had no idea that they'd soon catch up with us in a traffic jam just 15 miles outside of Denver. What a mess that was. Seemed as though everyone in Colorado had decided to head into Denver... all at the same time. Anyone that has ever traveled Interstate 70 East knows that it's only two lanes in each direction so of course we were delayed by almost three hours. But still... the scenery was wonderful and we would not have seen so much detail had we not been delayed. By the end of the day we were in a small town named Lima on the east side of Colorado and well into our journy.

Our next objective was to try and make it as close to Spingfield IL as we could. Scott had a friend there he really wanted to see. We were making really good time and the visit would be a nice break from the saddles. Unfortunately we only made it to a small town called Mexico in Cook county Illinois just after sundown. In the morning it was pretty clear that we were going to get hammered by a storm that was working it's way through the area. But that didn't stop us. We broke out the rain gear, covered the packs on the bikes and headed into the wind. We were fortunate in that by the time we made Springfield we discovered that heart of the storm had actually passed to the south of us not to mention a tornado that had touched down just east of where we were. Scott wasn't too thrilled to hear about that, but hey... we didn't have to dodge it.

When we finally crossed the border into Michigan I felt as though I had finally made it home again. It was a little difficult to ride with the tears in my eyes as we made our way towards Benton Harbor Michigan at the south end of Lake Michigan. We stopped for fuel at the local Shell station. Scott had never seen the Great Lakes before so I made it a point to let him know exactly where we were. I told him that I'd remind him of this stop when we get to the bridge at the north end of the state that takes us to the upper peninsula (which turned out to be two  days later).

We stayed for a full day in Flint at my cousiin Bill's home to sort of rest up a bit and to see my Aunt Irene and Uncle Bob (Bill's parents) as well as some of my cousins who took the time to come by and see us. It was a welcome rest and of course it was good to see everyone. My Aunt Irene had been battling cancer for some time and praise God I was able to see her one last time. The entire trip was really turning into an emotional one for both of us (Scott and I) even though it was the first time Scott had met the rest of my family. Later after the trip he told me that the family had made him feel like a part of it right from the start and I was glad to hear that was how he felt.

We made Ontonagon the next day following Todd and Cathy in their car. It was a really rough ride over the Mackinac Bridge though as there was the yearly maintenance taking place and one lane was closed. Naturally it had to be the PAVED lane they had closed so we ended up man-handling the bikes over the grated lane in stop and go traffic for the entire lenght of the bridge. What a pain in the ass THAT was. When we got to the other side we stopped to take a rest and let our arms relax a bit. Nothing like fighting a 900lb motorcycle at the blazing speeds of 1 to 2 miles per hour.

During the trip back to San Diego I remembered that I had a video camera on the bike but hadn't yet touched it. This video was recorded on I-70 heading west about 20 miles out of Denver.  This is likekly the most beautiful section of freeway in the entire country, wandering it's way through a magnificent valley as it takes you out of the Rocky Mountains to the west side of Colorado. The stop to turn the camera on was also to WARM UP a bit. Going over the pass at about 11,000 feet we almost froze our asses off but I knew it wouldn't take long to start decending again so stopping to put the jackets on would have just taken longer than it would to just go ahead and endure the cold. It was still a breath taking ride. Absolutely beautiful views. I sometimes wish I could live an area like this but quickly remember that these folks get a LOT of snow and have a very SHORT riding season. I would only be able to ride for a few months out the year and that's just not acceptable to me. I do wish we had more time to do some serious looking around in this area though. The place is peppered with old towns dating back to the mid 1800's... the Gold Rush days. And I just love seeing places like that. Perhaps another trip sometime in the future... just ride back up here again and spend a few days touring the area, taking pictures and capturing more video clips along the way. Dim lights Download

We managed to make Salina Utah before night fall, capturing two short video clips along the way. Unfortunately none of the video clips I recorded really do any justice at all to the beauty that we were riding through. I do think that any video is better than none though and when I look at these I can still remember that day like it was yesterday. Dim lights Download

After staying a night in Salina Utah again, we manged to get home the next day. Although it was truely a wonderful journy it was good to be home again. We had covered over 6,000 miles on the trip and had ridden through some of the most beautiful areas in the nation. We're hoping to be able to take another two week trip in 2011 but this time Deb will be going along on her own bike. At the moment we really don't have any planned "destination"... just get on the bikes and RIDE. Pick a spot on the map each morning and GO there... just for the hell of it. Maybe I'll have the time to write about it when we do. We'll see what happens...