NARRATED PICTORIAL. HAVANA FLORIDA TO STE. SAINT MARIE, MICHIGAN ON THE CANADIAN BORDER. EXPLORING THE UPPER MICHIGAN PENINSULA. EXPLORING THE MACKINAC ISLAND...THE STATE PARK, THE TOWN AND THE FORT.
I have had hundreds of demands, from many people, for the pictures and narrative of my motorcycle trip last month-- when I rode from Havana to the Upper Michigan Peninsula. Everyone is talking about this. I am hearing it all over the place. Many things have been said.
People have clamored for pictures and natty narrative of my motorcycle trip a couple weeks ago. 10 days. North Florida to just S of the Canadian border at Ste. Saint Marie.
The trip was 2,800 miles, round trip. 100 degrees daily, sitting on the motor, over the asphalt. As much as possible, I stuck to the "US Highway System"-- the two and sometimes 4 lane US maintained highways that are not the Interstates. You stop in the towns and you smell the smells. You see the country.
Florida -- Georgia -- Alabama -- Tennessee -- Kentucky -- Ohio -- Michigan- Michigan Upper Peninsula
and back, just a little bit different roads and cities.
Stayed in Air BnB's mostly, a couple of hostel boarding houses and some of those stays are worth a short story themselves!!. In St. Ignace, the little town on the Upper Peninsula, I stayed at an old 1940's hotel, on Lake Huron. Amazing trip back to childhood auto travels.
Departed on the morning of the 6th of July, 2020. It took me 10 days.
DAY ONE; NORTH FLORIDA TO ANNISTON, ALABAMA
This became my sandwich of choice--keeping me in good coffee, vegetarian eating, all the food groups and often I would add a cup of Panera corn chowder or broccoli soup with it. I ate once a day, for a meal... although several mornings I started with a biscuit and Beyond Meat Sausage thereon :-o
ANNISTON ALABAMA PRE-NIGHT GAS STOP. 100 DEGREES. IT WAS SO HOT THIS TWO DAY PERIOD, RUNNING A 'REAL TIME' TEMPERATURE ON THE ASPHALT, SITTING ON THE MOTOR, AT AROUND 110 DEGREES. PLUS, I AM IN LEATHER AND ARMOR CLOTHING---ABOUT 15 POUNDS OF IT, INCLUDING BOOTS AND HELMET, THAT WHEN I GOT OFF THE MOTORCYCLE, I WOULD BE DRENCHED IN SWEAT.
HEADING OUT ON DAY TWO, THIS WILL BE ANNISTON UP TO LEXINGTON AND GEORGETOWN, KY.
After Anniston, I headed to the Northeast, up across TN border, up and across a lot of Tennessee, and straight up through the Lexington area. Stayed the second night in Georgetown, Kentucky.
DAY TWO - GEORGETOWN, KENTUCKY. The older gentleman and his wife have a couple bedrooms they rent on AirBNB. Really nice, In 80's. He is lay minister for Methodist church. He spent a decade driving a tour bus across all of North America and Canada, with his wife acting as the tour hostess. They had a LOT of experiences. He had also been a motorcycle rider, in his younger days, and we talked about the ride from Georgetown out to Colorado, which we both had done. I had a used tent with me and donated it to his church. I didn't have time to pitch a tent camp every night on this trip. I had miscalculated the time for a few things and the time/mileage.
ANN ARBOR MICHIGAN, NIGHT NUMBER THREE .... DON'T DISMISS THESE FEW PICTURES YET!
The third night was In Ann Arbor, MI, 30 or 40 miles outside Detroit, with Pauline. She is 87. She has authored a book on her childhood, polio crippling her, the rise of hitler and her Jewish German family emigrating to the US before the mid-1930's. She was fascinating. Warm. Wonderful to talk to about the history she had lived. The Holocaust. Growing up a polio victim. A teenager in Detroit. A family---extended and rooted in central and eastern Europe, in the most dangerous time in that area, since the dawn of man. The space between 1920 and 1950. She was a window into that history and then a witness to the years 1950 to the present day. At 87, she rents a single Air BNB, and writes, and gardens, and marvels. She can still marvel. These pics are her garden and my little BnB room.
SHE GARDENS, STILL AT AGE 87, BUT SHE CONFESSED THAT MOVING THESE THREE POTS AROUND AND SOME CLIPPING AND TRIMMING WOULD TAKE HER ALL DAY.
THIS WAS A HIGHWAY 23 REST STOP , UP INTO MICHIGAN PROPER, NEAR SAGINAW AND FLINT.
ARRIVING FOR NIGHT 4, HURON INN. ST. IGNACE, MICHIGAN UPPER PENINSULA
THIS WAS THE 'HURON INN'-- REALLY NICE, CLEAN, DATED---RIGHT OUT OF THE EARLY 50'S--- THE COUPLE RUNNING IT CLOSE DOWN WHEN WINTER LOCKS THE AREA IN AND THEY COME TO FLORIDA!!! THE HURON INN IS, PREDICTABLY, ON LAKE HURON, BUT ACROSS THE STREET, LITERALLY, IS LAKE MICHIGAN!
I TOOK THE MACKINAC ISLAND FERRY TWO DAYS IN A ROW, ONE DAY TO TOUR AND EXPLORE MACKINAC STATE PARK, WHICH IS ESSENTIALLY THE WHOLE ISLAND, AND THE NEXT DAY SPENT IN THE 400 YEAR OLD FORT THAT HAS HOUSED FRENCH, ENGLISH, US TROOPS, FOR CENTURIES. THE ENTIRE POINT WAS TO CONTROL AND GUARD COMMERCE AND SHIPPING THROUGH THIS NARROW LAND POINT IN THE GREAT LAKES....WHICH ARE ESSENTIALLY OCEANS, REALLY. OCEAN SEAGOING SHIPS ALL OVER.
ONE NIGHT, I TOOK A FEW HOURS TO EXPLORE THE TOWN OF ST. IGNACE AND LOOK AT THE STREETS WHERE THE REAL PEOPLE LIVED. THESE ARE HOUSES LIVED IN, BEING REFURBISHED AND LIFE GOES ON.
ONE OF THE PLACES BEING WORKED ON HAD A SKELETON MOTIF
Just cruising around for a few hours, just up and down the streets and alleys of the town of St. Ignace, Michigan. It is the town on the NORTH side of the little straits between Mackinaw City on the South, across the bridge. (pictures later in this post). Looking at the houses...and this area has been a center for shipping, fishing, trade, war, for thousands of years, from the days of early mankind here--the native Americans, 10,000 plus years ago...up to the last 400 years of white anglo involvement--spanning the French, English and USA-- as well as the shipping and trade that is forged upon this coastal area.
Walking around the town of St. Ignace, all along the coast. They have a MILES LONG boardwalk, along Lake Huron, and these are my pictures of that shoreline hike.
Out on US Highway 2, West of St. Ignace, on the Upper Peninsula, looking back toward the Mackinaw Bridge.
This is the same picture, but cropped out, so you can see the bridge between the lower peninsula and upper peninsula...it is rather like the Golden Gate Bridge, or the Tampa Bay Sunshine Skyway. Huge. Allows seagoing ship traffic.
This was all masks on deck...as I board the ferry and blast out to Mackinac Island...keeping in mind that these are fast ferry's, no cars, they rip out there. They also loop under the bridge and around the main pilings, and tell you when, who, where, why the bridge was built and all the stats and facts. Fascinating.
The ferry captain took us under the bridge and went into detail about how and when and why the bridge was built and how it integrates with the shipping and tourism.
I took a horse cart tour of Mackinac Island. it was so reasonable. Like 2 hours, narrated and quite pleasant (I sat up front with the driver)-- i think it was $20. Really worth twice that. Well done, well maintained and well operated.
up the hills from the port and waterfront, you look down on 400 years of white history, and it is fascinating to put your mind to all that has happened here and why. It was my rig driver that got me interested in the Fort and the military history, and so I went back the next day to get into that in detail.
Keep in mind that there are no NO NO cars or vehicles on Mackinac Island, all the construction materials, lumber, concrete, truss, roofing---everything is hauled around by draft horses--there are 600 draft working horses on the island.
looking down on the town from the walkway that comes down from the Fort, which is high on the cliffs above town.
It took me a one hour transport and one hour investigation to find the place that would give me a tall, strong coffee!!
WATERFRONT. St. Ignace wharf and moorage.
This bike was made for heavy terrain, sand rock and gravel. I rented a pretty normal one, because unless you have a horse or want to walk 15 miles, you need to rent a bike on Mackinac
Here is the St. Ignace boardwalk along the Lake huron shore that I talked about earlier.
More out on the boardwalk. I got about 3 miles into it and then, as I turned back to the Huron Inn, I barely beat this intense weather back to my hovel.
400 ++ years of Catholic ministry here--- they have birth records going back, in THIS CHURCH, to the 1600's. Yes. That.
This is me on my bicycle tour, self guided. This must be an 8000 square foot house. Incredible. Remember...NO motor vehicles or power construction equipment. None. That is my bicycle in the shot.
On my tour, parts of the Fort were set up so you could see how the men lived and details of their daily lives, in the 1860's.
That is m, in the Fort, at about 110 degrees, hiking around. I lost 3 pounds
Ramparts and gun platforms over that small narrow "isthmus" between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. It is that shipping zone the Fort protected for hundreds of years.
This is the port area and the waterfront at Mackinac Island Harbor
as I left on the last day, I shot this pic from the ferry, of the front of the GRAND HOTEL
COMING BACK, the first stop was Lima Ohio, heavy industry, ratty boarding house room, and I showered and hid in my room with my gun and Ipad.
Lima, Ohio. pronounced Lie-muh. This is the boarding house neighborhood. You had to sleep on your stuff and be prepared to shoot your way out.
Lima ohio boarding house
my neighbors in Lima
I slept with one eye open in Lima.
and....I was pretty happy to get on the road, and even happier to arrive at my Air BnB in Knoxville, TN, in a beautiful ride through the Cumberland Gap area
I forgot these pics earlier, of 87 year old Paulines' little single Air BnB. She was precious, interesting and wonderful.
That is the rig
On the Ferry to Mackinac
under the bridge again. I went under it several times. Fascinating.
This is a shot of the side of the GRAND HOTEL.
Up on the mountains and hills above the Fort, high above the waterfront.
Scenery near the Fort. It was just a stellar day, in every way.
Yacht harbor at Mackinac Island
I took these shots of the town below the Fort Mackinac ramparts
I had destroyed my Huron Inn room, after 3 days :-o
Lima, Ohio area, beside the boardinghouse I stayed in.
Biden decal. Yeah.
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