I'm back in the US of A, for now...

Day 10 - Nipigon to Petoskey, June 20th, 2009
This day started out better than the previous one for sure. The campsite that I found was pretty good in that it wasn't populated much and it was protected from the rain to some extent by a gove of trees. That still didn't prevent the tent from being soaked so I had to put the tent away wet. Oh, since the rain had stopped the mosquitos were out in full force. I made sure to load the bike while on the centerstand this time...

On the road I was happy that the rain stopped but shocked to see that a thick fog had rolled in. With how thick the fog was at the start of my day did not fortell of me having a good day on the road. Off into the fog I went and it lived up to my expectations of pea soup. Not fun to be in at all. I made it the hundred miles to Marathon and stopped for breakfast at Robin's donuts (I think Tim Horton's is better) and started talking about my ride to a group of locals when they all warned me about the area I'd be riding into and the high population of Moose. That is NOT what I wanted to hear on a pea soup day. These next 300 miles will be really fun.

I do have to say that I would love to come back to this stretch of Highway 17 on a clear (warm) day as you could tell how gorgeous it was even with 50 ft of visibility. There was a lake every five minutes with names like Mother Lake and Baby Lake and Fungus Lake. All very pretty.

Getting into Michigan I was happy as a clam. It wasn't raining, foggy, or even cold. Waiting to go through customs I was even breaking into a sweat, but at the same time attracting a whole mess of mosquitos. After the border I filled up and was releived to see $2.83 for a gallon of regular gas. I had been paying at least $4.00/gallon ($1/L) in Canada. Another amazing thing is our speed limits! Not being forced to go a max of 55mph on the freeway felt so good. Actually, there were signs saying that 55mph was the MINIMUM speed you could go on the freeway :)

I started off on my route towards Cross Village and onto M-119 and "The Tunnel of Trees", a single lane stretch of asphalt running through some VERY nice areas along the bank of Lake Michigan(?). While this was no Avenue of the Giants it was the most fun I've had riding since my second day on this trip. Thanks David for the suggestion!!!!! Cruising through this stretch leads you to the town Harbor Springs. I was taken aback by the level of Americana here. The buldings were all old, the town center was only a couple blocks from the lake, families were walking down the street eating ice cream cones and the houses reminded me of southern homes with flags and big porches. I was so enthralled with it that I looped through a second time looking back and forth, taking as much in as I could. Actually, I think I pissed off the car behind me since I was still in Canada speed mode. hehe

I stopped for the night in a town called Petoskey with the campground being right on the lake. The sun was setting as I set up my still wet tent and I got some good photos. The campsite didn't have access to WiFi but the town did in the main areas but I was too tired to put all my gear back on just to get my internet fix... It turns out that there were spiders EVERYWHERE here. There was what I think was a black widow in the bathroom, big brown ones there and near all the power outlets on the site...


Photos of the day