Lake Michigan Circle Tour by Motorcycle: Day One
Tim and the Can Am
Monday, June 14, 2010 - Mike, Tim and Dean arrived at my house around 10:30. We gassed up the bikes, handed out the radios for bike to bike communications and got the show in the road. We decided on riding as much of the old Lincoln Highway as possible to avoid the Interstates and tollways. So we headed out on Route 31 and skipped over to Route 30 after Aurora, staying on 30 into Indiana.
The going was slow. Lots of local traffic and construction kept us at a crawl. It was interesting passing through Joliet, Chicago Heights and other southern Chicago suburbs. They're so close to me but I just don't get out that way much.
We crossed into Indiana and stayed on 30 until we hit Route 53, which we followed through downtown Gary. What a wasteland, but it was still cool to see. The people walking the streets were friendly and Tim and Dean's Can Ams turned a lot of heads. A few people even waved at us. We hooked up with Route 12 and finally cleared some of the traffic and got some scenery around us, passing through the Indiana Dunes on our way into Michigan.
Top's Big Boy
The traffic thinned out and the riding got a lot better once we entered Michigan. We stuck to county highways and hewed close to the lake, making good time, passing through lots of small towns and enjoying the scenery. Around 1:30 we stopped for lunch at Top's Big Boy just north of Three Oaks, Michigan, since one of our goals was to eat a meal at a place with a statue in front of it. Mission accomplished.
We pushed on through plenty of farmland and managed to make it to Muskegon before dark. We stopped for the night at a Super 8. Not the world's greatest motel, but it had decent beds, a shower and air conditioning, which was all we wanted at that point. After unpacking the bikes, we decided to go in search of a bar for a night cap. We rode around fruitlessly for a half hour or so and found nothing! Muskegon looked pretty dead, with lots of closed up stores and businesses. We just headed back to the hotel and walked to a liquor store for a beer, which we drank in the room.
Gotta admit, the day's ride was pretty tiring. That's the longest I've spent on my bike since I got it. We called it a night and crashed for the evening.
(For more, visit www.tirespeed.com, Dean's trip blog. If you're on Twitter you can also search for posts using the hashtag #MI360)
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