Alpena to Goderich, ON

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Odometer at the start of the day: 33000km

This was a full day of riding so there isn't much to tell. Because I was on the bike all day I don't have any pictures to show and there wasn't much to see. The mapping tool isn't working properly so I can't even show you the route.

The road hardly touches the edge of the shoreline, so I was riding in the trees again. I was warned not to speed because the police watch this road carefully and have no tolerance for speeders. I can see Why. With homes and cottages lining the highway and accessing the highway directly, it would be dangerous for all to speed - so I didn't.

I am rather disappointed in this east shoreline trip. I found out a few days later that the west shoreline is much prettier, but longer and slower.

As I rode through Harrisville there was a road sign noting "Coffee Talk" cafe. How could I miss this? The coffee and scone was pretty ordinary, but all 'the guys' were there for their morning chat. Most of them were interested in my motorcycle and, when they found out what I was doing, interested in my trip. Most of them were retired, comfortabley, and several rode motorcycles. I met Jim and asked him what kind of industry supported the place. He said nothing for a moment and then said there was none, other than tourism.

"Hell, this place shuts down in the winter. None of these places are open."

Only about 40% of the homes have permanent residences while the rest are seasonal. Many of the permanent people are retired, and the seasonal homes are owned by people setting up for retirement. I said, "I guess the main industry then is pension spending." The group smirked and nodded. I didn't think any of them considered that a bad thing.

My only other stop for the day was at Standish for lunch. I went to the Standish Bakery and Cafe.
"Family Owned and operated Since 1917."
"We're not famous,
We're hard to find,
But we hope you'll be happy you stopped and ate here."

I was.

Once again, I attracted a lot of questions about my bike and my trip. One woman, who was a trucker, told me how to avoid traffic going through Flint. It was great advice and probably saved me half an hour.

After leaving Standish I entered the freeway heading for Detroit, but cut off at Flint to head for Sarnia, Ontario.

I have to make a comment about my motorcycle. It is a nice machine to have on the freeways. The 70mph freeways are really 80mph freeways. Even at that speed there are times when it is necessary to accelerate around a truck or to get out of a tight spot. My bike just does whatever I ask of it. Even travelling at 80, I can quickly accelerate when I need. Zoom-zoom.

I went through the border with no problem and set up in a campground in Bayfield, just south of Goderich. I got to bed early in anticipation of a long day searching for some family roots the next day.

Odometer at the end of the day: 33590km

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Comments

[Mark Batros]

Hi Jack
Hello there, Nice to read your blog and general insights Jack. I'm a bit of a fair weather biker, however I would love, love, love to do some trips like yours. From what little I've read anyway. :) I understand you have little time to spend updating these entries while you're traveling, so probably don't have much time to give expansive detail .... (when starting to read a sentence that starts like that I guess you can 'hear' the formative feedback coming. So here it is. ) ..... I was kinda looking for some Zen and the Art of Motorcycling type insights in your stories ... .something to give your stories a bit of extra dimension. What smells did you experience? How did an experience affect you personally? What do you think? I don't blog myself so please ignore the above if you feel it's waffle. cheers, Mark