Day 13 - Toronto to Rochester

When we devised our new route, I also realized that we would be going right by Rochester, so we could visit the Monacellis!  It worked out that since we didn't have as far to go with the new route, we could spend the night in Rochester. So we slept in this morning, said goodbye to Toronto and looked forward to a nice, easy, 2.5 hr ride to Rochester. 

Unfortunately, the ride was anything but nice, short or easy.  It was super hot, trafficky, all highway, and did I mention insanely hot?  We were stopping every 45min or so to get some gatorade and sit in the nice cool AC of rest areas.  Then there was all the construction backups, which slowed us way down - no fun in the heat.  Although moving at speed didn't help much either as the air itself was hot and offered almost no relief.  Then there was the border crossing, where we sat in line on the bike, baking in the sun, for about 20 min.  Definitely not the highlight of our trip.

After nearly 6 hrs of this torture, we made it to the Monacelli's.  And though the trip was far from fun, it was definitely worth it.  Allison, Tony and Romi were fantastic hosts, cooking us up a great dinner and some delicious margaritas.  And of course, great laughs and conversation.  We had a wonderful time hanging out and catching up.  A huge thank you to them for their generosity and hospitality!

Picture: the temperature on the bike at the border crossing (34 C = 93.2 F, and wasn't even the hottest we saw!).  Sadly I was having too much fun to snap any pics of us in Rochester!

Day 12 - Sudbury to Toronto

So we had a change of plans. We were supposed to head towards Ottawa and Montreal, but given the mileage we'd have to do, and how hot it's been, we decided to rethink our route.  Looking at the map, I realized we could cut down to Toronto instead, which would bring our mileage down a bit, and since we missed Toronto on the way up, it seemed like a perfect idea.

So we used the computer at the hotel to find a hotel in Toronto, made a reservation, and plugged the address into the GPS.  Once we got back on the highway (not 17, again, a new one!) and our next turn was in 223 miles.  That's right.  We even took a picture of it. 

The road to Toronto was pretty uneventful. The scenery was gorgeous - tons of rivers, lakes, forrests, and mountains.  We kept noticing these little rock statues/piles/sculptures.  I tried to take some pictures, but I'm not sure if you can make them out (I was taking them while riding). 

It was a pretty hot ride, but we made it in one piece.  We checked in to our hotel, and immediately hit up the outdoor pool for some cool off time.  We were very pleased with our decision to use priceline and get a good deal on the Hilton.  After the pool, we showered, and then tried to find a place for dinner.  Sadly, this particular Hilton had no wi-fi and there was a charge to use the business center computers! Further, we were in Canada so we couldn't use our trusty G1s.  Alas, we had to rely on the hotel's concierge.  We asked him where to get a good mojito, and he directed us to a patio bar on Queen St.  The bar itself was cool, and did have great drinks, but it was a little too hipster for us, so we moved on. We ended up wandering around to find a dinner place, and came across an Asian restaurant with a cool atmosphere (a whole wall of tea lights, flatscreen tvs aboce the bar showing swimming fish, and the coolest bathroom I've ever seen), and a decent looking menu, so we decided to give it a try.  Though the atmosphere was cool, the service and food were not so great. Oh well. 

After dinner we walked around a bit, getting a better view of the tower, and stumbling across the 100 workers monument, which might possibly be the weirdest I've ever seen.  All in all, we weren't sure how we felt about Toronto.  It seemed a little young and too-cool-for-school for us, but to be fair, we were only there one night and it was really hot and we were exhausted.  Perhaps we'll try again another time.

Pictures: GPS showing a long way before we turn and some attempts at capturing the rock piles (otherwise views of scenery in Canada, haha).

Day 11 - St. Ignance to Sudbury

Today was pretty uneventful.  We entered Canada with no problems and then jumped on Rt 17, the trans-Canadian highway, for about 190 miles or so.  The road was scenic, but surprisingly empty.  We started calling Canada "miles and miles of nothing", haha.

We stopped for lunch at a little mom and pop greasy spoon called the Highwayman right on 17.  I had the best grilled cheese of my life (no word of a lie) with some delicious fresh cut fries, and Jay enjoyed a late breakfast.  Not long after we got there a British couple came in who was biking, as in on bicycles, from Toronto to Vancouver!  They were hoping to get to Vancouver by the end of September.  That made us feel a little less overwhelmed by the hours we were putting in for sure, haha.

We made it Sudbury (home of Canada's largest nickel!) in pretty good time and settled into a room at the Best Western.  After two days of camping in warm temperatures the AC and big comfy bed sure felt good! We lounged out for a bit, showered and then headed "into town" for dinner.  Town was a bit depressing - lots of closed down stores and restaurants and lots of homeless people.  But the restaurant we were heading to was thankfully the one hopping place - a hip, home-cooking Italian place called Respect is Burning (we never did get the story behind the name, though we were really curious).  We enjoyed some pizzas and wine, and had a good time just relaxing.

After dinner, it was back to the room to figure out the plan for tomorrow, veg and sleep.

Sadly, no pics today.  There really just wasn't much to see.  Hopefully I'll do better tomorrow.

Day 10 - Two Rivers to St. Ignace

We love Michigan!!!

After a rather warm night's sleep and a very early (and buggy) morning packing up, we were on the road by 8:30 this morning, happily on our way out of Wisconsin. Thankfully, it was overcast all day so it stayed cool, though a bit humid, all day. Much, much more comfortable than yesterday! In addition, we weren't on any highways today. In fact, we were on the same two lane road along the lake for over 190 miles of our 250 mile ride. It was simply gorgeous. It did sprinkle a bit here and there, but it was so much better than the heat yesterday that we didn't mind at all.

We stopped for lunch at a little diner along our route, and then headed to our campsite. It was fun driving in as we saw the Mackinac bridge from the other side, even though we never crossed it. We also stopped at "The Mystery Spot" just a few miles from our campsite, which was quite fun.

We set up camp just before the rain started, and decided that after 6 hours on the bike, and a tough day yesterday, we deserved a nice dinner that we didn't have to cook. So we found a great little grill on the lake in downtown St. Ignace and had a lovely meal. Now we're back at camp, in steady light rain, but we're at the table under the tarp with a few beers and a nice cool breeze, so life is good.

Big moments of the day - 1) we're back in the Eastern Time Zone after a three day stint in Central Time and 2) we hit 2,000 miles!

Picture: view of bridge from our camp, and our campsite

Day 9 - Chicago to Two Rivers

Well, it's official. Jay and I hate Wisconsin, haha. Nearly every road we took today was under construction or closed and had a crazy, hard to follow detour. Our camp site was decent, but had more mosquitos then I've ever seen - even though it was quite hot, Jay and I set up camp in long sleeves and pants because we were getting bitten so much (poor Jay is a msquito magnet - he must have sweet blood, as my Nana would say - and he was absolutely covered in bites in just minutes. It also didn't help that it was an absolute scorcher today. We were both basically melting on the bike, even when we were driving on the high way.

One good moment was when we turned a corner onto a road next to the lake and the temperature dropped from 90 to 70, no word of a lie. It literally felt like someone blasted the AC on us. It felt SO nice after four hours of baking. Sadly, this didn't last at our camp site. Though we were near the lake, we were in a heavily wooded area (hence the mosquitos) and the breeze kept changing from nice and cool off the lake to hot and humid off the land. Not ideal. But we made the best of it, eating veggie hot dogs (Jay was a real tropper with that one), beans and rice for our 4th of July dinner, drinking copious amounts of Summer Shandy beer to take the edge off, and lighting sparklers.

All in all, not our best day, but we survived. We both can't wait to get out of Wisconsin tomorrow, though. Hopefully the heat will die off as we head North.

Pictures: great view of the lake from the bike, and the typical view I have while we're riding.

Day 8 - Chicago

We had a great time in Chicago last night!  There was a great mojito bar near our hotel (Jay's favorite!), and though we stopped in for a drink, we loved it so much we stayed for dinner and several mojitos.  Then we went down the street to a little blues club where we saw some excellent live blues.  All in all, a fantastic night.

After our late night out, we slept in a bit in our wonderful hotel room, and then headed out to check out Chicago. We started by walking down by the lake, and then made our way over to Navy Pier.  Neither of us knew what to expect at the pier, and were pleasantly surprised by the fair-like atmosphere.  We got some smoothies, and walked up and down the pier taking it all in.  It was still well before noon, so it was rather uncrowded (the outdoor bars were already open, though, giving us the impression it was more of an evening destination, but we were happy to enjoy it without the crazy crowds).  We took a ride on the ferris wheel, and though I had a mild freak out as we neared the top, we both really enjoyed the view.

Then it was onto a water taxi for a trip on the lake over to over near the aquarium.  From there, we enjoyed a leisurely walk (it was quite hot!) along the lake through the park.  We stopped into Grant Park to see the famed fountain, but we didn't stay long as the Taste of Chicago was going on and the whole park was completely mobbed. 

After escaping the park, we strolled up through to the city to get some deep dish pizza for lunch. We tried to go to one of the well known pizzerias, but the line was so long we decided to just try a little place down the street called Luke's (we took this a good sign), and it was quite good!

After our tasty lunch, we walked up to the Sears (now Willis) tower.  We had hoped to take the trip to the top, but it was an hour and a half wait in line just to get tickets!  So we decided to pass and took another water taxi, this time down the river to Michigan Ave, which was closer to our hotel.  By this point, we were both really hot and a bit tired of walking and crowds, so we hit the hotel's pool for a bit of relaxation. 

Then it was showering and getting ready to hit the town one last time. We decided since mojitos worked so well for us last night, we'd try the same again, so we wound up starting with a drink and appetizer at a a mexican restaurant known for its mojitos.  Then we headed over to the John Hancock tower to try our luck with that one.  We hit it just right - we didn't wait long at all and made it up to the top just in time to see a gorgeous sunset. 

After that, we wound up walking around for a while looking for a good dinner spot - it seemed everywhere decent had a long wait.  Eventually we settled on a little Italian place near our hotel, where we had a delicious three course meal. 

Now we've just finished packing and getting organized for tomorrow, as we're hoping to get out early and beat as much of the heat as possible.  Good night!

Picture: view of Chicago from the ferris wheel.  We have a few more great shots from today on Jay's phone and camera, I'll try to post them soon.

Day 7 - Muskegon to Chicago

We made it to Chicago!

We woke up early, got the camp site cleaned up and packed up and were on the road by 8:30.  We were pretty impressed with ourselves, and decided we had earned a yummy IHOP breakfast after about an hour on the road. 

We decided to take the highway to Chicago, because with the holiday weekend upon us, we wanted to get here quickly.  Plus, neither of us have any been here before, so we were excited to arrive.  (The fact that we had just camped two nights in a row and a hot shower and comfy room were waiting for us might have had something to do with it too.)  We stopped for a break when we reached Indiana (yes, I thought of you James, haha).  Then it was just more highway into Chicago.  We did take the Chicago Skyway, which had a great view of the lake and skyline as we approached. 

Once we arrived (after wrestling through a bit of rough traffic on 94 in the city), we checked into the hotel (a Sheraton, you'd be proud, Dad) and were really pleased with it.  We immediately took some nice, long, hot showers, and then got dressed and headed out to find lunch.  We wound up trying a little Italian pizza and wine bar (the hotel gave us a coupon for a free pizza there, yay!).  We decided not to wait for a patio table, and instead sat in the bar area to watch the World Cup game.  We're so glad we did, because what a game!  We were on the edge of our seats all the way through our delicious lunch (which included a bottle of wine and a huge sorbet and fruit dessert...ahh, how I love vacation).  Then it was off for a walk around to run a few errands, and do a little shopping on State street.  Now we're getting ready to hit the town (in our new outfits, haha) for some drinks and dinner.

Though being on the bike has been a blast, I think we're both looking forward to an off day tomorrow.  Especially since it's supposed to get near 90 tomorrow! Speaking of which, if anyone has any suggestions about things we shouldn't miss during our full day and night in Chicago tomorrow, please comment/text/email/call us!

Pictures: me and the Indiana sign, and the view of Chicago as we drove in
 

Day 6 - Interlochen to Muskegon

Today was another easy, cool day of riding.  It was one of our shortest planned days, so we took our time and enjoyed the ride.  We rode mostly back roads, avoiding pretty much all highways of any kind, and saw a lot of Michigan farmland and some more gorgeous coastline.

We stopped for lunch at a great little place called the Boathouse Grill. We sat out on the deck overlooking the river and had a delicious lunch.  Then after gassing up the bike, we hit the road again. 

Knowing we had time to spare, we also stopped for an ice cream break and then found a little winery right along our route!  We had a quick tasting, making friends with both the woman giving us the tasting and two other couples who joined in, all of whom were from Chicago!  They gave us great advice on sights to see and routes to take for our trip to the windy city.  We bought two great bottles of wine which Jay amazingly squeezed into the boxes on the bike, and away we went again. 

One last stop was to a grocery store for dinner supplies before arriving at tonight's home, Muskegon State Park.  Though not quite as well kept or equipped as our last state park, our site is right on Lake Muskegon (a lake right next to Lake Michigan), so we can't complain (c: We had a great campfire dinner of baked potatos, beans, green beans, steak kabobs for Jay, a salmon burger for me, and of course our delicious Michigan wine.

Now it's early to bed and off to Chicago bright and early tomorrow!

Pictures: a scenic view from the road, our campsite and the gorgeous view from our site during sunset.

Day Five - Cheboygan to Interlochen

Greetings from Interlochen, MI!

We got a relatively early start from Cheboygan, after a good night's sleep and taking advantage of our motel's free donuts and coffee!  We headed up rt 23 to Mackinaw where we were able to get a great view of the Mackinaw bridge.  It was pretty spectacular, but we didn't cross it.  We will see it from the other side next week, though (c:

After that, we headed down to Cross Village to try a restaurant we heard some internet buzz about.  It was called Legs Inn, and it did not disappoint.  First off, it's a gorgeous building, built out of local stone and carvings by a Polish immigrant in the 1930s with the help of some local Native Americans.  They serve traditonal Polish fare, as well as American classics.  We got there about 15min before their 12pm opening time, and decided to wait it out in the garden behind the Inn which overlooks Lake Michigan (our 4th lake, by the way). And we weren't the only ones waiting! There were three or four other groups chilling in the garden as well.  When noon struck, we all filed in for lunch.  I decided to try something Polish (the Toczylowskis should be proud!) and went with a vegetable nalesniki.  Jay played it safe and ordered a sirloin steak sandwich.  We both thoroughly enjoyed our choices! We topped it off by splitting a delicious dessert of warm berry compote over vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm!

After that, we headed down 119 into the "tunnel of trees",  a route that came highly recommended for motorcycle riders.  It did not disappoint! The road is twisty and turvy (which Jay loved as the last few days were mostly straight as a rail) and you literally feel as though you're in a tunnel of trees.  When the trees do break, there's a gorgeous view of Lake Michigan.  It was a great ride and quite a nice change from the riding we did the last few days.

We've settled for the night in a motorcycle campground in Interlochen. Though it appears we're the only ones here, it's a nice change from the family heavy state parks we've been in so far.  We just finished a lovely dinner cooked over the campfire, and now it's a cocktail or two before bed.  All in all, a pretty great day!

The pictures I included are of the Mackinaw Bridge, the view from the "tunnel of trees" and two of the tunnel route itself.

Day 4 - Port Austin to Cheboygan

Good evening! We've made it all the way to Cheboygan, almost to the top of Michigan. We woke up late (9am!) after a fantastic sleep (thanks again Boomers!), and the first thing we noticed is that it was quite chilly outside - only about 60!  So we packed up and layered up and headed out. We headed north on rt 23, following the lake, and chilly it was. It was quite windy and never got above 70! Thankfully we had good warm gear and stayed nice and warm. 

We had planned to drive about 3 hrs to Alpena or maybe even go a bit further to Rogers City, but somehow, even against the wind, we kept on going and made it all the way up here to Cheboygan.  We rode from 10am until 6pm, stopping for a delicious pizza lunch and a couple fuel stops.  So it was a long day, but gorgeous riding.

Highlights of the day: we passed the 1,000 mile mark on our trip and we rode across the 45th parallel - we're officially closer to the north pole than the equator!

Since we drove so long today we decided we'd spring for a motel.  Plus, we were basically out of clean clothes, so finding a washer/dryer was ideal (our plan to wash our clothes in our room backfired in Niagara - the washing part was great, but half the clothes didn't dry over night!).  We found a great little motel with a coin-op laundry, wi-fi (hooray!) and in a really cute town. We had dinner in a great restaurant down the road called the Rusty Anchor.  Now it's off to another solid night's sleep.  Good night!

I've attached pictures of the view of the lake from the road (note all the white caps from the wind!), the bike parked by the lake when we stopped for lunch, and a welcome to Cheboygan sign from town.

Day 3: Port Huron to Port Austin

Sorry for the late/multiple updates, but it turns out that Michigan and T-Mobile are not close friends outide of major cities! I've been composing as we go and will be posting whenever we get service or find free wi-fi.

Day 3 was a nice, easy ride.  It was only about 70 or so miles, and on a nice quiet road along the lake.  Though it was a bit hot whenever we stopped (around 80), the temperature was lovely while we were riding. After packing up our campsite, we headed off, taking a quick detour to try to get some new gloves for me (no luck, but Jay stitched up the hole so all is well).  We also found a Walmart and Jay got a plastic picture frame and some clear duct tape to fashion a windshield extension out of - it's not the prettiest, but it's surpisingly fitting, and it works well to give him a little more protection from the wind.  And boy is it windy here! 

We headed towards Port Austin along Rt 25, a lovely two lane road that follows the lake. We stopped for lunch in a small town called Harbor Beach. Jay liked the looked of a little cafe called the Anchorage, so we stopped in for a bite. It was really cute inside and when the owner seated us, we found out he was British! His name was Mick and he and Jay had a great chat about their homeland, and Mick made me the best fish sandwich I've ever had! 

After our lovely lunch, it was off to see the Boomers in Port Austin.  What a marvelous little area they live in! Mr. and Mrs. Boomer gave us a great welcome, giving us a wonderful tour of the area and treating us to a lovely dinner at a local restaurant (I had perch for the first time, caught fresh from the lake, and it was delicious!)  We finished off the night with some amazing ice cream - I had rasberry bug-a-boo, and though Jay's Mackinaw fudge was good, he was totally jealous of my choice.  Then it was early to bed - the fresh Michigan air definitely made us sleepy.  We had the great pleasure of staying in Ellen's room (thanks Ellen!) which has a gorgeous view of the lake.  And we must have been tired because we fell fast asleep! A HUGE, heartfelt thank-you to the Boomers for showing us such amazing hospitality and generosity!!!

I attached a picture of one of the many roadside parks we drove by on our way to Port Austin.

That's all for now. Day 4 will be up soon!

Day 2 - Niagara Falls to Port Huron

Good morning from Michigan!  Since Toronto got taken off the menu yesterday, we were left with an exta couple of hours of riding time, so we decided to just stop for lunch in London, Ontario, and then move on to Port Huron, MI.  It was a relatively easy, though windy and rather boring, ride.  We did get some great views of Lake Eerie though!  The border crossing took a while, but we were sent through with no problems - having diplomatic plates on the motorcycle really speeds things along!

On the way to Port Huron we stopped to fill up on a few supplies, like chain oil for the bike, and some drinks and dinner.  Then using our trusty G1 phone, we were able to find a nearby state park to camp in, Lakeport.  And what a great find it was!  We're nestled under some trees just a stones throw from Lake Huron.  We managed to set up camp just as a huge thunderstorm rolled in, but Jay was quick getting the tarp up and we teamed up on the tent, and though we got a bit wet, all of our stuffed stayed nice and dry. We rode out the rest of the storm chilling under the tarp with the bike with a couple adult beverages. Thankfully the storm blew over in no time and the rest of the evening was lovely. 

Now we're up and going to enjoy a bit of time here at the park and then it's off to Port Austin to visit the Boomers!  First, though, we'll need to stop at a motorcycle store because a small hole in my glove quickly grew during yesterday's ride!

I've attached pictures of our campsite, the view from our campsite, and the beach.  We took a ton of pictures of Niagara, but sadly didn't think to take any on my phone!  More to come soon (c:

Day 1 has been successful so far - we've made it to our hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario! We had a long, but lovely, day of riding. We took Rt 219 nearly the entire way, from the PA/MD border through Du Bois and Bradford, PA up into NY through Boston (!) and then to Buffalo. Then it was onto Rt 190 and across the Rainbow Bridge into Canada (my 1st time!) and to our hotel. Tonight will be a bit of wandering and then tomorrow checking out the falls before heading to camp near London, Ontario. We were going to stop through Toronto for lunch tomorrow, but given what we're seeing on the news, we may be changing those plans. I'm updating by text message right now, so hopefully it goes through. I'll try to do the same again tomorrow!

Day One!

Well, here goes nothing. We're about to head out on our 3000+ mile motorcycle adventure. This is my first attempt at mobile blogging, so hopefully it works well. I've attached a pic of Jay with the packed up bike!

Wish us luck!

The Big Trip

On June 26th, Jay and I are heading out on a two week motorcycle tour of the Great Lakes! Here's where we're planning to stay each night...

6/26 - Niagara Falls (Canadian side)
6/27 - London, Ontario, Canada
6/28 - Port Austin, Michigan
6/29 - Cheboygan, Michigan
6/30 - Interlochen, Michigan
7/01 - Muskegon, Michigan
7/02 - Chicago, Illinois
7/03 - Chicago, Illinois
7/04 - Green Bay, Wisconsin
7/05 - St Ignace, Michigan (northern peninsula)
7/06 - Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
7/07 - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
7/08 - Montreal, Quebec, Canda
7/09 - Albany, NY
7/10 - Philadelphia, PA (for our nephew's christening!)
7/11 - Home in DC

...the boldfaced dates are already reserved, so they're pretty much set in stone. The other dates are just goals/ideas and are subject to change.

We hope to post pictures and updates as we go (thank goodness for our smart phones), so stay tuned!