my U.P. adventure

last Thursday I headed north for sault st. marie, mi. to do my first iron butt ride but it turned out to be much more.
I got on the road at 5:50am thursday morning, roads were damp from rain and it was cool, overcast, and about 53* out. I stopped in holly, mi. to put a fleece jacket on under my joe rocket phoenix 3.0 jacket. by the time I made it up to flint, mi. the sun made it way through the clouds. rush hour traffic was well there wasn't any by the time i made Saginaw. I crossed the zilwalkie bridge about 8:40 and stopped in Bridgeport for fuel and jerky other wise it was a niceride up to mackinaw, mi. I only saw two leo's and they didn't seem very interested in me. i topped off the tank in mackinaw so I wouldn't have to stop again until I got to sault st. marie. I went and got mom a sample box of fudge, a coffee mug, and a t-shirt but i forgot to take pic's of them but I didtake a few pic's while there

and these pic's

once I crossed the bridge into st. ignace in the U.P> I stopped at the welcome center and took a pic of the toll plaza

It's awesome you get in so much riding William.

Keep it up and posting the pictures. I always enjoy reading your posts!

Very nice. So much grass...I miss grass.

~O~

Sounds like a nice ride, looks nice Up There.

[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=122591#p122591:kew1nq4j said:

Omega Man » Tue Jun 24, 2014 6:19 pm[/url]":kew1nq4j]
Very nice. So much grass...I miss grass.

~O~

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you know when I was in vegas a few years ago I felt the same way until igot back home and had to cut the stuff

[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=122590#p122590:1m05z4it said:

dan filipi » Tue Jun 24, 2014 6:15 pm[/url]":1m05z4it]
It's awesome you get in so much riding William.

Keep it up and posting the pictures. I always enjoy reading your posts!

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thanks dan
actually I'm not riding as much as I was about three years ago its just the rides i've been on this year have really covered some ground. about 1100 miles for the moonshine lunch run, over 400 puttzing around in ohio and about 2100 miles between the IBA ride and exploring the U.P. and lake huron from mackinaw south to bay city

after leaving the welcome center I got back on I-75, there was some construction and traffic was detoured on to m-48 for a few miles but it wasn't long and I was back on I-75, it added maybe five minutes on to the trip and shortly after I arrived in sault st. marie

jeff was checking in at the motel when I arrived, scot and Kenny were nowhere to be found. jeff and I shared a room and once we got our bikes unloaded we headed off to find a light house then for the soo locks. we got in trouble for taking pic's of the light house, something about it having a coast guard instillation in the back ground

from there we rode over to the soo locks, we had just missed an up bound ( from lake huron to lake superior ) freighter going through the locks and next up were the two tour boats. it was impressive to see them go down bound through the locks but a big ship was waiting to go down bound, and here she is

the pic's are out of sequence but once they dropped the water level 21ft in the lock the ship was ready to head out into lake huron

Now your talking Gerry's language :hihihi:

yep LOL

after that I rode back to the motel, jeff had already left. when I got there jeff, scott, and Kenny were there. we decided to get some supper and the lady that owns the motel said to go to franks so we did. we had the all you can eat buffet and got a 10% discount on our meal by mentioning the motel. we chatted awhile once back at our rooms but decided to hit the hay, the meet up for the IBA run started at 5am and it was going on 10pm

[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=122610#p122610:w0en8d4s said:

dan filipi » Tue Jun 24, 2014 8:31 pm[/url]":w0en8d4s]
Now your talking Gerry's language :hihihi:

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that's one more thing gerry and I have in common, I like to see and take pic's of the lakers in my area

Nice ride review :good:
I can't understand why the don't move the Coast Guard installation out of the way of the lighthouse!! :smilie_happy:

Nice trip William! :clapping:

Travelling through locks is a cool experience, especially when you are going up and the floodgates are opened. the water comes rushing in boiling fast!

But, by the time you reach 27 locks, you have had enough of the stopping, setup, wait, rush, depart.........

I didn't sleep well Thursday night ( or the night before and the night before that ). the meetup for our IBA run was at 5am and woke up just after four, I go through times when I can't stay asleep (still going through it now ). we were at the meeting place for the start of the IBA run by 5:20, there were a few guys already there when we showed up, this is what the parking lot looked like

our star time was 5:45 am so we had some time and everyone got five extra minutes because the expressway entrance was closed so we had to backtrack to enter it. there was no traffic to speak of and our entry into Canada was a breeze. the weather was cooler than I wanted it to be but dry as we rode through sault st. marie, on. these are the last pic's I took in the parking lot before leaving