Ely Trip 663miles pt1

I’ve been wanting to do this trip in ONE day for while. So a couple weeks ago on a Saturday morning I left at 6am and headed north for Forrest Lake and met Tim. We would spend most of the day together from then on. It’s about 100miles from my house to the micky D’s at this exit. After we met up we headed for Duluth and a stop at some brick building downtown; Aerostich. If you haven’t checked out their site or stopped by this place you are really missing some great products being made in the USA.

New Cycle ... sorta

Pic #1 - Home to Rochester
Pic #2 - Mileage
Pic #3 - '76 KZ400 Kawasaki

All of my posts up until now have been about my K100LT Beemer! Today was a very interesting day. It started out with a breakfast with the Cornerstone Cruisers held at Calvary EFC church here in Rochester. A group of them were heading out to Cookson Hill Christian Ministries in Oklahoma for a week. I had planned to ride all day long so I had a "free" day anyways. Well I've been looking for an old cycle to tear apart and learn about what makes it all work inside. To do this I ended up trading our '94 Jeep Cherokee with 277K for the above cycle. We haven't been driving it for a few of months. We've had the Jeep since Dec '93, that's 17years of our 19years of being married - wow, Aimee and I felt like we were losing a close friend - yeah right.... it is just a hunk of metal on wheels. I ended up riding the KZ all the way home to Rochester. Had it stall out once and couldn't get it started, yet after it sat for a while I was able to start it. So now I've got a retro motorcycle I can work on and "restore" - we'll see. The LT is definitely more comfortable, however, i'm way surprised that it did cruise at 60/65mph at no problem. It will be a fun 'around the town' cycle.

DQ run and Lake Pepin

On Saturday afternoon May 1st I took of with Davin for a DQ run in Lake City. As we sat there eating our cone we kept looking across the lake at the Wisconsin bluff's We decided to head home via Wisconsin. It was a great ride with my son!

Sunday Afternoon in MARCH!

Above you'll see our where we ended our ride to warm up a bit with some hot drinks. It was great to have a good friend show up on a Sunday afternoon and say "let's ride" - felt a little weird riding and seeing all the snow in the fields and the ice in the river between Hammond and Millville. It sure is great to being to log the miles this year!

2010 First Ride

Took a picture of the clock before heading out for the first ride of 2010! It was great to get out and ride around town on Wed. March 3rd. Took the LT to work and home in the afternoon. It was SOOOOO great to be out on the cycle again!

Making Up For Lost Miles...1440 of them

Been longing for some miles on the LT this summer but things have kept me from taking any significant trips. Well over Labor Day weekend I put on 1440 miles with a trip around Lake Michigan. The goal was miles, camping and seeing my grandma in Blanchard, MI.

Day 1 – Left right as it was getting light, made it through Wisconsin during the morning. Fog was bad around the Mississippi river, but didn’t slow me down.

After deciding not to go through Chicago, I was headed S. on I-39, something seemed weird so I pulled off and realized I was losing air from my back tire, valve stem leak. Made a couple phone calls and then realized that the BMW of Chicago would be able to help. I ended up spending the next while making the 70miles to their place stopping ever 15-20miles to make sure I had enough air. Speed was kept slow so it took some time. Ever thing was fixed at 4:30PM. Now to leave Chicago during rush hour on a holiday weekend – yeah right!!! Made the decision to just follow US41 all the way to the S. side, it was slow but I kept moving. Had a quick bit to eat and ended up in MI for the night.

Day2 – Woke up; broke camp and headed for Grandma’s place. She didn’t know I was coming, I road into the driveway as she was getting her mail. We had a great lunch and visit and she wanted to take me for a ride all over town on her “new” four-wheeler! It was a blast. She told me about her and my grandpa as they had a final drive problem on their Moto Guzzi back in the day. I think she wanted to come along. There is a lot of history for her and my family in this small town, she has had a connection here for over a ½ decade. But I needed to get a few more miles in if I was going to complete this trip before having to start a “new job” on Tuesday morning so I headed for the UP of MI.

Day 3 – Was invited for a free breakfast of eggs, toast and bacon from a neighbor couple who were camping. What a great way to start the day. Riding through the UP was great. Had lunch over-looking Lake Superior's, south shore, in Munising then headed West into Wisconsin. I knew I didn’t want to ride into the Sun near sunset so finding a campground early was the plan. Relaxing at the camp was also great. Got a free site as I road in, the previous occupants left and the site had already been paid for, what a deal! I really like staying at National Forest campground, the price is usually a bit less rather then a State Park and things seem to be less commercialized. It isn’t for everyone, because they usually don’t have showers or flush toilets.

(Somewhere between Munising & Marquette)

Day 4 – Headed home on US63. It was great to be home and have a few days logged riding the LT – it really is a great long distance traveler.

(Chequamegon National Forest)

DQ Run

I got out this last Saturday (4/18) for a couple of hours. I headed to DQ in Lake City, MN. The Flood Run was in full swing and it was fun to see all the cycles out on the road. After a hotdog w/ the works I enjoyed the ride home. Yeah 87mile round trip for a DQ run is well worth it!