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BMW RA #287 |
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Another Great Journey, or
"How to Travel to Canada without a Road Map" A Ride Report by Ben Muller I hadn't really decided to go to BMW International Motorcycle Rally in Midland Michigan until my riding buddy Roger Fisher called from his home in Jeffersonville Indiana late on Friday July 07, 2000. The rally began on the 13th.. Roger said "Are you coming? -- Doug Wink and I are going North into Ontario and then back down into Michigan." My mind was made up right then. 
Saturday early AM I was headed for Indiana and parts North. I rode all the way through Texarkana Texas, then Memphis Tennessee and finally shut down in Jackson Tennessee for the night. 
I wanted to stop there to see if I could find Union University where my Mother and Father first met. 
Mother had come from her home in France and Father had come from his home in Mexico to go school there. I asked twice how to find the school, and was never given good directions or I didn't follow them correctly (or probably, both). The campus is located on a 288-acre tract on U.S. Highway 45 By-Pass and Union University Drive in Northwest Jackson, which is well hidden somehow. 
Had a good meal at the nice Barley's Brewhouse and Eatery (tel 901-668-2038 ) on Highland Avenue in Jackson with a pint of their wheat beer by Brewmasters Scott Luckman and Jimmy Jansen and some good chow, and then I hit the sack. See the photo. 
Next morning I rode to Roger's house on the high bank of the Ohio River and arrived Sunday afternoon. 
North to Canada on the 10th and overnight in Monroe Michigan. Had to jump start Roger's bike -- a dead battery! Then we rode through heavy, heavy rain just south of Toledo Ohio, but Roger our fearless leader never slowed down. We went around Detroit to our right, then to our jumping-off point of Port Huron where we boarded the "M.S. Chi Cheemaun" (means "Big Canoe") great lakes ferry. The whole bow of ship lifted up like a WWII landing ship, and it was motorcycles (18 each) first. 
Each was tied down with supplied ropes, and off we went for two hours across Lake Huron. Disembarked on Manitoulin, the largest fresh water island in the world, motorcycles first! See the map. There's a lake on the island that has a small island in it, one of the handful of places on earth where there's an island in a lake, on an island in a larger lake. Another such place is on the Danube River in Europe-- can you find it? 
Dinner at the Anchor Inn (tel 368-2023) in Little Current Ontario. Fresh walleye, scrumptious! Slept at the Shaftesbury House (tel 368-1945), a restored mansion. Early AM, North to Espanola on the mainland after crossing a large wooden swing bridge. then we rode West to Sault Saint Marie and on across the Saint Lawrence Seaway down into Michigan again. 
We had a nice walleye fish lunch in Rudyard MI. The streets were lined on both sides with lovely pansies. We followed the Lake Huron coast South toward Midland, our rally site, stopping at the Presque Isle light house for a photo shoot. Rally site -- 7000 Beemers. Nice campground at the county fair grounds. Many activities -- seminars, vendor booths, bike wash areas, mechanic shops, food booths, and a large beer hall. Tents and motorcycles everwhere. There were even tents pitched in horse stalls in the large horse barns! On the final day a drawing was held for two BMW's given away by the factory. I didn't win one. Split up with my riding buddies on the way home -- they went South, I went West. I spent the first night in the Indianapolis area with friends of Roger whom I had not met before. I told my wife Ruby about this when I called her on the phone and she said "You're going to spend the night with someone you don't even know?" "Yep" -- they were a great couple. Then to St. Louis to visit with Joe and Roberta Sooter. He's an old B 24 crewman from the Southwest Pacific in WWII and I was an old B25 crewman in the same area. We also worked together in the oil patch in New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas. 
(Left) Helicopter Pilot for National Science Foundation in Antarctica (Right) Roger Fisher No road map you say? I just wrote down the highway numbers and followed them!! Great trip -- 3600 plus miles, and not a single spill. See you on the road someday. Email me! --Ben |
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