Day 12 - August 17 Ridin' the Thumb into Canada

About midnight there was a thunder shower over Tawas City.  It was fairly short lived but it was a pretty good down pour.  Of course we were in for the night so it didn't do much to us, but left me with a sopping wet seat in the morning.  The weather reports were calling for rain at 8am so we debated moving our leave time up to 7am but in reality we split the difference leaving about 7:35am while it was still dry.  The clouds above were gray and fairly threatening, but held off as we rode away.  It was around 60 degrees and humid. 

We rolled down Hwy 23, the Port Huron Circle Tour, into Bay City where we visited Great Lakes Harley Davidson.  We were on Hwy 25 out of town to ride around the thumb of Michigan.  This is an agricultural area with a series of townships and villages dotting the coastline.  Shannon noted that the mid-west residencies have a number of items for sale in the yards.  These items include amongst others; cars, produce, motorcycles, knick-knacks, and most commonly fire wood.  It seems as though every other house or so has wood for campfires available for $3.00/piece or 2 for $5.

 

The clouds dissipated and the temps continued to rise as we went along, reaching as high as 90 degrees at one point.  As we slowed to enter Caseville, we were pleasantly surprised to happen upon the Cheeseburger Festival.  The village streets were lined with hundreds of empty camp chairs saving spots for the impending parade.  Tim expressed he would have been fine hanging there for a while, but we had a ways to go yet for the day.  After a brief break in Port Hope, we fueled both the bikes and our bellies in Port Huron in anticipation of crossing over the border into Canada.

For the most part we have stayed off of major interstates and stuck to state highways, but in Canada we chose the most direct route to Rocky's Harley Davidson in London, Ontario.  Riding in Canada was a lot like riding in Michigan.  There were crops growing in the fields.  Perhaps the most noticeable difference for me was the lack of billboards along the interstate.  Approximately 160 miles down the road, we were back in the USA. 

We crossed over at Niagara Falls and stopped for our usual state border pics before making our way to our hotel for the night.  At check-in we were told there would be fireworks at the Falls tonight.  We quickly unloaded the gear and changed into fresh, more comfortable clothes and headed to the Falls to grab a bite to eat and catch the fireworks.  We were not disappointed.  It was quite a treat to take in.

Total Miles traveled today: 432.6 miles
Time to travel that distance: 12 hours, UGH!
Total Cumulative miles: 4763.6
Tomorrow: Northern/Upstate NY via the Adirondack Mtns