Sept UP trip, day 2 or 3, Saturday.....our anniversary.

Should step back to Friday for a second and mention that at a restroom stop, some girl came along at the Holiday and commented about how we must really be saving gas by riding the motorcycles.  No one goes into motorcycling to save time or money, let me assure you of that.  Examples?  sure! I've already told you how the motorcycle has a gas range of about 160 miles.  That means, of course, that you MUST stop for gas about twice as often as in yer car.  Our car will go at least 400 miles per tank, the pickup can go 500 on a fill.  With the bike, we always wear our helmets, often we use radios and occasionally use mp3 players too.  Add coats, chaps, gloves, most of which will be removed before a trip to the restroom takes time.  A lot of time.  With the car, you can unclip your seat belt, skip into the rr and be back out straight away.  Usually.  :)  If you are motorcycling with friends, a gas stop can take 30 minutes, once you get to chatting, getting a drink, a snack, adjust wardrobe or gear, restrap yer crap, etc.

Save money?  HA.  refer back to the gear:  radios, chaps, coat, hat, gloves, glasses, boots, etc and so on.  Tires:  $200 each if you shop around and do yer homework.  Can be more like $300, and only go about 10,000 miles, occasionally more, but often less.   Save gas?  to go 160 miles, with 2 bikes, we put in about 6.5 gallons.  Ok, compared to the pickup, it is saving gas, but not compared to the car, it would have used less than 6 gallons.  The last set of tires we replaced had gone about 60,000 miles and cost about $500.  Have not put tires on the pickup since 2002.  (38,000 miles)  I've put 2 rear tires on my motorcycle this year and one front.

Saturday!  Happy anniversary, up to 17, now.  Under the advice of Debi and later Julie, I ordered some jewelry for a gift, knowing it would not arrive in time.  In fact, it arrived today, a week late.  She seems to like it; it matches her nightgown.  Breakfast at McDonalds again!  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  bite me.  We like it.

Wakefield MI, taken with my handlebar mounted camera

So we set off for Houghton, where we'll meet up with Peggy and Buck.  See that pic above?  I don't know how you missed it, with that blue sky and green grass, red fence and indian dude centered between the sign post and light pole.  Took that pic with my handlebar mounted camera, like the caption says...built that mount in my garage, and I could build one for you for about $2.  It's a pretty good little camera, waterproof, uses the same battery and charger as my poor dead Pentax, which was an awesome pocket camera...I'd carry it everywhere and take pics of menus, restroom doors, cars, signs, etc.  Sadly, it died in HI when I dropped it on Val.  On to Houghton...about 110 miles, I guess, got a time change coming up, better get moving.  BTW, the camera is prone to catching bugs, as it is about the same colour as a venus flytrap. 

on the road...



Houghton...a nice sized town.  Peggy says:  text me when you get there.  :(  I managed to get that done, and we go to WallyMart for gas and other supplies.  Val had lost an earring back, so she needed a spare.  Finally Peggy calls after nearly an hour, meets us at WallyMart, we set off for Copper Harbour, but first, lunch in Calumet, and gas for them at BP.  Not sure why they didn't get gas at WallyMart, maybe they boycott?  (more time lost!)  Lunch was at a pizza place that she used to frequent 30 years ago, pretty special for her.   I didn't take a camera in so I don't have pics of this, sadly.  A guy makes cut outs of the state of MI using license plates.  I think he fastens them to plywood and then cuts the shape of the state (which is quite goofy, btw).  Pretty neat.  Buck has never been to Copper Harbor, but he did look at a map that morning, so he led our excursion/expedition.  He did pretty well.  Must be time for more pics.

record snowfall indicator



Peggy...you can see her face in the mirror





I think Peggy is singing, or maybe checking for bugs, not sure.  We're about to cross a lift bridge, which has a steel grate for the decking.  Glad it's not raining...I think it'd be really slippery when wet.  The thermometer?  North of Calumet, shows how much snow they got one year.  It also shows the record low snowfall of last year (about 1/3 the way up).  They get a lot of snow.

What's next?  North to Copper Harbor, pull into a grocery store to see what's up.  Turns out to be nothing.  On to Brockway Mt, which has a 4 mile long goatpath for a road.  Stop up there for pics and buy some postycards, take a 10 mile road down to some other place.  Eagle Harbor, I think.  Already we're starting to run out of time, so we don't go to the Gay bar or down the other side of the peninsula, we go back the way we came.  :(  here's some pics.

Kinda dry up on the mt.

We came across some fog and a wedding party.  We could see the fog from the mt, pretty neat to ride thru it.  Cool is a very appropriate word.





thru the clouds

Got some pics of a ruined copper refining place...not exactly like Mayan ruins, but close, I'm sure.  We've still got a long way to go today, stay tuned.  feel free to post a comment.