A night under canvas

Cracked off early from Frankenmouth and hit the old interstate up to Mackinaw City which sits between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan and has a super duper suspension bridge - take a look on google. Before crossing the bridge I dropped into the city - ha- town more like. I don't know what qualifies as a city in the USA but this is more like a small seaside town in England or New England, however it is very pretty.

It only has one long shopping street and caters for the tourist but as the weather was a sunny, warm 70 degrees, it was a very pleasant place to be. Anyhow, onto the bridge which is a toll bridge - fee $3.00. It is two lane in each direction with a speed limit of 40mph, trucks 20mph - and they stick to it. One of the interesting things about it is that only the nearside lanes of the bridge are tarmac - the outer lanes are blocked metal!!! kept well away from that I can tell you. Just over the bridge and only by a few miles is Lake Superior so this is quite a big crossing.

From there I turned onto the US2 and started to turn west - this road should have been my return route and last I was on some road I had planned to be on. I was surprised just how good the condition of the road is compared to the interstate which is dismal. This road is nice and smooth, wide and comprises large swoops and long straights. I will forgive them the very excessive over-banding - they would not get away with that in the British Isles I can tell you.

I made a camp site on the edge of a small lake and set my tent up in 20 minutes flat - not bad after 1 practice run in a hotel room. It just about fitted between the bed and chair and measures 7 x 7!!!!

The only down part was the bloody mossies, they were everywhere - however, I had some Boots own brand spray and was very impressed with it. (The only time I got bitten was when I got up to go to the loo at 4am - and that bite was on my arm by the way!

Awoke Sunday morning and cleared the camp site in 15mins - pretty good eh, it takes me longer to get out of some hotels.

Nice quiet roads today, very little traffic and the roads were superb. One straight was all of 8 miles long just rising and falling into the distance, fantastic.

Stopped in one town to try to find a computer (failed) and as I left the town noticed black clouds ahead and lightning - being a total wuss I quickly stopped and donned waterproofs, re joined the road and straight away saw the weather front. The road was nice and dry then a line where water was bouncing of the road, never seen that before! Rode into it and it was like riding into a car wash. Could not see a bloody thing and water everywhere. Reduced to 20 mph for about 10 mins then out the otherside. Strange. A bit further on I must have just missed a storm as the road was wet but not raining. Steam was rising from the road to a height of about 10 ft, it was like riding through warm mist!!

The inevitable also happened - a deer ran across the road in front of me - braked quite hard and he went in front by about 100 yds - I kept my eyes on the trees for a bit I can tell you.

Anyhow - total mileage for the 6 days stands at 1346 so better that I need. (Phil, I know its not a lot compared to a BMW but a Honda seat is like a plank after a while)

Am stopped at Ashland on the southern shore of Lake Superior, just before the town of Duluth and have been advised to take a detour north tomorrow where I am (almost) certain to see Moose, Wolf and Bald Eagle - we shall see! It will add about 100 miles to my day but could be worth it.