Day 40 To the Yoo Pee
Friday 19 July 2024
Distance traveled: 423 miles / 681km
From home: 8235 miles
Shifting from 'visiting' to 'touring' mode: after heading back into the US today, up ahead is the Upper Peninsula, then the Great Plains and the Rockies and either southern Utah or Navajoland. I'm starting to get those "I should head back home" feelings as well.
Slept in a little later than expected and got on the road about 8:30am. Found a Starbucks in Tillersonburg but they weren't letting people in because of global outage, OK, I made my sad puppy face and they let me in... though they couldn't take cash (!) but said they could take mobile orders. Uh I tried, but the app wouldn't let me, but I could pay with the app and that worked. Something Microsoft but didn't think much of it.
Got stuck in a very very long lineup for the toll bridge crossing to the US, and it got kinda hot, enough for the bike to really start overheating even though it was all of 82F said my dashboard. Must check coolant (update it's fine). Took me 45 minutes to go 1000 feet or 300 meters, and lots of start/stop of the engine and duckwalking. Then up on the bridge, a cool breeze, and again, more stop stop go. Ugh.
Finally just kinda coasted down into the US and got a little cheeky and followed four Jeeps into the lefthand TRUCKS/BUS ONLY lane because frankly my engine was the hottest I've ever seen it, even in Palm Springs in the summer, and as I was waiting a chubby 20-something CBP guy came out and told me "THIS IS TRUCKS ONLY YOU WILL LIKELY HAVE TO GO INSIDE IN PERSON WHY ARE YOU HERE?" and I smoothly and snottily said "My engine is overheating... and it's that's great... they'll have air conditioning!" and then the agent in my lane had finished with car ahead of me (a minivan (NOT A TRUCK!!!1!!!) with a tiny woman juggling her tiny dog in one hand as she tried to reach up to the agent window seven feet above ground to retrieve her papers) and that window agent was strongly waving me up so 20-something agent berating me to my face resigned himself to saying "Go, go!"
I put the bike on the kickstand and stood up and handed my passport up, and the my-age agent couldn't get enough: "where do you live? when did you cross into Canada? Are you retired? What did you do for work? Enjoy your ride across the country? Camp a lot? Is that your camping gear? It's great weather for riding isn't it? Oh, what's your license plate number and state? Have a great day!"
I-69 was fast at 75mph and felt new, and then some strange rerouting through Flint, then north on I-75 where lots of Fords and GM products really wanted to pass me on the right because 90mph isn't fast enough for them. I also like to think that Ford and GM have made turn signals optional in Michigan, as well as cruise control--certainly for this Land of the Auto, these are the worst drivers yet on the trip. At least the roads are a good deal better than Ontario--no random potholes, in fact I'd say I haven't seen a pothole since I've been in Michigan. Definitely some weird ridges across the road though.
Headed north on I-75 as it changed from corn fields in Bay City to rollingish pine and oak forests and the road squeezed down from three lanes to two lanes. Not much truck traffic, just people anxious to get to wherever at 90mph with their trailers and the many sleek Thule boxes of cruft on top of the Trailblazers for their 72 or 96 or 168 hour weekend getaways.
Up over the Mac bridge, which I was kinda dreading with both crosswinds and the metal grating, but only the bit between the tower ends had metal grating, and only in the middle, and the crosswinds weren't more than I'd find in the desert. To the hotel in Saint Ignace, where I unknowingly found a motel room that seem oddly cheap, until the owner said "because of Microsoft my previous guests are stuck today on the runway in North Carolina and will come up tomorrow so you get a deal." Probably also why it took me a couple of hours to cross the border too.
Dinner was at the next door restaurant, corn beef and a little cabbage and a real good sweet corn and a massive side salad. Yum.
Up tomorrow early early for touring and exploring the Upper Peninsula.