Detroit, Detroit, and Detroit.

I'd just to like to thank the previous guest for locking the in room safe. Before calling the front desk, I'd thought I would try a few of the easy codes. One of the one's that I tried is 1234. Guess what, it popped open. Funny, but still annoying. So now I have a few days to relax and not drive somewhere, so, a vacation from a vacation ;-). With it being Sunday, The Henry Ford Museum is closed,  as well as, Hard Core Pawn. No problem, as I'll head over to the east side of Detroit. Lucky for me its "flower day" at the Eastern Market. It's a big thing down here.

 Finding parking wasn't easy, bit I got lucky.

Some of Detroit's finest, but where's RoboCop?

Must be good, a long line.

1000's of people, all having a good time, and a good mix of shops. I'll be picking up some kafta kebobs when I get home.

I've never seen a lottery truck before.

What says Detroit better than Bert's, those ribs looked really good. Same again, a really long line.

Just a nice view of Detroit from the market.
I also got a nice Americano. After looking around, its off to the Heidelburg project. This is where they took a block of abandoned houses and made a art project out of them. Unfortunately, some of the scummier members of society think it's fun to burn these homes down.

Is Detroit as bad as everyone says, probably. You see the urban decay, but its not everywhere. It is strange to see buildings just abandoned and decaying. From big office buildings, motels, stores, just about everything you can think of has been abandoned.

Now on to Grosse Pointe. There's just something about that shot of when John Cusack is driving into Grosse Pointe that always wanted to do, that same drive. If you have money, Grosse Pointe is where you live around Detroit. The really big houses/mansion's are on Lakeshore, which is what Jefferson ave turns in to.

Not quite the sunny day drive, like in the movie.

There's many of these lovely homes, one after another. Time for a coffee and into Grosse Pointe farms. A nice little small town feel. Even though the movie was filmed in California, you can see its pretty close to Grosse Pointe.

I decided to head back to the Eastern Market to grab some lunch, that great lobster Mac & Cheese. But the backup into the market started on the off ramp of I-94. So sorry, no Mac & Cheese for me :-(.


So, I'm off down the road to Ford's first plant. The next pic explains the history.

Urban decay, a huge abandoned plant.

These cars were all hand built at one station and took about 10 hours to assemble. Even early model T's were done this way at this plant.

Total loss oil lubrication. Which means once past the crank the oil went on the road. Must had been fun riding a early motorcycle down the street.

Early stators for the ignition system. All windings were done by female hands.

Lots of early ford history that I didn't know.

A really nice early Mustang.

After assembly, they drove around a test track, and if they kept running, they where loaded on the train for shipping.

A good day and I got most of the East Detroit places I wanted to see.


Today's mileage  80 miles - 128 km

Total mileage 2399 miles - 3849 km

Where should I go to next?

So I wake up, and head over to the window, and I'm wondering what I'm going it see. It looks like the rain stopped a few hours ago. It's grey and cloudy, but warm, 70°. Now I have to decide where to go. The Niagara scooter rally is 600 miles/965 km away. That's 9 hours driving time, plus breaks and the border. So Niagara's out. Cleveland is a option, but I don't know who's gone down to the WKRP rally in Cincinnati. Or I could go to the WKRP rally. But I end up deciding on heading to Detroit for a few days. I don't have to be back at work until Thursday, so I'll have some time to enjoy Detroit.

 Here's a pic of my just washed bike before the storm, which I forgot to include yesterday.

I have to say, the Holiday Inn does have the best overall free breakfast, and that lovely pancake making machine. I do the usual 3's and pack the bike. The nice thing is that I leave early, for me (8am).  But when I reach Indianapolis, IN, the rain begins, and with the lower in city speed limit, the windshield doesn't work as well. I get a wee bit wet, but 5 minutes later the rain stops.

The rain seems to be holding off. About a hour later, and the gas tank is down to 1/4,  I'm really feeling like a coffee. I see the Starbucks sign, and I'm off the Interstate. I fill up the bike and head down to Starbucks.

That really hits the spot. Time to book a room in/or (around) Detroit. This time it's the Clarion out by the airport. It's cheap, clean, and comes with a microwave, and fridge. The rain is still holding off, so I should get back on the bike and off to Detroit.

Saturday traffic, which there is none, makes the drive easy and enjoyable. Ft Wayne, IN is the next city I drive through, it's nice and quite. This is where I pass Hyw 30, or better known as "The Lincoln Highway". I've done parts of it, and maybe in a few years I'll use it as part of my next west coast adventure.

From here I'm off the Interstate and off to highway US 24. It looks like they just rebuild it, and upgraded this highway.  It's even better than most Interstates that I've traveled. That takes me over the state line and into Ohio, and onto Toledo, OH. Then I'm back on Interstate I-75. Which in Toledo, means one big construction site. Thank god I'm going through here on a Saturday. Also it's clearing up. I'm seeing some blue sky. The drive on I-75 is easy, but busy. Time to stop for a late lunch and fill up the bike. The GPS always routes me through Detroit's airport. This time there is a 747-400 taking off just as I pass under it. That was cool. Not so cool was misreading one of the airport signs and doing a tour of one of the terminal's. But I get to my motel and check in and unload the bike. Now I've got 2 days of blogs to catch up with.

Daily mileage 356 miles - 572 km

Total mileage 2314 miles - 3721 km

Sorry Niagara, but where to go now?

In all reality, I'm not going to make the Niagara Scooter rally. From my memory, that will make it the second, that I've not attended in over 30 years :-(. But I'm on the road doing something that I truly enjoy, even with the odd problems that crop up, which are hopefully behind me ;-).

Today it's the usual, the 3's and pack the bike. I'm even off early. It looks great outside,  but with a weather forecast of thunderstorms starting around 1 pm for St Louis, so I head out. My first stop is the wrong side of St Louis, by the 6 flags amusement park. I briefly think about visiting it, but with the weather, I decide against it. I fill up the bike and a quick lunch at McD's. With the weather still holding, and getting warmer ( hey, where were these temps in the Southwest?). They're now in the low 80°'s, so I do the St Louis bypass, which takes about an hour, compared to the 3 to 4 hours it took to ride through it on Route 66.

A couple of hours down the road, its time for a stop for supplies, and to gas up the bike. For once, I'm having a nice day of riding without any problems. Actually my biggest problem was with all the construction on the Interstate, and the traffic. Overall though the roads have been great, and the ones that weren't, they were working on.

Todays plan was to get a room somewhere around Indianapolis, IN. So when I see the sigh for White Castle,that, and my last time Zone change,  with 4 to 5pm changing in the blink of an eye, I get off.

When I'm on the west coast, I have to go to In-N-Out, when I'm in the mid west, it's White Castle. Two totally different burgers, but both good in their own way. But this time, I make sure to get the small shake. While eating, I book my motel here in beautiful Terra Haute, IN. Hotwire for a brand new Holiday Inn. I check in, get all unpacked and settle in. Then I lose the directTV signal, I look outside and see this.

Glad I booked a room earlier than later down the road.
The winds were blowing at least 50 or 60 mph. I was really wondering if the bike would get blown over. My only saving grace was that I parked it next to a large Dodge pickup which acted as a wind breaker.

This pic was taken after it had calmed down a bit. We even lost power at the motel for a few moments. There was some flooding around, on the streets etc.

The funny part is I just spent $4 at the self serve car wash to clean the bike. It rained on and off over night. Time for bed.

Daily mileage  400 miles - 643 km

Total mileage. 1958 miles - 3249 km

It looks a bit brighter today, weather wise that is.

After another good nights sleep, hey, I'm on a roll here, or the ear plugs are working really well. So I head down to see what today's free breakfast offers. I'll try a bowl of Apple Jacks, and a glass of milk. I don't even bother with the coffee now, I've been disappointed too many times @ the old motel free breakfast bar.

It's the usual 3's and pack the bike. I'm looking at my goto riding sweater, and I was wondering, that before I left, I washed and added some nice smelling fabric softener. Well its been 5 days, time for the smell test.
I'm really surprised that it still smells "spring fresh". No bad for the cheapo no name stuff from No Frills.

Finally a nice sunny day.

It's about 9am, and with Oklahoma City about an hour away, so it's a good time to leave, I'll miss rush hour. The drive down was uneventful, and a easy drive through Oklahoma city. The only thing that happened was my GPS shut down. No big thing, as I've been through here before, and I've got google maps as a backup. I'm off I-40 and head up I-44 towards St Louis. With the gas tank at a 1/4 and it being noon, I hit the highway rest stop with McD's for lunch. As always I fill up the gas tank first and then eat. I come out and give the bike a quick look over and notice this:

It's the top weld for the trailer hitch. The bottom one is fine. Now I have to find a local welder. The town of Stroud, OK is just up the street. So I head over. As I drive through town I don't see any welding shops. I drop into the local tool rental place and ask. They send me down to a local auto repair shop. I head inside and ask if anyone can do some welding. They kind of snicker. This is a "good old boys" shop. So either he's really good, or really bad. Lucky for me, he's really good. He cleaned it up and did some really good beading on the  new weld. All for $20, I can't fault that.

Here's the bottom weld. It looks ok.

All taken apart for welding.

The new weld, I'm just glad it happened at noon on a weekday.

Just gotta paint her up and it's as good as new, nope, it's better than new.

All said and done, it took 2 hours,  and was back on the road. For the first time this trip its hit 80°. So off comes the windbreaker/rainsuit, as does the sweater. That feels good.

I'm not done yet, as hour later the gear shifter let's go again, while I'm in traffic in Tulsa, OK. I'm stuck in second, but get off the interstate and into a parking lot with a Auto zone. I take it apart and find the pin worked itself loose. I didn't have loc tight when I put it together a couple of days ago.

So I'm off to Auto Zone, to buy some loc tight and some grease for the ball on the linkage. I'm getting good at this and it's back together quickly.

The rest of the ride was enjoyable and trouble free. My bed for the night is in Springfield, MO.

Now due to the numerous problems that I've had, I don't know if I'm going to get to Niagara on time, we shall see. So I was thinking of doing a side trip to Brandon, MO. Here are some of the shows they have playing there.

Well, now I know what an ex Brady is doing, as well as the rest of the Osmond's. The only thing of interest would be Mary Wells of the Supremes. I think I'll keep heading east.


Today's mileage.  400 miles - 643 km

Totals.  1558 miles - 2506 km

Miles to Niagara scooter rally

976 miles or 1570 km

Rain, rain, stay away

Well, my relaxing bike matainance day is done, and I must get back on the road. As I wake up and look outside, it doesn't look too good. Heavy rain, but the weather app says it's going to stop by 8am. I hope they're right. I finish up yesterday's blog and do the 3 S's. Right on time, the rain lifts and things start to dry. That's good as I'll be chasing the storm today.

I head over to the BMW dealer to pick up my bike. One thing though, someone stole the covers for the tow hooks on the rental car, both the front and back, it sucks. For once I actually got the CDW (collision damage waiver). So when I drop off the car, I let him know. He says no problem, your covered. It's the best $15 I've spent on the trip. Bet ya, they are already on Kiji or eBay already.


One nice Police bike. I want it.

I hook up my trailer back up, and I head back to the motel to pack up the bike and checkout. I don't mind riding in the rain, but I hate loading the bike in the rain.

I'm on the road by 10am, not too bad as I had to wait for the dealership to open. It's also good, as I miss the rush hour traffic as well. The plan is to do at least 450 miles today and end up in Elk City, OK.

It's a tank full, to empty run, so 2 1/2 hours later I end up in Tucumcari, NM for lunch. The weather had been OK so far. From the mid 50°'s to the low 60°'s, sunny and cloudy. But at Tucumcari it looks like I've caught up to last nights storm. So, time to fill up and have some lunch. An hour later, I head out to head back east. It looks like the storm had moved on, lucky, so far.

One stop I have planned for, is a stop in Adrian, Tx. Its the midway point on Route 66.

I didn't stay long, as I only picked up a t shirt and took some pics. The tunes on the phone where getting a little stale, so a stop to set up the XM radio, a quick Gatorade, and some assorted nuts I keep on the bike for trips.

Plastic ties don't last forever. I broke off the side container in Vegas, so its nice to see it holding up, using the proper clamps.

I run straight through Amarillo, TX, surprisedly I don't stop at the "Big Texan". Its still too early for dinner, plus I still need to put some miles on, that and the weather is holding. I end up running the tank all the way down into reserve and 10 miles left on the countdown in reserve. I'm not worried though, because I'll be stopping in Shamrock, TX. I was here last year on my Route 66 drive, so I know what the town has to offer. Gas is cheap here,  $2.35 a gallon. I fill up the bike and have a latte at McD's. Hey, free WiFi is free WiFi. I need to book my motel for the night.
Elk city, OK, it is.

I'm back on the road for what turns out to be the hardest part of the day. Just outside of Shamrock, TX the fog drops down. It's bad in patches, and as long as you slow down a bit, it was ok. Then about 20 miles from the motel, the rain returns. To make it worse, I make a wrong turn due to all the construction around the motel. I end up back on the I-40, and the next exit is 5 miles down the road, in the rain :-( . Still I make it back to the motel and all is well.

Today's mileage  463 miles / 745 km

Totals. 1158 miles /  1863 km

Distance to Niagara scooter Run
1362 miles / 2191 km