Motorcycling to Lake Superior

Time for the report on the Rechsteiner family motorcycle season opener. You may remember last years when we had great fun but nearly froze to death. We decided to put it off three weeks this year and it was still kinda cool. This is two hours before departure, when we pull the bikes out of the garage and polish them up.........

We had a short crew this year, just Neil, Jake, Barry, Jake's friend Glenn, and myself.

This is the last trail stop of the first day, a town called Mercer. Unfortunately the last remaining stretch of road is 22 miles of straight. After a long day of "bonding", the temptation to speed overcomes the weak and excessive speed results. Last year the police ticketed the third bike at 95mph because, as the officer apologized while he wrote out the ticket,"I couldn't catch the guys I clocked at 118 and 125". This year the cops were at the doughnut shop as the silver bike and the blue bike went fork to fork at 150+............

This is our destination: Hurley. The four blocks of downtown, recently renovated with new street, gutter and flower boxes, has 22 bars and an assortment of food and entertainment.........

I am actually standing in Michigan, as the railroad trestle is the state line between Wisconsin and Michigan. The renovation included murals for the bridge..........

....We usually stay here as it is a dive, but located downtown and we can park the bikes and walk for more "bonding"......

....my poor baby lost the battery cover. The latch broke 15 years ago and I never got around to fixing it. Replacing it on this rare antique will be a challenge.........

The little bottles on the sidewalk are a tradition started by Neil many years ago called "trail-mix". After a day of riding (snowmobile, motorcycle, or whatever) and a night of bonding, these over-the-counter remedies are quite helpful and enable us to actually get back on the bikes the next morning.......

This is the reason most states require eye protection by law. This bug would have severely damaged my eye and quite probably have cause me to crash to boot

...Later in the day, Glenn collected more than just a bug. This yearling buck decided to "T-Bone" the bike. He bruised Glenn's leg and shredded his hard saddlebag on that side, but did no other damage. Glenn held the bike up, but the young deer paid with his life. Well, more next year, when we hope to convince the girls to come back with us........

Uncle Hans