Two Guys With A Banner (‘09)

As promised, I am back to the blog. Sorry for the absence. Uncle Neil and I just got back from our trip around Lake Michigan. We travelled to Milwaukee and painted the town. At 0530 we boarded the new high speed ferry across Lake Michigan. We wanted to avoid Chicago. Chicago with a motorcycle is between root canal and colonoscopy on the fun scale. We were greeted onto the boat with ratchet straps and the order to "strap 'em down!". I was thinking "don't they have enough illegal immigrants in Milwaukee?.... (does Obama know about this?) I guess in the maritime world the customers follow orders like the crew does..........

....still, Neil seemed to enjoy the ratchet thing.................

....the reward for stupidly staying out late and being on a crazy ferry with ratchet straps at 0530 was this beautiful sunrise...........

....in the other direction, the moon was equally beautiful over the Milwaukee skyline............

....as we left the harbor, the colors hit their peak..................

....we promptly retired to the cabin, which looks like a large airliner's, and went to sleep..........

....the magic behind the high speed ferry is two humongous engines which throw some impressive rooster tails!................

....the boat is also smaller than the old steamship. the Badger, which ferries out of Manitowoc and takes 6 hours to make the trip this one makes in 2 hours........

....we found the little town of Elkton, Michigan, pop. 878, for the parade. We find these parades by going to google with our date. It is a lot like using a dart and a wall map...............

....since we travel by motorcycle, the banner poles have to be broken down into "haulable" parts. Here we are assembling those parts................

....Neil enjoyed this, too, but not as much as the ratchet thing....................

....Finally. WE are ready for the parade. We have no one with us to take the picture, so we had to ask the Shriner Motorcycle group in front of us to take it. The were reluctant to even talk to us, but, after a short meeting, thought it would be OK to humor us with a picture if we stopped bothering them. Deal...............

....Then it was back to home across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This is the famous Mackinaw bridge to the UP.

Like all great trips.........it had to end.

Glad to be back. And glad to be back with all of you.............

Uncle Hans