Sunset

I somehow got all of the Tawas internet to myself for 15 minutes and got another video to load, enjoy.

Next Morning

Lets see if I can get a short video up, this would have been Monday morning leaving Clare.

 

Looks like it worked.

Photo dump

Well since internet seems to be a foreign concept up here, I'm gonna post what I can and leave the video until I can edit a decent one at home.

First off I'd like to introduce my traveling companion, Freeloader.

This little dude has been my traveling companion for almost 15 years, he tends to eat all the snacks while I do all the work. He's been to three national parks and I have forgotten how many states. Anyway, yesterday freeloader decided he would try this "beer" that, "man" as he calls me is so fond of.

"Hmm, not bad, man might be on to something"

"This goes down good! why the heck didn't I try this before?"

"Crap! WTF!, bear down, bear down, I can't feel my fur!"

Sigh, evidently the little guy is a light weight, but that'll teach him to eat the last Clif Bar.

Ok enough of the furry little snack thief. Lets see what else I took pictures of.

The road goes on and on

And on

I look like 40 miles of bad road.

This ole girl looks pretty good though

The gorgeous Rifle River, maybe I should have done a kayak trip.

The infrastructure improvements up north never cease to amaze me. . .  I might have the wrong picture

I did find a friendly name in West Branch

 First thing I did when I got to Tawas, best double cheese I ever had.

 

The view helped

Being a good boy scout, I then set up camp, showered and made sure everything was done before enjoying this. This was along with a delicious shrimp burger which unfortunately looked so good I ate it without taking a photo. Both came from Mr. Jacks in East Tawas, which also has wonderful ribs, which I am eating as I type this.

This is a sentimental picture for me, I have a photograph (on real paper) of the Trucker in this exact same spot taken on our very first trip together. Do you believe the old girl is older than digital photography?

What else is good in Tawas?  Sunsets of course!

Next time we will discuss how getting pulled over by the police, quicksand and a bald eagle all figure into my vacation. Yes I saved the best stories, mostly because I don't have pictures. Believe it or not neither bald eagles or police officers like to pose for photos. As for the quick sand, there is a video, but like I said internet is spoken slowly up here.

one more shot of the furry one

Cya
Jim

Wandering Around Michigan

So I've set off on another adventure, nothing went to plan and it is turning out great! First the plan, in July I conceived the notion to journey Michigan's off the track gravel roads via my newest ride, the Salsa Cycles Fargo. Strike one, the Salsa was a demo bike from the shop, a customer wanted it, we sold it. Good enough I was getting a new carbon fiber version of the same bike. Strike two, said bike is not going to be in my hands until November.

 I had recently purchased a bike frame from Surly bikes to build up as a replacement for my very long in the tooth 2005 Long Haul Trucker. That plan was a winter build for spring, so we decided to just transfer parts from the Trucker to the new "Troll" frame. Strike three, the parts were not compatible. So instead we rebuilt the Trucker and I was set to go.

The plan was to go from Midland Michigan to Grayling to Harrisville, to Tawas then Bay City and home. The Midland to Grayling section looked longish to my legs so I left work a bit early on Sunday and went to Clare, shaving about 25 miles off Monday..

 

This in hind sight was an excellent idea. Got to Clare no problem. My friend Mark caught me about 12 miles down the trail and rode with me until the 15 mile mark before turning back. The little city campground in Clare is pleasant and close to everything. I had some dinner a bit of a fire and went to bed.