Got up about 6:30 after a hot night (no AC or fan at this KOA) and headed for a breakfast at Denny's. We were too hungry to look for anything with local flavor. After that we headed for the Henry Ford Museum and and on the way got to experience some of the local neighborhoods once again. The museum was awesome and housed a variety of displays from trains to cars, to time pieces, aircraft, furniture, an old gas station setup, a 50's diner, turn of the century electric cars, steam engines, an expose on cacao beans and much more. This area could be a destination and you could stay here for a week touring around. Not sure why this museum has such a variety of displays, but it was well worth the visit. Even had the Lincoln in which Kennedy was shot.
You would think a museum trip would be pretty uneventful, but you would be wrong if you are experiencing it with Bear and Uncle Eddie. Here is a picture of them just before 3 security guards came into the picture, and we just got in the door! Notice the sign that says “Don't Climb on Engine” just below Uncle Eddie and on both sides of the train. Just for your information this engine could pull 1.5 miles of cars.
Tonight we are heading to Max and Erma's, a local restaurant recommended by the person manning the booth at the entrance to the KOA. Tomorrow we are making a dash to the UP. For us a dash is rather circuitous. Unlike yesterday the weather is beautiful, low humidity with temps in the high 70's, perfect riding weather.

07/10/08

This was going to be the day where we got an early start and meandered to the Upper Peninsula. We got the early start, but the day did not go remotely as planned. Breakfast was uneventful. We stopped at Gloria's at Witmore Lake, found only because our intrepid leader was astute enough to solicit the opinion of some locals. Great breakfast, but the place was smoky. This restaurant was on the other side of a beautiful lake, so we got some good scenery while searching for it. After that it was off to the UP or so we thought. Uncle Eddie needed gas so we pulled into a Marathon, big in these parts. Gene pulled to the regular pump, leaving me at the hi test pump and Harold at a regular pump. Harold wanted the hi test, so rather than jockey them around, I just filled mine and moved up. After we started the bikes, neither of us could move away from the pump. They would barely run so we turned around and went back. It turns out the hi test tank had water in it so we pumped about three gallons into each bike. We were able to siphon the gas out of Harold's bike, but mine was another story. Gene and I completely disassembled it, took off the gas tank and dumped it out.

After siphoning, Uncle Eddie got his started, sort of. The battery went dead and he had to buy a new one from CarQuest, too small, but it got the bike cranking. Once it started, it was discovered that it wasn't charging, so Harold pulled the fuse to the headlight and we were going to drive it to a Harley dealer. We reassembled my bike, filled it with regular, and it started up with a little sputtering, but cleared up quickly. All in all it took about 6 hours out of the day. Then we took off to find a Harley dealer. On the way it started charging so we turned around and headed north again. We may still be in trouble with this bike because when the fuse was reinserted for the headlights, it wasn't charging again. Tomorrow we find a Harley dealer. Well after that, we made a bee line to a KOA near Roscommon WI. These Wi Fi connections at the campgrounds are becoming a challenge so we may have to stop at a Starbucks.