UselessPickles
Making Grand Canyon replicas from air boxes...
Today I participated in a game of Photo Tag (via www.sport-touring.net) for the first time. The current photo that needed to be tagged was posted by extrememarine:
I recognized it immediately because I had been there about 9 years ago during a motorcycle trip with my parents and my wife (who was just my highschool sweetheart at the time; she got in trouble for going with us
). A little bit of google searching was all it took for me to locate it. It's in Croswell, MI, about 2 hours via freeways. I took the direct route there, but then took a very out-of-the way route back on country roads, including the best curvy roads in southeast Michigan (which amounts to a total of about 5 curves, but that's all we got). It was a very nice sunny day with temps in the 60's, which is very nice for this time of year. I ended up riding a total of 270 miles just to take a picture of a bridge . I only got a few pictures at some places I stopped because I'm not talented enough to take pictures while riding, and I didn't want to stop riding.
My proof that I found the location of extrememarine's photo:
It's the "Swinging Bridge" in Croswell, MI. The longest suspension footbridge in Michigan. Originally built in 1905 for workers to cross the river to get to the sugar factory (which is now run by Pioneer Sugar). It's fun to run across.
Here's what it looks like to walk across it:
On the way out of town, I saw this:
After working up an appetite on the only fun roads in southeast Michigan ( I ran through this section 3 times), I stopped for lunch at the diner in the small town of Avoca, MI:
The ham and cheese omelette was good:
They are only open on weekends. The town started up in the late 1800's when the railroad company offered to give away free plots of land to anyone that agreed to build a business or home on the land within a certain timeline. As a result, the town had no major industry that it grew up around; just a mix of random stuff. Maybe that's why the town has died down to the point that it's not much more than a weekend diner, a bar, a post office and a convenience store.
Later in my travels, this caught my eye:
It seemed to be on private property, but it also looked like a little shop and there were people sitting around in chairs in the driveway, so I stopped and asked about it. Turns out this is just some guy's house (his name is Stan). Stan collects old stuff, including old gas station equipment.
This is Stan's workshop, styled like an old gas station:
Stan's garage:
Stan also had some old stuff in a pole barn, like the first car he owned (a 40's Ford something; it was covered and I was distracted by other stuff), the first car he bought brand new, and this fully restored Cushman scooter:
I liked the suicide shifter (you can see the ball at the end of the shifter just peeking over the gas cap from the left side of the bike). He also had a fully restored old tractor:
He said it was the second-to-last one ever made. He bought it for about $1700, then restored it. He knew someone else with almost the same tractor in similar condition that was sold for over $100k!
Stan was a very friendly and interesting person. I'm glad he took the time to show me around and tell me about his stuff. I eventually let him get back to his life so that I could go find the next location to post up for the photo tag game.
Here's the next mystery location:
I'm liking this photo tag thing. More excuses to ride to random places with some tiny amount of purpose so that I don't just sit around trying to figure out where I can go for a ride.
I recognized it immediately because I had been there about 9 years ago during a motorcycle trip with my parents and my wife (who was just my highschool sweetheart at the time; she got in trouble for going with us
). A little bit of google searching was all it took for me to locate it. It's in Croswell, MI, about 2 hours via freeways. I took the direct route there, but then took a very out-of-the way route back on country roads, including the best curvy roads in southeast Michigan (which amounts to a total of about 5 curves, but that's all we got). It was a very nice sunny day with temps in the 60's, which is very nice for this time of year. I ended up riding a total of 270 miles just to take a picture of a bridge . I only got a few pictures at some places I stopped because I'm not talented enough to take pictures while riding, and I didn't want to stop riding.My proof that I found the location of extrememarine's photo:
It's the "Swinging Bridge" in Croswell, MI. The longest suspension footbridge in Michigan. Originally built in 1905 for workers to cross the river to get to the sugar factory (which is now run by Pioneer Sugar). It's fun to run across.
Here's what it looks like to walk across it:
On the way out of town, I saw this:
After working up an appetite on the only fun roads in southeast Michigan ( I ran through this section 3 times), I stopped for lunch at the diner in the small town of Avoca, MI:
The ham and cheese omelette was good:
They are only open on weekends. The town started up in the late 1800's when the railroad company offered to give away free plots of land to anyone that agreed to build a business or home on the land within a certain timeline. As a result, the town had no major industry that it grew up around; just a mix of random stuff. Maybe that's why the town has died down to the point that it's not much more than a weekend diner, a bar, a post office and a convenience store.
Later in my travels, this caught my eye:
It seemed to be on private property, but it also looked like a little shop and there were people sitting around in chairs in the driveway, so I stopped and asked about it. Turns out this is just some guy's house (his name is Stan). Stan collects old stuff, including old gas station equipment.
This is Stan's workshop, styled like an old gas station:
Stan's garage:
Stan also had some old stuff in a pole barn, like the first car he owned (a 40's Ford something; it was covered and I was distracted by other stuff), the first car he bought brand new, and this fully restored Cushman scooter:
I liked the suicide shifter (you can see the ball at the end of the shifter just peeking over the gas cap from the left side of the bike). He also had a fully restored old tractor:
He said it was the second-to-last one ever made. He bought it for about $1700, then restored it. He knew someone else with almost the same tractor in similar condition that was sold for over $100k!
Stan was a very friendly and interesting person. I'm glad he took the time to show me around and tell me about his stuff. I eventually let him get back to his life so that I could go find the next location to post up for the photo tag game.
Here's the next mystery location:
I'm liking this photo tag thing. More excuses to ride to random places with some tiny amount of purpose so that I don't just sit around trying to figure out where I can go for a ride.
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