Look out Great White North

[FJRBandit]

Hello all!

My buddy Mike, Mfletch69, and I are headed out tomorrow afternoon on a 10 day excursion on our FJR’s. He will be on his '06AE and I on the Grey Ghost, my '08 AE. Our trip will be taking us to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, where we’ll be staying with some friends in a cabin for a couple of nights on one of the 10,000 lakes, on into Canada, around the Great Lakes and back home via the Appalachian Mtns, through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina, to name a few.

We plan to visit the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, go to an NHRA Dragrace in Brainerd, Minnesota, follow the north shore of Lake Superior into Canada and around to towns such as Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and Toronto Canada, where we’ll be going to see the Red Sox play the Blue Jays. We’ll be getting new rear tires installed on the bikes in Niagara Falls , NY while we pay a visit to the Falls themselves. We hope to make it to Harper’s Ferry, WV and then down to the National Radio Observatory and New River Gorge Bridge in West Viginia . These are just a few of the places we’ll be visiting and things we’ll be doing on this adventure, in addition to meeting a host of interesting people along the way.

Through the wonders of modern technology, you can follow our progress via SPOT messenger. All you have to do is either click on the following link, or if it does not open, copy and paste it into your browser. https://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl.js...iTcNDUFLLkSDMl0

We'll do our best to post up some daily dispatches as the days and miles go by.

FJRBandit

 

[DABRIT]

Good luck on the journey guys, looking forward to the report and pictures

Ride safe you lucky ........

dabrit

 

[Dr. Rich]

Have a great trip and take lots of pictures... If you happen to see an old man on an 06 FJR wearing a yellow helmet that looks like he is lost, he probably is. It is Old Michael and he is suffering from early onset Alzheimer's. He is much older than he looks.... Have fun Rich

 

[08FJR4ME]

Hello all!
My buddy Mike, Mfletch69, and I are headed out tomorrow afternoon on a 10 day excursion on our FJR's. He will be on his '06AE and I on the Grey Ghost, my '08 AE. Our trip will be taking us to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, where we'll be staying with some friends in a cabin for a couple of nights on one of the 10,000 lakes, on into Canada, around the Great Lakes and back home via the Appalachian Mtns, through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina, to name a few.

We plan to visit the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, go to an NHRA Dragrace in Brainerd, Minnesota, follow the north shore of Lake Superior into Canada and around to towns such as Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and Toronto Canada, where we'll be going to see the Red Sox play Beat the Blue Jays. We'll be getting new rear tires installed on the bikes in Niagara Falls , NY while we pay a visit to the Falls themselves. We hope to make it to Harper's Ferry, WV and then down to the National Radio Observatory and New River Gorge Bridge in West Viginia . These are just a few of the places we'll be visiting and things we'll be doing on this adventure, in addition to meeting a host of interesting people along the way.

Through the wonders of modern technology, you can follow our progress via SPOT messenger. All you have to do is either click on the following link, or if it does not open, copy and paste it into your browser. https://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl.js...iTcNDUFLLkSDMl0

We'll do our best to post up some daily dispatches as the days and miles go by.

FJRBandit

Fixed it!

 

[TCMike]

I saw great white north, and new it had to be something about MN. Not too white at the moment though...90 with high humidity.

Have fun, and ride safe!

 

[JT 384]

Have a good ride and drive safe!

 

[fjrob1300]

I'll keep an eye on yer spot! Maybe even track you down.

Rob

 

[madjackdog]

Have a great trip and take lots of pictures... If you happen to see an old man on an 06 FJR wearing a yellow helmet that looks like he is lost, he probably is. It is Old Michael and he is suffering from early onset Alzheimer's. He is much older than he looks.... Have fun Rich

Michael, if you don't mind, please allow me to rush to your defense. Rich, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Michael is not older than he looks. He merely accidentally miss-stated his age when he filled out the form. Therefore, his Alzheimer's is not early onset, it's right on time.

 

[FJRBandit]

Well, we never got around to posting daily reports, as we rode all day everyday and were just too tired to do much of anything when we stopped. But, here it is. Now that I finally learned how to post pictures I'll give you a little sample of our epic trip through the country's breadbasket, around Lake Superior, down through Niagara Falls, over to Gettysburg and then down the Appalachians for some awesome riding. 4,000 miles later for me and 4,500 mile later for Mike, here we go....

Wed 12th - Mike left Niceville, FL around 3 pm in driving rainstorm

Mike had trouble in Andalusia with heavy rain and flooding

I left work and came home, made final preparations for departure. Kissed the wife goodbye and waved at my puppy, Alex, as he looked on with the knowing look it might be awhile before I came back home

Met Mike at Chevron near my house around 8 pm and we were off

 

[FJRBandit]

Thurs 13th - spent the night outside of Nashville and got up at 6 for a 7 am departure

had a smooth slab ride to St. Louis with a stop in Paducah, KY

on to St. Louis for our first "destination" The Gateway Arch

headed into the land of CORN

end up spending the night, 570 miles later, in Iowa City Iowa in the House of Lords

 

[FJRBandit]

Fri 14th - Left out of Iowa City and heading into the CORN.

Our tribute to Neil Peart's Ghost Rider cover

I'll add the video of our high speed run through the corn here when I figure out how to do that ....

on our way to Minnesota -

I hate riding through metro rush hour traffic (although it's not too bad in this picture)

arrived at Donnie and Amy's house and laid hands on a snowmobile for the first time

on to Donnie and Amy's cabin at Spirit Lake

refreshing swim in the coldest water ever to a Southern boy like me. The beer helped ease the chill.

 

[FJRBandit]

Sat 15th - day off the bikes - headed to the NHRA drag races at Brainerd International with our Minnesota buddies, Donnie and Mike and Donnie's two daughters, Emily and Katie

found Babe the Blue Ox on the way home from the races

 

[FJRBandit]

Sun 16th - headed out on our trek to Canada - raining and crosswinds added an interesting element to the ride. A nice LEO gave us a quick flash of the blues warning us to slow it down. We stumbled into Jay Cooke State Park and had a nice unexpected, surprise - a little fun in the twisties on the way to Duluth

on to Duluth, passing through Superior, Wisconsin.

Downtown Duluth, lunch at Grama's. Mike had the fish and chips. I had to declare these to be the best fish and chips I had ever had.

Then we were on to Thunder Bay. Along the way we stopped at Betty's Pies and a swimming hole on Lake Superior

then into Canada, but not without a little shakedown first!

Thunder Bay -

We met some interesting folks in Thunder Bay. I enjoyed a current events conversation with a local named Shawn that I met at the bar. He espoused the merits of the Canadian health care system. Had a few beers with Shawn at the Rock House and then said goodnight to my new found Canuck friend, after he kicked some dude's ass who wouldn't leave him alone :assassin:

The next day we head out for the remote areas of Lake Superior, that's where we found Her beauty and majesty. More stories and pics to come..... I hope eveyone is enjoying a little sample of our epic ride.

 

[cadman]

:clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:

MORE, MORE, MORE!

:clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:

 

[FJRBandit]

Mon 17th - departed Thunder Bay , a little late due to the late night at the Rock House. Headed to Ouimet Canyon .

onward to Nipigon

and Terrace Bay, more fish and chips at Drifters

Mike decided to build a rock sculpture on the way to Marathon

found a curling club in Marathon

on to the way to Wawa for the evening we spotted a white Canadian wolf standing on the shoulder of the road - sorry, no pic, my candy ass said let's get the hell otta here! so I borrowed a pic from the internet....

Into Wawa we found some nice photo ops

Got a room at the Best Northern Motel run by a Polishman, Mark Kozik and his wife. They have a nicely decorated restaraunt in the motel and serve excellent authentic Polish dishes.

had a wonderful meal and hit the hay for a GREAT night of sleep!

 

[FJRBandit]

Tues 18th - departed for Manitoulin Island - based on some bad local info we missed the turn for the Agawa pictographs (damnit!) got some great pictures along the east coast of Superior, especially when we stumbled into Old Woman Bay

After a couple more minor electrical problems, Mike decided to discard the gremlin bell

a few last shots of the eastern shore of Superior then on through The Soo (Sault Ste Marie) to Little Current

another funky bridge heading to Manitoulin Island

we stayed at the Shaftsbury Inn B&B in Little Current on Manitoulin

We had an awesome Cordon Bleu prepared by Ossie and her sister at the Shaftsbury and got ready to head for Niagara the next day

 

[FJRBandit]

Wed 19th - headed out of Little Current with no real final destination planned. Originally we had planned to go to Toronto but decided to skip that and head south. Crossed Lake Huron from South Baymouth to Tobermory on the M.S. Chi-Cheemaun

through rush hour traffic outside of Toronto. End up in Niagara Falls , on the Canadian side

stayed at the Embassy Suites with an awesome Falls view room

- dinner was unremarkable. Slept like a rock listening to the roar of the falls. the next morning we headed back for the US and started pointing it towards home. more on that tommorow.

 

[TCMike]

We should petition the ferry owners to get ratchet straps instead of that ratty old rope to use as tie downs. Took that boat on 8-19 on my trip. I boarded with a couple BMW riders, and we were all a bit worried about the tightness of our ropes, but agreed it was probably an unnecessary precaution unless the lake was rough, which it wasn't.. When we were getting close to shore, a crew member came down to lower the ramp, and I asked if he ever saw any bike tip over, to which he said several! I guess our ropes held o.k. then.

I also saw Niagara Falls. After seeing the pics from your room I kinda wish I'd stayed overnight there. I just spent the better part of the day, and continued on my way.

Great report. I was planning on doing one myself, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

[FJRBandit]

Took that boat on 8-19 on my trip.
Great report. I was planning on doing one myself, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Took that boat on 8-19 on my trip.
Great report. I was planning on doing one myself, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

We were on the 9 am crossing on the 19th with a few other bikes, one guy on a BMW coming back from Winnipeg, a few hogs, a couple of sport bikes and our FJR's. Would have been nice to run into you.

Thanks for the comments on the report. Looking forward to reading yours as well.

BTW, 08FJR4ME corrected my earlier post that said we were going to see the Red Sox play the Blue Jays in Toronto. Although we did not make it to Toronto and thus the game, 08 was correct in his editing of my post to say that we would see the Red Sox "beat" the Blue Jays. The Red Sox won that game 6-1, on their way to a five game sweep of the homestanding Jays.