Drop of a hat 2005 - Pt 6
Just a short trip this one, it’s planned
for 8 days merely to move a couple of bikes and see what I can sniff out, as
always, the trip will have problems. I just boarded a flight from Birmingham
U.K. landing in New York with a connection that should get me into Tampa in
early evening, I say “should” because hurricane “Wilma” is due to hit Tampa at
just the same time as my plane lands! I think it’s safe to assume that by the
time I write the next paragraph I will either be stuck at liberty International
in New York or heading on a different plane to a different location.
It’s all good! I landed in Florida on
time and with the hurricane not expected for another 12 hours, and thankfully I
am heading 150 miles north of the target area. Monday sees a lot of wind and a
lot of rain but “Wilma” wreaked her havoc on the Naples and Miami parts of
Florida. All of sudden I am getting orders for bikes and several leads on some –
however, they are not in Florida but in Canada, as I intend to head up to
Michigan anyway it seems that a stop off in Canada may well be in order – with a
little re-organising the flights and a vehicle are booked. So it’s into Detroit
and over the bridge into Canada with surprisingly little hassle from
immigration, normally they are puzzled about why a Brit would be coming to their
country just to check out some bikes. I spend a few hours at the dealers but
most of the bikes for sale are old British iron. There’s a couple of accident
damaged H2’s that may be worth shipping back. There is also a good stock of use
parts but few are items that I don’t already have in stock, I have come to
realise that storing slow moving used parts is expensive!
I take plenty of photos and hope that I
can work out some deals with guys back home to ship a container back.
As I am in Canada anyway I decide to
head back to Michigan via the North Bridge at Port Huron and take the
opportunity to meet up with message board pal Gary Connors. Had just finished
work and we met in the local bar for a bite to eat and some beer, Gary is great
company and it is with great reluctance that I manage to persuade him that I
have to go as I have a 380 mile drive ahead and any more beer would see me
staying the night in Canada!
I arrive back up at Traverse City at
midnight and I am beat! But not too beat to bid on a H2c on Ebay that luckily I
won, It’s in North Dakota – Lord only knows how I will fit collecting in this
trip as I am due to head up to the Very North of Michigan in the morning to
check out a VERY 1970’s H2 bare boned drag bike that was also on Evilbay.
I have crossed the Mackinaw bridge (into
the U.P. of Michigan – the “Upper Peninsular”) across the straits several times
in recent years but have never visited the Mackinaw island (or Mackinac to use
the French name) the straits separate Lake Michigan from Lake Huron. For the
first time I see the bridge from below.
The Mackinaw island is pretty unique for
the U.S. it is steeped in history of various battles between the British, the
French, the Indians and the Americans. The island was largely controlled by the
English in the 1800’s and boasts a wonderful old fort over which many battles
were fought. As I had a spare day it seemed the perfect time to visit. The
island is served by several high speed ferries and is a haven for tourists from
all over the World. The island is vehicle free, the only way to get around is by
bicycle or horse and carriage. Once on the island the main street seems like a
typical Sunday in Holland with an abundance of bicycles everywhere.
Mackinaw Island has just Five vehicles,
a police car, an ambulance, two municipal vehicles and a snowmobile. With a
residency of just 670 people you need to be reasonably fit to get around and
even the refuse collection is done by horse and cart! The school teaches around
60 children and during the harsh winters a snowmobile is vital in getting them
to class! There are a few bars and several tourists shops on the island but if
you want to do the weekly shopping then you’d better figure on a $20 each way
trip to the mainland to collect your groceries, and even then you can only bring
back a few shopping bags unless you are going to get hubby to collect you in the
horse and cart. In winter it gets a whole lot worse, the 4 mile stretch of water
between the island and the mainland is frozen for 3 or more Months obviously the
ferries cannot run so you have Two options to get your provisions, you can
either make the dubious trip by snowmobile or you can go by light aircraft at
$40 each way with another charge per pound of weight that you return with. Every
day riding of Snowmobiles is a no no – they are banned for anything other than
essential transport in winter, as are electric bikes, roller skates and
skateboards are also banned – these regs get my vote
J
From the island it is a 60 mile drive
over the Makinaw bridge up to the border with Canada at Sault Sainte Marie, an
interesting town with a huge lock construction to get ships from lake Superior
into lake Huron and then South to lake Sinclair to lake Eerie and lake Ontario
or West into lake Michigan, Bear in mind that whilst these are called lakes they
are often equal in area to England or Ireland!
The picture below shows Two bridges, the
bridge to the right is the long road suspension bridge between Michigan and the
Canadian border, the rail bridge in the foreground lifts up to allow shipping
traffic access to the Soux locks, a huge tanker can be seen beneath the bridge.
The rails are at road level.
The rest of this trip was pretty
uneventful, I never got to see the dragbike as by the time I had found a hotel
the shop selling the bike was closed – I saw later that my old pal Dave Crussell
actually bought the bike!
Sunday saw the
long drive south down to Detroit Via a stop off to see my mate Gary K who stores
my bikes for me, I get to see my “Café Racer” H2 and am still puzzled by the
fairing assembly that is fitted to it., the bike is in really nice condition and
it will be dilemma as to whether to put it back to original or keep it as is.
Whilst flicking through a “Wirges” catalogue I found the very same fairing set
up.
Another trip
comes to an end and it’s time to head back to Detroit for the flight back to the
U.K.passing through the beautiful autumn Michigan scenery. A new one on me was
to see the Salmon spawning in the river in TC – these fish are pretty damn big
(3+ ft some of them) and there are dozens of them just waiting to be caught!
What always amazes me also is to seethe wild turkeys, either at the side of the
road or just congregating in people’s yards!
The turkeys are edible but apparently they are a darn site tougher than your
average frozen version !
Rick Brett
