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[ST] (Long) IBA Great Lakes Great Circle Tour(Part 2) or "I must'a bee n livin' right"



In Sault St. Marie the road turns east again.  Paralleling me to the north
and ahead of me to the east, and appearing to be moving east, were more
lightening ground strikes than I've seen in quite a while.  I could see the
headlines, "Motorcyclist struck by lightening."  Well, I was sure I was
going to get wet with 270 miles yet to go to the dry, warm bed in North Bay,
ON.  With the full moon lighting the sky above and the wet roads I could see
that I continued to trail the rain.  Sometimes you just can't figure how
you've been living so right to have made it through over 600 miles of wet
roads with the rain in sight and never to have gotten wet from above.

I pulled into North Bay at 1 am EST, 19 hours 45 minutes and 1052 miles
since Eau Claire.  I was two hours behind schedule due to the wet roads and
cross-winds and the sometimes lack of opportunity to pass slower traffic on
the two lane transcontinental highway.  The scenery was great and I would
have liked to have stopped and appreciated it more, but unfortunately time
did not allow that today.  The eleven hours of fighting the cross-winds had
really beaten me up.  I decided to get a good night sleep, 5 hours, and get
a 7 am wake-up call even though it likely meant not making the 60 hour goal.


Monday mornings check of the weather presented a freezing 15º.  What!!  Oh
yea, I'm in Canada and that's 15º Celsius.  Some quick math gave me about
58º F so the thermals remained packed.  The radar and forecast showed a
clear route all the way home. 

I still had the previous nights cross-winds for a couple hours, otherwise
beautiful weather and everything was going well.  Well that is until
Pembroke, ON, where it appeared that the entire population of Ontario had
been camping that holiday weekend and packed up their mobile homes and
trailers to return home at the same time.  Suddenly I was down to 45 mph
with lines of cars behind the slow moving road elephants.  So I started
picking off cars a couple at a time and eventually found clean air to
continue sailing along before catching up to the next herd.  

GPS is a good thing to have.  I was watching for Hwy 15.  The GPS shows it
should be here, but no signs.  Sometimes where the GPS map shows a road and
where it is is off.  But soon I am sure I missed it so I return to the
intersection where it should be.  Looking at the GPS and thinking about the
roads I had passed I figure this must be it and a mile later down that road
I pass the sign confirming this.  

I am now cutting south through narrow rural highways which slows me a little
as there are now intersections and even a few driveways.  This is followed
by holiday traffic on the 4 lane divided Hwy 401, talk about contrast.
Across the Thousand Islands, which require a return visit someday as does
most of this trip, and into the US.  The day is progressing beautifully and
uneventfully which I didn't mind at all.  By the time I reach Elmira, NY I
could see I'd have to make pretty good time down Hwy 15 which could be
tough. The closer I got the better it looked.  My clock showed I'd make it
with 10 to 15 minutes to spare, but I didn't know how much the gas pump time
was off.  The official start and end time is the time on the printed gas
receipt so I'd make sure I use the same pump at the same station.  

Turn to make the last stretch on the bypass around Williamsport to find the
troopers have a speed trap working and everyone slows to 45 mph, aagghh!
Get out of their sight and pick-up the pace the last couple miles.  Zip into
the station and the open pump.  The short time it takes to fill the tank
seems to take forever.  Done, printing the receipt, printing the receipt,
come on, come on!  6:50 pm.  Six minutes to spare after the short 572 mile
day and 2577 miles in just less than 62 hours.  About the same distance from
Williamsport, PA to Los Angeles.  Huge sigh of relief and an equally big
smile.  I didn't make 60 hours, but 62 isn't bad either.  And at this moment
not a sore muscle in my body.  

Most people don't see the point in a trip like this.  They say, "You never
get to see anything."  They couldn't be more off.  If I hadn't done this
trip I wouldn't have seen what I did.  Granted it was what you could see
from the road and the few times I pulled off.  It is also the people you
meet, all be it for only a short time.  But after hundreds of miles of the
road, wind, and my horrible singing, I'm happy to talk to someone.  For me
motorcycle riding isn't the destination, but the journey.  The destination
for my rides is the garage that is ten feet behind me when I start.  I just
take the long way home.      


Doug Bailey "Hound Dawg"

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