- We went on a ride I've semi-officially dubbed as "The Thumbnail Tour". It takes us on a nice scenic tour around the tip of the "Thumb" of Michigan. For those that aren't familiar, the lower peninsula of the state of Michigan is shaped like a left-hand mitten, and we live in the thumb of that mitten.
- The ride started off in our hometown of Caro, MI. We tooled around town for about 5 miles while Josh got used to the bike. This was literally the first time he'd ridden a road bike (unless you count him riding around his lawn until he dumped it in the grass because he just couldn't wait). At first, it was obvious he was nervous and new at it, but he picked it up quick and had no real troubles at all the whole day. After he got the hang of it, we pulled into Advance Auto Parts so Jeff could replace his turn signal bulb that blew out on the way to Josh's house, topped off our gas tanks, and then we were on our way!
- We headed South on M-24 out of town, and stopped at the intersection of M-24 & M-46 to make sure Josh was still feeling good (better than good...he was giddy!) and snap a quick pic.
- From there, we went East on M-46 all the way across to the shoreline. This is the most mundane part of the trip, as it's just straight state highway through flat farmland. There's a few cool things to see along the way, but not much you can't see everyday around here. When we reached Port Sanilac, we pulled into the marina to admire the view and stretch our butts. When we pulled in, we were treated to a pair of the most beautiful vintage bikes I've seen in a long time! The older gentleman (2nd from right) bought this immaculate 1975 Honda CB750 Four brand new when he was 23yo! I believe the guy with him was his son, and he was riding an equally gorgeous CB500 Four. You should have heard them! I honestly don't think I've ever heard any vehicle run as smooth as that 500 did! It sounded as smooth as a freshly oiled drive chain. Then, a couple minutes after they pulled out, we saw a guy that looked like he ate Santa Claus (not being mean; just sayin' what I saw!) get on a huge bike. When he started it, we could feel the pavement vibrate...the bugger had a small-block Chevy V8 in it! Oh man, did it sound awesome! It's gotta be a tank to handle, but tons of fun if you've got the space! It wasn't open-headers loud; it had exhaust, and it just sounded beefy.
- Back on the road, we headed North on M-25, which pretty closely follows the shoreline almost all the way around the Thumb. It's a beautiful ride! There's some real nice views of Lake Huron, some gorgeous summer homes, and several small tourist areas along the way. I should mention, too, that we couldn't have special-ordered better weather for the day, either. It was gorgeously sunny, 83 degrees F, and the lake shore wind kept riding conditions perfectly comfortable. It did get a little cloudy around the North-East part of the Thumb, but that took just the right amount of intensity off the sun. It was just perfect! By this time, Josh was so comfortable riding that we had him lead for awhile, and I managed to snap a couple pics with my phone. In his defense, that's his vest billowing in the wind - he's not the guy that ate Santa!
- When we got to Port Austin, we stopped at Joe's Pizzeria for lunch, and shared an excellent pizza. Seriously, it was so good we were still talking about it when we got home. After lunch, we went just across the street to the Port Austin Marina and walked out on the break wall to admire the views. They must be rebuilding the marina and drudging the harbor, but I got a couple cool pics of a huge hydra-hoe out on a barge, and a distant pic of the local lighthouse. They say the rocks are so bad out there, you have to use a rubber raft to visit the lighthouse; even canoes don't usually make it.
- From Port Austin, we got back on M-25, which was now headed West, and hoped we could make it to Caseville for gas! Josh still had plenty in his huge tank, and Ruby still had nearly a half tank, but Jeff's Sportster's tiny 2.5 gallon tank took 2.35 gallons when we made it there. Phew! This was probably the best part of the ride, though. The road from Port Austin to Caseville is just gorgeous! You can see the lake most of the time, there's lots of curves (nothing hairy, but enough to be interesting), and it's beautifully shaded with huge trees on both sides. I see why lots of people from Detroit go there to vacation.
- After gassing up in Caseville, we continued on M-25 (now going South) to Unionville where M-25 turns West, but the road also continues South as M-24. We followed M-24 all the way back to Caro, comfortable enough by this time to screw around weaving through and passing each other once in awhile.
- The Thumbnail Tour put almost exactly 175 miles on our bikes, and all-in-all we ended up with about 184 miles for the whole day. Ruby averaged almost 53 mpg for the whole trip, which is really good considering we were riding into headwinds more than half the trip. We really felt like a minority, though. We saw a lot of bikes during the day, and only 2 of them (apart from Ruby) were sport bikes; everything else was a cruiser of some sort. Oh well! That just makes us that much more cool and special!
- It was nearly a perfect day mechanically, too. We made it all the way back without a single issue after the turn signal bulb (well, I did wax my chain when it got a little noisy in Port Austin). However, in Josh's driveway talking about the day, we noticed Jeff's rear tire was nearly flat. It must have just happened, though, because he didn't feel it getting squishy before, and the gauge read 0 psi by the time we got back to my place just 4 miles away. Thank God it happened there, and not halfway through the trip! We tried to pump it up, but it was leaking bad enough we could literally watch the needle on the gauge drop. We didn't find anything in it, and changing the valve core didn't help, so we're assuming the valve stem tore at the tube (it was hissing right around there). He was pretty frustrated because he just changed that tube a few weeks ago. That, and he lived about an hour's drive away, so he had to call his dad to bring a trailer to take him home. I couldn't resist pointing out that of the literal hundreds of bikes we saw that day, this was the third Harley going home on a trailer.
- Still, if that was the worst problem of the day; especially with taking someone out for their first ride ever on a totally new-to-him bike, I couldn't be much happier! We had a blast, got a little sunburned, and made it safely back home. My 10yo son had so much fun, he didn't even complain when the battery on his mp3 player died. It was a great ride, and we all can hardly wait to do it again!