Footnote – Rick and I are back in CA as of 7/24 and 7/25. My laptop screen was giving me trouble in Michigan and the rest of the trip, so now that we are back, I’ll catch up the best I can on the remaining days as I use this website as log and photo book of my trip.

It was now time to head south to my sister and brother-in-laws place in Manchester MI to stay there for three days to visit and get our bikes serviced before heading west again and continuing 15 Great Roads.

We had plenty of time to do this jaunt down south, so we had a later start and enjoyed coffee on the veranda at the hotel we had in Mackinaw City. We left about 8ish taking backroads to Manchester. Michigan, for the most part, is laid out as a grid with farm roads. This makes staying off the freeways a lot easier and gives plenty of options. It was a series of straight roads south with jaunts left or right for a couple of miles about every 4 or 5 miles south. I could ride all day with these kind of roads – lots of woods and farms to look at with out much traffic to deal with. We stopped at a small family run breakfast/coffee place for, you got it, coffee for me and lo and behold, they had fresh pastries that Rick and I eyed walking in.

We continue meandering down south, ran into a short rain shower where I though I better put on my rain pants, only to have it stop a few miles down the road. By late afternoon we were at my sisters to enjoy a home cooked meal of salmon and wild rice that we had brought.

For the next three nights we stayed in Manchester. Monday Rick and I rode around the area to find out if I could get local motorcycle shop to change my BMW bikes oil, but had no luck finding one. I’ll have to go to the dealer in Plymouth MI. In the evening we joined my sister for dinner to celebrate my brother-in-laws birthday along with my Nephew Stephen and Dennis’s Son and wife and daughter.

On Tuesday both Rick and I made appointments to get our bikes serviced. My appointment wasn’t until 3pm, Rick’s was in the morning, but unfortunately had a flat front tire, so he needed a tow truck. That turning into a nightmare with AAA and didn’t get a tow until 6 hours later. I was riding back from my service and was back at my sisters when Rick finally was dropped off at the dealer to get his work done. The local Harley shop came through for Rick. Took care of his tire, noise issue and stay a bit later and did his all his fluid changes. My godson Akzl joined us for dinner at my sister that evening to say hi and bye as we were hitting the road again the next morning to capture our last three roads for our 15 roads challenge.

Mackinaw to Manchester ride video