Day 8. The super UP'er.

 We got an early start at 7am CDT because our pilot buddies Bill and Rick warned us of some big weather around Sault Ste. Marie forecasted for the late afternoon. We figured a good, steady ride would get us to our hotel by 4pm EDT.  The 300 mile day, including a few stops and lunch took us just under 8 hours total. We had sun and high clouds. Another great day on our bikes. 

 Here we are at just after 7 leaving Bill & Colleens excellent house on the lake. Thanks Bill for hosting a wonderful two nights here. We had a great time!!

Chasing the sun around 8:30am this morning. Great road and great weather. 

  In less than 50 miles we crossed into the Upper Penninsula of Michigan, often called the UP, from Wisconsin. The UP seems to stand as a different part of the main body of Michigan (the mitten part) and the people are called UP'ers, pronounced 'Yoopers'.  The UP has 29% of the land mass of Michigan but only 3% of the people. Dave, from Marquette who I'll introduce a few pictures later says there are more animals than people in the UP. Based on all the turtles, turkeys, and deer we saw today I'd say he could be correct.  

 A special and unique staple of Yoopers is Pasties, pronounced with a short 'a' sound, like  the fancy doodads that strippers put on there ta-tas. We asked at a gas station in Marquette where we could find a Pasty and he sent us to Jean Kays near Northern Michigan University. 

  

It was recommended I try the most popular and traditional Pasty of beef, potato and rutabaga. It's basically a meat and potato pie. I got both the gravy and spicy ketchup to complement mine with cole slaw on the side.  It was an excellent and satisfying lunch and Rick and I both would recommend Pasties if you're ever in the area. Dave, on the right, who moved to Marquette in 1976 stopped by our table on the patio several times to chat with us and answer our questions about the UP and Marquette. According to Dave, Marquette has been through some very rough times with mining/shipping being down so much but the city has managed to remake itself to thrive on tourism and other industries. He said Marquette is doing a great job of holding and attracting young people to build their lives here, so important to a city's future.  He added that Marquette is the biggest city and county in Michigan ( by area) and also the only county in Michigan to not vote for Trump last fall. Trust me, Dave wasn't a liberal but he has learned to make peace with the liberal community here. I didn't fact check anything Dave told me. It might spoil the memory of our talk.  A nice guy in a nice city. 

 Speaking of a nice city, this was the view east as we headed down Main St. staring into Lake Superior once again. 

 

The storm  that was foretold by Bill and Rick last night can be seen in this radar shot chasing our passage east as it had all afternoon. The blue dot to the right of the storm was our location at around 2pm. The storm had been traveling east at 55mph. Our moving average speed has been around 65mph but when you factor in gas stops and lunch we were closer to 45mph. We would have to keep up a good pace to out run the storm before we got to Sault Ste. Marie!!

 A view behind me of Rick and the dark storm following us. 

 On the out skirts of town, pronounced 'Soo Saint Marie'. Still no rain or high winds yet. 

 The valet at the Kewadin Casino, our lodging for the night, was kind enough to let us park our bikes under the building near the valet office. Besides rain, we were a bit worried about damaging hail too. 

 

And then the rain and wind hit about 45 minutes after we arrived. 

 

The Kewadin Casino was a very nice place and pretty big compared to the size of Sault Ste. Marie. 

 

We were supposed to meet up with Dave Chastain, my pledge brother from 1976 and old time motorcycle touring companion, and his brother-in-law Pete McCormick. They had been riding up from Crawfordsville, IN over the last two days but they had been held up just south of the Mackinac Bridge due to the storm. The 5 mi. long bridge had been shut down to the weather and apparently there had been a wreck on the bridge as well so they had to wait almost 3 hours on the south side, only about 60 miles from here. 

 Finally around 9pm Pete(L) and Dave(R) arrived and met us in the lounge to catch up and reconnect from our last get together.  After midnight we finally called it quits and turned in. We'll see what tomorrow brings next.