A Ride Around Lake Michigan...Or Not

Touring on the motorcycle is always great fun.  My buddy and I found a weekend in June that we both were able to get approval from the bosses to allow us to get out on the bikes.  Our plan was a ride around Lake Michigan.  After intently watching the weather all week, obsessively if you will, we headed out Friday after work with some light misting. 

While headed north the weather turned to more misting and fog. We decided to crash at a hotel in Sheboygan, WI...a wise decision. A few Champagne of Beers helped ease the intense stress that we endured keeping upright during the past few hours.

Saturday morning brought some great weather, but some bike issues for the little Suzuki. Water wrecked havoc on the electrical system, draining the battery and shorting out a few fuses.  We first tried to push the bike and pop the clutch, but that was exhausting.  Our next idea was to jump the bike...but no one had cables.  But we do have allen wrenches!!!

Since it was my buddies bike, and he's the "engineer" he got the task of holding the two batteries together while I turned the bike over. GENIUS! It started up and we were able to connect the battery and charge it. Off to buy a new battery...before it explodes. In our attempt to fix one problem we shorted out the voltage regulator. It's a little, important device...it regulates how much voltage gets sent back to the battery during normal operating of the bike. Without it we were sending too much juice to the battery...thus it could explode. Two guys at a local bike shop helped diagnose the problem and supplied a new battery....we're off....5 hours late.

While stopping in Green Bay, we decided to be the mature adults we are, and since we wouldn't enjoy the incredible roads ahead since we were in such rush we'd just turn back and stay south-west of Green Bay. Stopping in Plymouth,WI Saturday night gave us a chance to relax and booze it up.  We had a great meal, lots of beer, then checked out a local bar and played some pool with more beer being consumed.

A great night!

Sunday was perfect, the roads were totally dry, not too hot but not too cold....just right. Zipping around the area we stopped in Elkhart Lake, WI to have lunch with a friend who participated in the Mini-Triathlon the day before. Getting home before dinner was the goal so we took some smaller roads back to the highway then hauled ass home.  A great weekend even if we didn't achieve the goal of around Lake Michigan....maybe in August we'll try again.