Ottawa to Seattle - Days 2&3

August 3 - Day 2 - Mississauga to Grand Rapids MI

Distance:560 Km

Time:8:20

Bike Fuel: 6l+6.4 gal $33.11

Rider Fuel: Cereal breakfast. Fruit & yogurt lunch, Gatorade & snickers bar snack, lasagna dinner($16)

Cool in the morning hot in the afternoon. I went from sweatshirt & rain cover in the morning to just the mesh jacket in the afternoon. Crossed the border at Sarni and the Blue Water Bridge. I crossed this bridge in 2006 going to st. Louis on my first long solo ride and the view is as spectacular as i remembered. There's a pretty beach on the US side and overall a great panorama.

I saw lots of bikes during the day including one guy who blew past me on the 403 at what must have been 150kph. I hadn't known it but there was a big Harley rally in chatham Ontario over the long weekend and some of what i saw was from that. I met one group at a rest stop in northern Michigan who were from Northern Ontario. They had come down for the rally then crossed at sarnia. they were planning to take the ferry to milwaukee the next day then go back up the other side of lake Michigan to Canada via sault st Marie. Just a nice group of people - three siblings and some inlaws all on big hd bikes.

I stayed in grand rapids at a motel 6 which i got for $35.95 cause I'm old. Surprisingly decent place with a pool. lots of family types with kids. Dinner was at a Fazoolis down the road and i got fruit & such at a grocery. Gassed up in the evening and checked the tires which were fine.

August 4 - Day 3 - Grand Rapids to Dubuque Iowa

Distance 354 km plus 100 or so km on the ferry.

Time: 8:40

Bike Fuel: 2.1 gal ($8.27)

Rider Fuel: McDonalds Breakfast, raisin bran & fruit for lunch, cheeseburger & beer for dinner ($20)

Had rain & threat of rain all day with some wild lightning. I would see bolts that stretched across most of the sky.

Took the ferry from muskegon to Milwaukee ($150!) along with the group of HD bikes I had met the day before along with half a dozen other HD's. Some heading for sturgis, some coming home from chatham and some just out for the day. Those are nice bikes. Nice people too and complimentary/curious about the triumph.

Dubuque looks dull from here but the rain has stopped so I'll venture out.