The Circle Trip - Around Lake Michigan - June/July 2020

                          The Circle Trip

 The Motorcycle trip this year was planned for the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Our travels were organized down to the mile - deposits and confirmations were made and we were ready to go. The only variable we had not contemplated, was the pandemic.

Canada and the United States both closed their border except for non-essential travel. We thought the border might open on June 21, but the closure order was extended one month which meant that we could not get into Canada or back into the United States. Accordingly, we "audibled" (an American football term meaning to change your mind) and decided to ride around Lake Michigan - a truly bucolic trip through the lush green which is the southern Wisconsin farmland, the lake shore and hundreds of miles of forest in northern Michigan and Wisconsin. 

The trip would take us north out of Illinois, past the "cheddar curtain" (the wall of cheese) into Wisconsin (America's Dairyland), taking the last coal fired car ferry across Lake Michigan, to Ludington Michigan. 

People in Michigan refer to its lower geography as a "mitten." You must admit that it does look like a mitten. 






The western part of Michigan, along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan is sometimes called the "pinky" for the little finger on the mitten. It is a beautiful part of the world. Our travels will take us from there over the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (called the "UP"), which is actually north of Wisconsin, back through the north woods of Wisconsin, through Door County Wisconsin and back to Illinois. It is a terrific alternative to the Maritime Provinces. 

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