A Three Day Ride to Traverse City, Michigan

In my life, I have been blessed with many things. While it might not be the most important of those things, sharing the experience of riding motorcycles with my father and younger brother certainly ranks up there on the list.

We don't generally seek out specific sights to see or historical landmarks to explore when we go on a motorcycle trip. If we happen upon one, or end up at a special spot for the night, that's a bonus. You see, for us it's all about the ride and being on the road together. The ride itself becomes the destination. Bonding as men and family and bikers becomes the attraction. Beautiful scenery and landmarks or sights to see of historical significance are just icing on the cake.

The following is a chronicle of one of those rides with my father and brother, a ride just for the sake of the ride (with some great roads and sites that we happened onto along the way).

The game plan was to travel from home (Rockford, Michigan) up to Traverse City, Michigan, one of our favorite spots. We planned to spend two nights there and do some riding around the area. We'd been through Traverse City several times and had ridden the nearby roads on the Leelanau Peninsula and the Mission Point Peninsula, but had never explored the areas to the east. So, naturally, we planned to ride the areas to the east in the three days we had planned for the trip.
Day One

We left on a Friday. This particular friday morning was unusually cool for the month of June, but that didn't bother me too much as I packed my gear onto my '03 Harley-Davidson FXD Super Glide. The old beast had been my faithful, rumbling companion for over a year and a half and I was quickly closing in on the 12,000 miles mark.

Our meeting point was a gas station at the corner of 10 Mile Road and US 131 West of Rockford. As I rolled up, I saw my dad, Bruce, standing next to his gleaming blue Harley-Davidson 2002 Electra Glide. It was good to see that Dad had actually washed his bike for the trip.

My brother, Jason, was also already at the gas station. Jason and Dad's bikes are identical Harley-Davidson Peace Officer Special Electra Glide Classics. Jason is a cop for the City of Grand Rapids and bought his first Harley which he sold to dad a couple of years ago after he bought his current one.

As we fueled the motorcycles up, we discussed the first leg of the trip which consisted of making a bee line for breakfast. We jumped on US 131 heading north and after a short round of jockeying with the light morning traffic, we exited and headed west on State Road M 46 heading for Muskegon. As always seems to happen, we found ourselves behind a convoy of County road maintenance trucks out for an apparent joy ride, spewing diesel fumes in our faces. We made quick work of passing them and motored on into the outskirts of Muskegon where we stopped and had a hearty breakfast at the good old stand-by Bob Evan's.

Stomachs full and anxious to get rolling, we set off through the town of Muskegon toward the State Park on the north side of Muskegon Lake. We followed Lakeshore Drive north through the woods, skirted around the south end of Whitehall Lake and into the town of Whitehall.