Minnwichigan; Day 11; July 15, 2014

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Marge!   I won’t tell you her age.

Our goal was to ride into Detroit and check out the home that Marge lived in from age 3 to 10. She also wanted to see her school, which was nearby. I was somewhat apprehensive about riding around on a motorcycle in downtown Detroit. That apprehension was not relieved when, preparing to leave our motel, a man told us to be very careful out there. I told him we would. He said, “No, I mean be very careful.”

At 9:15 we were riding away from the motel under clear skies with a temperature of 70. We left late to miss rush hour traffic. It did not seem like that worked so well.

We made it to Marge’s old neighborhood. It was in poor condition but the half of the duplex she lived in looked pretty good compared to some neighboring property.

The school Marge attended (and she had to walk there; up hill both ways) was a private Lutheran school. Today it is Baptist.Marge and her family left here in 1969.

As run-down as the area was, Chris made it a point to wave at all the people she saw on foot. All but one waved back. It was obvious from the looks we received that people in that neighborhood were not used to seeing motorcycles pulling trailers.

We left Detroit westbound on I-94 to Hwy 12 westbound (and slightly south). At Hwy 103 we turned south and rode a few miles into Indiana through Bristol and Goshen to Nappanee.

We stopped for the night at The Amish Acres Inn. Checking in was strange. Carl asked the rate and he was told it was $144. Carl asked if they had any type of discounts available (such as AAA or AARP). The young man paused and then said he could give us a $40 discount (which you would think would make it $104, right?). When we signed our credit card receipts it was for $89 and some change. Carl is an A-number-1 negotiator.

After checking in we walked over to Amish Acres and the ladies did some shopping there.

The route today covered 210 miles. It was partly cloudy most of the day and a couple clouds produced light and brief rain. The high temperature, which was in Detroit, was 72. When we stopped for lunch along Hwy 12 it was 63 and it never reached 70 the rest of the day. Great temps for riding!

For more pictures from today click on the following link: https://plus.google.com/photos/104542123131082631220/albums/6036442198004628177?authkey=CJal3oil-fXLWg