Last summer was my first on a scooter.

When I got “Flash” (my Genuine Scooters 50cc Buddy) I started with short rides around the neighborhood, then took some rides a few miles out of town, worked my way up to a 100-mile day trip to Lake Michigan and back, then went on an overnight camping trip down by the Indiana border, followed by an overnight just outside of Hell (near Brighton).

All of this was preparation for The Big Trip. It was a week on the scooter, exploring the north. I called it “a ride around Lake Michigan”, not because I actually went all the way around Lake Michigan, but because I spent most of it… “around Lake Michigan”. And I did go a large part of the way around: up the Lake Michigan coast to the Straits of Mackinac, across to Manistique, a side trip up to Pictured Rocks, then down the west side of the Lake as far as Manitowoc (near the city of Green Bay), then took the ferry across.

By this time I’d gotten the bug. As you can see from the multicolored map of Michigan at the top of the main page, I’ve been to more than two dozen counties in the state (plus a few in Wisconsin). And I began plotting (literally) additional road trips.

Last year I rode the entire length of the Michigan/Lake Michigan coast, from Indiana to Wisconsin. This year I’m going to do the Michigan/Lake Huron coast. Because I don’t live near that coast, that means I have a bit of a trip just to get to it, but that’s OK. It gives me a chance to cover some of the territory in between. So here’s the county map:

That’s starting in Kent County (the red one in the lower left), up to the Straits of Mackinac at the top, then down around Saginaw Bay, around the Thumb to Lake St Clair (the “little Great Lake” north of Detroit), then back across to home. I’m deliberately taking a somewhat northern route for the last leg, to avoid duplicating a route I’ve already been through. This will add 23 counties to my tally.

I’ll be doing this a little earlier in the year this time (since I don’t have to wait for the vacation time to accrue): from 15-22 July. The vacation time is approved, and I’ve made reservations at five of the six state park/recreation-area campgrounds I’ll be staying at (I haven’t made up my mind about the last one).

The Badger arrived on schedule at 5:30am, about an hour before sunrise. I got Flash out of the hold (the tie-downs had worked), and scooted off into the pre-dawn darkness. I had a little trouble getting one of the tie-downs off; in wrapping it around the headset of the bike, I’d managed to tie it in a simple knot snug around the center pole, so I had to poke around to pull it loose. I didn’t wait for sun-up to get underway; I just headed home, by the same route I’d used to get to Ludington a week earlier. Although the forecast is for a hot day, it was foggy and chilly most of the way home. I stopped for gas, and to take a couple farmland-in-the-mist photos, but pretty much rode straight through.

Home was as I left it. Of course I knew the computer system was OK, because I’d been using it remotely. But it’s always nice to see for sure that mail delivery was suspended, the place hasn’t been burgled, I didn’t leave the toilet flushing, etc.

I’ll be going back through the blog, fixing tpyos, embellishing comments, and adding more photos (not just the lame iPhone snaps). And I’ll have some follow-up to come.

The trip is GO. I’m leaving now.

We’re at the edge of reliable weather forecasting for the beginning of the ride north, and the outlook is… mixed. 50% chance of rain on Day 1 (Saturday), mostly sunny and temps in the 90s on Day 2, 30% chance of rain on Day 3, and partly cloudy on Day 4. (And yes, this is looking at forecasts for each part of the state where I’ll be that day.)

About the only conclusion I can draw from this is that I will be using Frogg Toggs at some point. Of course I was hoping not to. (Stranger things have happened. I spent over a month bicycling in soggy Great Britain, and barely got sprinkled on.) But I can deal with it. It certainly isn’t going to cancel or delay the trip.

My plan for dealing with rain depends on the kind of rain. For just a front moving through, I’ll try to wait it out some place dry. If it’s going to be off and on, I’ll keep the rain gear handy as I ride (or sight-see) and wear it as needed. If it’s an all-day monsoon, I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it. Probably just gear up and muddle on.

(At least – unlike backpacking in the wilderness – I’ll have some options for getting out of the rain besides my tent… and the occasional outhouse. During one particular day of unrelenting rain on Isle Royale, with the nearest shelter miles away, I took refuge for half an hour in a tiny outhouse at a campsite along the trail. I wasn’t able to dry out much, but it was a good mental-health break.)

I just picked up Flash from the scooter shop, and they gave him a clean bill of health. The transmission’s a little worn, according to the mechanic, but nothing out of the ordinary. He gave the carburetor a cleaning and changed the gearbox oil, and I’m good to go. It cost $60 total for not a lot of “work” done on it, but that seems reasonable for the actual work put into the inspection, and worth it for the peace of mind.

The preparations for the big trip have been a bit quiet lately. Rest assured, this does not mean that the trip is off, or anything like that. It just means I don’t have much left to do between now and launch day. The time off has been scheduled, the camp sites have all been booked, the gear has all been purchased. About the only major outstanding task is to get the scooter checked out and declared seaworthy by a mechanic… which I have scheduled for Friday.