Five riders departed just before 6:30 from our temp meet up location at I94 and Haggerty.

We had a smooth ride south to our southernmost point at Stony Creek and Telegraph Roads. We traveled via Hannan Rd., Waltz, Oakville Waltz, Carlton West, Maxwell, W Sigler, Exeter, and Stoney Creek. There were nice clean sweeps and some beautiful and interesting views.

When we turned from Stony Creek onto north Telegraph, traffic prevented Charles, who was riding sweep, from making the turn with the group (my bad). After 1/10 mile on Telegraph the group turned right onto Stony Creek Road again and quickly noticed Charles was not behind us. Charles did not see us turn and continued north on Telegraph. After a brief wait, Charles was thoughtful in letting Mark know that he’d meet us at the ride destination, the museum, and navigated his own route.

Interestingly, Sam was planning to meet up with the group on the route and was tracking Charles’ location. When he caught up to Charles, Charles was solo. The two of them made it to the museum ahead of the group.

The group ran into about 20 minutes of delays including new road construction (that hadn’t been started at the time of my pre-ride), and two long trains. I think it was the same train we hit at two separate points. Uggh!

After waiting about ten minutes at the road construction my patience wore thin. I rode up to the flagman and told him there were three, pissed bikers and within 30 seconds he let traffic move ahead. (Just kidding – I asked him if we should take another route and he asked on the walkie if he could send us through receiving a yes answer.)

After getting through the construction, we go onto US Turnpike Road. It is a neat ride through open fields that runs from Swan Creek to the Huron River. It would normally run into W Jefferson Ave, but the bridge is closed over the Huron River. We navigated the detour and got onto W Jefferson Ave to enable a drive through the Detroit River International Wildlife Preserve. We rode up to the Detroit River and observed boaters, kayakers and people fishing.

We had to get off W Jefferson once again due to more road construction. I knew this during my pre-ride but did not count on the having a train on the track we had to cross twice. I am showing the delays on the map as a reminder we can have unplanned mishaps on a ride to a desired destination but still have a great time with memories.

While Sam and Charles were already in the museum enjoying their cold beverages, the rest of us arrived about 8:10 PM (20 minutes after planned). We got some drinks and then my friend Steve walked us through his collection of cars, motorcycles, Detroit historical items, signs, banners, stickers, photos, machinery, oil cans, slot cars, Tiger stadium seats, gas pumps, and many other items that brought back some great memories. There was even a Playboy magazine from 1969 in a magazine rack and wondered if they are still published?

The online Jimmy John’s order, which I though was really cool, did not go through. I was informed the store had no record of the order. We recovered quickly with my wife and her friend picking up a bunch of sandwiches at the nearby Jimmy John’s. I called Jimmy Johns’ HQ today. Turns out I needed to close out the order to complete the transaction which I did not know (my bad two). I was informed that the riders who placed an order by credit card will not be charged since the order did not go through. Please let me know if you get charged.

I get the impression that the ride and Jimmy John’s mishaps are forgiven and forgotten by the great time we had at the museum…

We discussed that it would be nice had more club members been able to enjoy the museum. The owner and my friend Steve Papalas, and his wife Debbie, said they would love to have us back again with the bigger group. We will plan that.

Till next time, ride safe!