The annual Michigan Thumb Ride was held Saturday August 12th, 2023 with 6 riders attending. The ride to the meet-up spot (Marathon Gas Station in Auburn Hills) started off dry for everyone fortunately, despite last-minute threats of morning rain in the tri-county area. Everyone showed up at the correct location, despite a “first” for the Thumb Ride–meeting at the Marathon gas station further up the road from where we normally meet (at the BP gas station). The only reason for the move was cheaper gas, and it was! ….$0.20/gallon cheaper! 
After a brief pre-ride talk and a quick trip (by me) to the BP to see if anyone mistakenly showed up there, we were on our way north on Lapper Rd. (M-24) at 10:00 a.m.. We had been doing pretty well dodging dark clouds and what appeared to be rain falling out of said dark clouds, until we approached Lapeer, where twin dark clouds were flanking our path northbound. Just when we thought we lucked out and “parted the Red Sea”, we got doused! A quick stop under a gas station canopy until it stopped, and we were back on the road. A second quick stop under another gas station canopy further up the road about 10 minutes later to wait out another brief downpour and that was IT! Nobody got soaking wet, even me (wearing blue jeans and a jacket–just the horizontal surfaces). Beautiful skies, cool weather, and sun peaking out from behind puffy white clouds for the day. Any sign of wet clothes was gone 10-15 minutes later as the sun and the wind dried everything up very quickly.
With the two previous short rain “breaks”, I called an audible and delayed the first real morning “stop” until we reached a Clark gas station in Sebewaing. At that point, we were only ~40 miles from our lunch stop. However, we still had to ride through Caseville, where I knew the “Cheesburger Festival” was in town, with TBD traffic snarl yet to navigate (it had never been an issue in the past). Unfortunately, that ended up becoming an issue when we approached Caseville, when we became stopped in traffic appriximately 1/4 mile before we hit downtown. Not willing to take a chance on getting “stuck” in cheeseburger HELL in downtown Caseville (I DON’T EVEN LIKE CHEESEBURGERS!), I called another “audible” and asked trusty Rich Ortland, who was riding alongside me and following the ride on his GPS, to “get us out of here”! He did just that, getting us quickly onto an Eastbound road (through Port Elizabeth and Kinde) towards Van Dyke Rd./M-53, where we headed north and to our lunch stop in Port Austin, The Bank 1884. It ended up taking about the same amount of time taking the alternate route vs. the intended route, but without the unknown downtown Caseville stoppage awaiting us.
When we finally arrived at The Bank 1884 (around 1:00 p.m.), and after being told 15-30 minute wait for a table, and after I sent everyone out to kill time by checking out the farmers market across the street, 5 minutes later, of course, we had a table! My T-Mobile service wasn’t connecting up there, but I shouted out the window to two members (as I saw them walking down the street) to grab the rest of the crew. Not long after, we were soon eating food and drinking drinks, which all were great (no complaints). Never had a bad meal there in all the ~20 years I’ve been eating there every summer.
We always gas up at the gas station down the street before embarking on the ride south along the Lake Huron shore (with ice cream stop in Port Sanilac). Unfortunately for one member, after gasing up, as he was about to rejoin us (we were waiting for him a very short distance away), his bike fell over. No issues except for a broken front turn signal–quickly taped back together, and a short-duration scare about a missing ignition key (he forgot that he pulled it out of the ignition to open his saddlebag)!
As we traversed M-25 towards Port Sanilac, we seemed to encounter one roadside yard sale after another! More than I could count! There were cars parked right on M-25 (on both sides of the road) with people milling around, with the associated safety slow-down of traffic for each one! If anyone knows what the heck was going on this weekend…was it a Thumb-wide yard/antique sale??? What a mess!
Our Port Sanilac ice cream stop did the trick, to put smiles back on all of our faces (the ones that had some ice cream of course!).
I bet you can easily guess which rider didn’t partake……
With a round-trip of 290 miles for me (door to door), and pulling into my driveway at 6:00 p.m., still in time to have dinner with the family, this day-ride mini-trip was just what the doctor ordered! I was feeling pretty dam good at the end of the day, and what a great one it was!
I was simply amazed at how easy-going the group was despite all the audibles, snafu’s, and gaffe’s! There was certainly plenty to complain about, but I didn’t hear a single complaint the entire day! Just goes to show you, when you’re riding with friends on a Saturday in the summer, what could be better than that???