Summer 2018 – Magical Mystery Tour to Canada, Michigan and the 2018 RA National Rally… Step Right This Way! – Joe Tatulli Jr.

by Joe Tatulli

The first hints of this year’s rally adventure came in November of 2017. Bill (Kenney), my riding partner of the past four years, sent out the first shout to secure a motel room in Wellsboro, PA, rally central for the annual (2018) BMWRA National Rally. Bill had us staying at the Hampton Inn and Suites just a few miles from the Tioga County Fairgrounds home of the rally for campers and vendors. The last RA rally I had attended was in 2014 in Birmingham, AL at the Barber Motorsports Park and Museum. I had just joined the Ocean State BMW Riders and this was my first ever national rally event. I was 65 years old at the time; I guess you could say I am a late bloomer.

As the spring months rolled around Bill and I talked a bit about the ride and decided we would ride for a week to get to the rally and then blast home from Wellsboro on Sunday of the rally weekend. Bill likes mapping in Garmin’s basecamp. This year’s ride would be different for a few reasons. We were thinking of heading north through NY and into Canada for a few days in Ontario. Neither of us had been up that way before so everything would be a new adventure.

On June 22nd Bill sent over the first draft .gpx file for the trip.

“Do you speak French? Ha ha ha ….. peanut butter and jelly and paté for you…

Lots of lakes, back roads, woods and one nice ferry ride.”

When you carve out a route on Basecamp it’s like your child. You zoom in to pick road “A” over road “B”. You avoid a town here to ride around a nice lake there… with no real idea what the roads are like. Bill rides a 2015 RT and I ride a 2017 RS. Not designed for off road, but dirt is fine, especially if you get to ride the road less traveled. Who knows? You might get to see (or race) a bear or bull moose down a nice single lane forest access road. Billy had contacted a buddy he knew that rode Ontario and got a few pointers. His buddy rides a GS. You know where this is going; right?

When I pulled the file up on my Mac big screen (30″ Apple display) I took a closer look. The total mileage (Rhode Island to Wellsboro) was around 1900 miles; via Ottawa, Sudbury, Sault Saint Marie, White Fish Point, Manistique, and then back into Canada at SSM and down into Manitoulin Island and a nice ferry ride to Big Tub Harbor, ON. We would then travel RT6 south avoiding Toronto and heading back into the states somewhere near Niagara Falls, NY for the final leg, about 300 miles to the rally site. Mostly back and secondary roads, minimal highway miles, and some dirt. It looked good to me.

Day 1 Saturday, July14, 2018

We met at the usual spot i.e., the Dunkin Donuts at RTs 102 and 6 in Scituate at 7:30 for an 8AM departure. Roy (Jackson) and Carl (Saccoccio) were there to see us off and wish us well. Earlier in the week we had seen-off three other friends (Pete Hodina, Mike Howard and Vasilios Kourakis) who we would catch up with somewhere on the road or at the rally site. Carl and Roy would also be at the rally later in the week as well, along with as many as 10 other OSBMWR Club members and friends.

One of my goals for this trip, my first longish haul on Valentina (my new 2017 R1200RS), was to travel as light as possible. No trunk or big dry bag. Just the two side cases and the small Givi tank bag for some essentials (bear spray, compass, sun glasses, cap, iPhone, spray water bottle, unopened pack of Luckys [I don’t smoke but if cops see that you smoke Luckys they think you’re cool and just give you a warning and a wink-that’s what Carl told me], small micro-fiber towel, and a tactical LED flashlight). One side case carried all my clothes and toilet items, and the other had my tool roll, some outerwear if we hit a cold spot or encountered some rain, and my Macbook Pro. Oops…I almost forgot…and a set of Aerostich Soft Panniers. These smallish panniers fit right behind my feet, and were strapped under my seat for a tight and perfect fit on the RS. They contained my first aid kit, air pump, charging pods and wires, and walking shoes. It was a well-oiled machine. I also wore a hydration backpack.

Just before we pulled away I was showing off how cool my hydration mouthpiece was. You could just push the button and it would pop right off and then I snapped it back on with a click. Time to go. We left right on time, 8AM. Helmet on, start ‘er up, and hear my favorite words from the nice Garmin lady, “GPS connected. Proceed to the route.” It was sunny, cool and we were off.

As we pulled away and headed down RT6 I grabbed for my water tube hanging under my arm. Water started squirting everywhere. I looked down at the mouth piece and saw water draining out of the tube. Mouthpiece gone. Yikes. Fortunately there is a little plastic valve at the easy-connect (in this case disconnect) and I shut the water off, all while tooling down RT6 heading to CT and beyond. Like I always tell people (who may long too, but for reasons unknown never take a long moto trip), when they ask me how can you just ride off with so little packed, so few luxuries, etc. and head out down the road? I have God’s grace, my CCard, and I’m sure there’s a Walmart somewhere on the road ahead. If I need anything to make my day happier than it already is I’m sure I can find it.

Bill had updated the .gpx file a few times in the days leading up to our Saturday departure (we were using RA2018 3), and sent them to me with the caveat, “I’ve never been to any of these places before JT. It’s all new to me.” Me too, and that’s the best part.

We rode northwest through eastern CT and were soon up into western Mass headed toward New York’s Adirondack mountains. The weather was nice. We did encounter a brief cloudburst. Fortunately we were eating breakfast at the Wagon Wheel in Gill, MA when the rains came. I got the last house-made donut. I’d go back anytime for another one. I also trashed my water bladder. Without the mouthpiece it was useless. The good news is the further north we went the more comfortable the air mass and the less need for hydration on the road.

As I get further and further from home I start to settle into the riding experience and the mental and emotional rest from the day-to-day bustle of life. We usually only stop for gas and the usual 2PM drink n’snack, and today was no different. The plan was to cross the border near Ogdensburg, NY going over the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge, just about 400 miles from home. We would then travel another hour or so and get into Ottawa for the night.

The total miles for the day a mellow 475 miles… or 765 kilometers for you Canadians.

The crossing was typical. You start in the USA and end up in another country. This crossing was just a bit troubling. Bill went through first. When I got to the dock I handed the guard my Passport. The border guard asked me the typical questions. BG “Why are you in Canada?” JT “Just traveling through Ontario. Heading south in a few days to head back to a rally in Pennsylvania.” BG “What kind of rally?” JT “It’s a national rally for BMW riders.” BG “Are you carrying a weapon?” JT “No sir.” “Are you sure you are not carrying a weapon of any kind? Pepper spray? Anything like that?” JT “No sir.” BG “Okay pull in under the canopy and see the agent inside the building, and give him this.” JT ” Okay. Thank you.” The NCR yellow receipt he handed me had the word “switchblade” written on it. Ummmm?

I parked behind Bill, who had already gone inside, and walked into the border building, which was actually very nice. Big, clean and very official looking; if you know what I mean. Bill had just finished with his interview. I walked up to the agent at the interview window and handed him my slip and Passport and said “Hi.” He just looked at me while another officer in a bullet proof vest walked over. “Why are you in Canada,” he said. “Just riding through,” I said. “Are you carrying a weapon of any kind?” No. “Have you been arrested recently?” I was taken aback by that one. “No,” I said. “Are you sure you haven’t been arrested?,” he insisted. He and the other agent were looking intently at the display in front of them which I could not see. “What do you do at the rally? Cause trouble? You aren’t here to cause trouble are you?” At this point my good natured disposition was straining to maintain its decorum. “I’m here to enjoy the scenery. I’m a retired guy on a BMW. Why would I want to cause any trouble?” He looked me in the eye. I smiled politely, looked back and he handed me my passport and said, “Have a nice day,” and we left. We rode through Canada without incident for two days. More on that later. Our plan included traveling back into the states and then back into Canada for part of the ride south. I began thinking long and hard about not going back into Canada.

Day 2 – Sunday July 15, 2018 The Roads of Ontario

Our first day in Canada included some real variety including thirty miles of dirt on a forest access road. There was a large sign at the start of the road that said “Pass at your own risk,” and the sign had been blasted dead center (check out the picture gallery below. The hole is right at the second C in access) by a shotgun. We stopped for a picture and enjoyed the ride. The rest of the riding on day one was actually the best riding we did in Canada. Always heading west we did a couple of hundred miles of twisty blacktop that took us up, down and around some beautiful back country, and eventually through the Algonquin Provincial Park a pristine woodland with a beautiful lake every few miles. Did I mention NO TRAFFIC. It was a great day. The food was also mighty tasty. Unfortunately there is no passion for Paté in Ontario. I guess that delicacy is reserved for only French speaking Quebec.

I’ve seen many “Caution Moose” signs here in New England (mostly in the northern states of Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire) and also out west in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. Like the “Caution Deer” signs, where the illustration is a silhouette of a leaping deer, our moose signs show a silo of a standing moose with those unmistakable huge antlers. Not in Canada. In Canada the moose is charging, at a full running gallop, head down and ready for mayhem. I’m not trying to offend anyone, it’s just that we didn’t see a single moose. Now I’m as cautious as the next guy but why all this extreme caution for an animal that is typically timid unless provoked. The big risk is hitting a moose at speed as it crosses the road. I googled it. There were no moose attacks in Canada last year. Lighten up you wonderful Canadians, and raise the speed limit to a reasonable 115 kph (70mph).

Our planned destination was Sudbury, ON via RTS 400/69. The road runs right alongside Lake Huron. Unfortunately, due to the lay of the land, you can only see the lake for a few brief seconds here and there along the route. We arrived in Sudbury with plenty of daylight still left. The Comfort Inn room had a nice slider with direct access to the parking area. Before we left for a nice steak dinner at The Keg Steak House Bill reset my service light in the hotel parking lot. He had done my 6000 mile service check just before we left but discovered at that time that the new 2017 RS models used an automotive OBD style adaptor to tie into the onboard computer. That adaptor extension was shipped during the week before we left so he took all the gear and tools along to reset the light. :0)

Day 3 – Monday July 16, 2018 From Mud to Manistique

Day two in Canada started out on a bit of a sour note. We had to ride at least a hundred miles of an “under construction” RT17, the Canadian version of RT90 or RT70, their “Trunk Road”. The Canadians have a strange way of building roads. Here in the states if you want to rebuild a major highway you steer the traffic going north (or wherever) to a shared half of the southern traveling lanes. Everyone is on blacktop with a Jersey Barrier or other structure maintaining sanity for the two-way traffic traveling at almost highway speeds. The key thing is everyone is on a level asphalt roadway. Not in Canada. What they do is tear up thirty miles on both sides of the highway resulting in everyone traveling on hard packed stone and muddy dirt in places. Several stretches of the highway also had them building a new set of lanes to the right of the dirt road all at the same time. Maybe someone should go up there and tell them how it’s done. Valentina suffered the indignity of all this filth for a few days, at least until we got back into the states where she got a nice bath near the rally site in Butler, PA.

Back to reality… We left Sudbury bright and early. The air was great and the sun was shining. We were headed towards Sault Saint Marie, and then over into the states to White Fish Point on Lake Superior. It was some time at the end of day three when we decided heading back into Canada wouldn’t be on our future itinerary. The only way to get to Manitoulin Island and the ferry was to ride back east into Canada. When we crossed back into the states on the Sault Saint Marie International Bridge (a beautiful bridge that links the two sides of Saul Saint Marie, both the US and Canadian cities along the St. Mary’s River) we were welcomed back by the border guards and those wonderful 75MPH speed limit signs on the US version of RT75.

We traveled west on the upper peninsula, heading to our destination; White Fish Point, MI on Lake Superior. It was a great day for riding and we managed our time well stopping at the Whitefish Point Mooring and Launching Facility on Lake Superior, and a beautiful little park rest stop on the lake.

We decided to head south towards Newberry, MI and find a place to rest for the night. When we got there, there was no room at the Inn. I was looking on my iPhone and Billy attacked the Garmin. “I got a room,” he said, “It’s in Manistique on Lake Michigan, ’bout a’hundred miles away. Lady was so nice, says there’s a nice restaurant right up the road too.” Off we went.

The two hour ride to Manistique was a great way to end the day. Long stretches of forest roadways with almost no intersections or traffic. Another very cool thing was due to our geographic location, up north as it were, it doesn’t get dark until almost 10PM. We got our room, had supper and we still had a little time to explore the area. Right across from the motel (and yes the lady was very nice) was a small parking and nature area where I was able to shoot some nice landscapes and some Monarch Butterfly caterpillars.

Traveling through northern Michigan was revelatory. First of all, it’s a camping, hiking, kayaking, canoeing and boating paradise. In fact one of the towns you travel through to get to and from White Fish Point is Paradise, MI. The sign as you enter the town says “Entering Paradise”… go figure. With all this natural and inspirational beauty you would think some serious creativity would abound. Not so much.

Obviously there are hundreds of campgrounds all along the lake where, if you are so inclined, you can camp lakeside. The place is so remote that even though there are thousands of campers you really don’t see many people out and about. Now here’s my problem, almost all of the camps have the same name… “Camp Firewood”. How do you tell your friends and family which one you are staying at? Why would there be so many camps with the same name anyway? Isn’t there a law against that? Could all the camps be owned by the same company or family? And the signs… they are all painted on the back of old cardboard boxes or a chunks of waste plywood. Just seems kind of odd to me.

Day 4 – Tuesday July 17, 2018 Manistique to Ann Arbor

As usual we headed out nice and early. The air was cool, about 58 degrees when we left Manistique. The plan was to travel Michigan’s Scenic Byway (RT2) to St Ignace and the Mackinac Bridge, then south into Michigan on RT23 all along the western shore of Lake Huron.

We stopped for breakfast in Cheboygan, MI, on RT23 along Lake Huron. The rest of the day was riding on RT23 alongside the lake and the small resort and port towns along the way. The views were both local and panoramic, and the immensity of the lakes was memorable. I live in the Ocean State so large bodies of water aren’t a novelty, but these huge lakes in the north central United States are amazing to behold.

We eventually headed inland a bit at Standish to RT75 traveling south to Ann Arbor our stop for the night. Our route was designed to stay west of Detroit and any city traffic.

Days 5 & 6 – Wednesday July 18, 2018 Ann Arbor to Butler, PA and Thursday July 19, 2018 from Butler, PA to Wellsboro, via Shanksville and the Flight 93 National Memorial.

We tried to stay off the slab on Wednesday and also stay out of any cities. To accomplish that we stayed west of Toldeo, OH on RT223 and RT75 avoiding RT90. After Toledo we continued south to RT224 and RT76, through some beautiful Ohio farm country and breakfast at The Corner Restaurant. It was another beautiful sunny day and we followed RT224 east to RT422 right into Butler. We had been keeping an eye out for a car wash where we could clean up the bikes from the mud and grime we had encountered in Canada. As Providence would have it there was just such a do-it-yourself car wash about two minutes from our hotel. We had dinner at the Villa Grande, washed the bikes and called it a day. Tomorrow would be the Flight 93 Memorial and then the rally in Wellsboro. All was going as planned.

Thursday was a bright sunny day and we headed out early. We would be going south east to Shanksville, PA and the Memorial and then north to Wellsboro and the rally. About twenty members of the Ocean State BMW Riders would be attending this year’s rally and we would all be together on Thursday afternoon.

The Flight 93 National Memorial brought back memories of that day seventeen years ago, September 11, 2001. At the time I ran a small publishing business and we sat in the conference room at 301 Friendship Street in Providence, Rhode Island and watched history unfold right before our eyes. While we were watching the towers burn forty brave souls were doing battle with the enemy in the skies over rural Pennsylvania. Flight 93 would go down in flames. All hands were lost, but the enemy was defeated that day at great cost.

As we pulled away on the access road we passed the construction site of the Tower of Voices monument, the last part of the memorial project. The 93 foot tall tower houses forty wind chimes, one for each passenger and member of the crew of Flight 93.

The ride to the rally from the memorial was just about 200 miles and four hours travel time, most of which I don’t remember. What I do remember is getting separated from Bill who arrived at the rally site about an hour before I did. The OSBMWR tent was up and inviting, and I sat down with several club members who had arrived the day before. Roy Jackson and I walked around some of the vendor displays, and surveyed the scope of the event. When we got back to the tent I spotted Martin López a friend from the CitiBeemers of New York City who invited me to go on a ride to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania with some of his friends and lead by Sam Booth, a buddy that runs the Annual Gettysburg Workday Rally every May, so off we went.

I learned two things on the ride from a fellow rider whose name I can’t remember. While we were walking around the Grand Canyon area we shared some of our life experiences and family ties. The walk took us down a winding path and back up again. It was hot and the walk up was taxing. As sweat began to bead-up on my forehead my acquaintance shared some Eastern wisdom that he had picked up in Nepal many years earlier. “Do you know what BaBa says?,” (BaBa is the name of Mongolian wise man) he asked. “No, what does BaBa say?,” I asked with a smile. “BaBa says, when you start to sweat… slow down.” “Roger that,” I said.

The second thing I learned is don’t try to talk politics on a motorcycle trip. My acquaintance was a Socialist who was convinced that Socialism was the solution for a brighter future for America. Fortunately I knew what to do as I started to sweat. I slowed down, got on Valentina, and enjoyed the ride back to the rally.

Friday night we enjoyed a nice group dinner (two groups to be exact- one large table of twenty-plus inside, and a smaller group of six outside on the patio ) at the Lambs Creek Restaurant. The food was okay but the company was awesome. Our waiter lacked experience and focus but eventually got us our food and drinks… well mostly. We talked zero about current affairs and 100% about the fun we were having on the road.

Bill and I blasted home on Saturday to miss the rain, which we did. Sunny skies were our fortunate lot for the entire trip. Next year’s trip… who knows but I’m going.