Michigan color tour time! Get out and ride!!!

[cowpuc]

Our oldest daughter, who as a child I nicknamed "T.C." (stands for Top Child BUT she always shared some similarities with "Top Cat the original T.C." too for any of who remember that cartoon) and then later in life, she earned the biker name of Awahoo, ALWAYS loved our Michigan fall colors. Her life path long ago led her to the west coast and on to marriage and mother hood BUT her love for these fall colors in Michigan remains. Tip and I were talking about her, and of course missing her smiling face greatly, when I suggested that we put Trooper into his Mini Motor Home mode and do a color tour of Michigan's finest in her honor.. Tip agreed.. This video series is dedicated to T.C. but feel free to join the three of us as we head North toward Michigan's Mighty Mackinaw Bridge in search of colors like only Michigan, our home State, can produce!!

 

[Yoopermoose]

Our oldest daughter, who as a child I nicknamed "T.C." (stands for Top Child BUT she always shared some similarities with "Top Cat the original T.C." too for any of who remember that cartoon) and then later in life, she earned the biker name of Awahoo, ALWAYS loved our Michigan fall colors. Her life path long ago led her to the west coast and on to marriage and mother hood BUT her love for these fall colors in Michigan remains. Tip and I were talking about her, and of course missing her smiling face greatly, when I suggested that we put Trooper into his Mini Motor Home mode and do a color tour of Michigan's finest in her honor.. Tip agreed.. This video series is dedicated to T.C. but feel free to join the three of us as we head North toward Michigan's Mighty Mackinaw Bridge in search of colors like only Michigan, our home State, can produce!!

 

 

 

Hey Cowpuc, enjoying the video but you didn’t come far enough North and West to see some real fall Michigan colors

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cowpuc]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181020/c414c43f8abfd2ab55ce863f8b45a6ef.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181020/af6cf2e15b280b8f7fa58c0dea2dc349.jpg

 

Hey Cowpuc, enjoying the video but you didn’t come far enough North and West to see some real fall Michigan colors

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YOOP :doh::sign67::sign67::sign67:!!!! :yikes:Please say it aint so!!!!

 

,, think it may be time for the Yoopers and the Troll's to pay a visit to Flyinfool to put kink in some White Washer nozzles brother..

 

GORGEOUS PICTURES THOUGH LOL

[cowpuc]

Heading north in the direction of where those Michigan fall colors usually come from, the little northern town of Fremont paid no colorful dividends.. Other than a few colorful Amish people sharing the road with Trooper in their awesome horse drawn buggy (my good friend from Arizona named VAz would LOVE to see these folks!!) who have blessed this area by calling it home, everything is still pretty much green here at this time. This color tour business can be a tiring pursuit but someone has to do it - the 3 of us are only glad it happens to be us this time!!!

 

[cowpuc]

Hey T.C.,,, nothing happening color wise up here north of Hesperia near one of our old Bow Hunting spots. Surely you remember following your ol Poppers thru the woods between morning and evening hunts around the Benton Lake area? It was up here just north of Benton Lake where on Tank Creek - we all played "Pooh Sticks" for the first time (anyone who has raised little children and are familiar with Winnie The Pooh will certainly know this game - it's where everyone drops a stick in the flowing stream and runs to the other side of the wooden bridge to see whose stick comes out from under the bridge first). My T.C. was ALWAYS good at playing Pooh Sticks! Still no colors sweetheart,,, dont worry,, we are HEADING north and WILL find some!!!! Baldwin Michigan, the gateway to the north woods is coming up!!

 

[cowpuc]

Just south of Baldwin Michigan is a B.P. fuel station where, not to many years ago, Tippy with our motorcycle named Tweeks and I held one of our many Pucs Meet Greet and Eat Meat Hot Dog outings (folks came from miles around to join us in telling tales and eating hot dogs but if you were not one of those souls lucky enough (or,, crazy enough) to have joined in the fun for one of those fantastic events and are curious of what I am talking about, you can search my youtube vids and find numerous hilarious accounts of those happenings therein). We thought it best to introduce Trooper to this area by stopping to see if they had any of our left over Hot Dogs (thats a joke) and grab a fresh bottle of water (no gas needed, Trooper gets 60 mpg and we left with a half a tank of fuel so no sense in carrying the xtra weight all over Michigan,) when Tippy noticed a sign on the front door that put a great big grin on me and Troops faces. You know us T.C.,, we are FAR from being any type of LOTTO players but at those kind of potential dollars, GREEN suddenly became the color we were momentarily looking for!

 

[cowpuc]

If you look at a Michigan map you can locate Baldwin right on M-37. T.C., and her siblings, will absolutely remember a small ice cream store there named "Jones" ice cream where, wayyy before any of the four of our kids ever headed cross country on a motorcycle with me, they learned to eat ice cream (I remember going with my dad to this same Ice Cream hang out all the back into the late 50's when I was just a kid too,, Jones homemade ice cream has been a main stay and food group of its own for many many years)!! Matter of fact, when T.C. was less then 4 months old, she got so spoiled by the taste of Jones malteds that if I tried to take the straw of my malt out of her mouth she would look at me and cry - bet ya dont remember that Tee LOL.. Just north of Baldwin right on M-37 is the small town of Wolf Lake and is where this vid was shot. This is really really pretty area up here, a lot of pine and oak (no color changing there) but also LOTS of Poplar (usually LOTS of yellows/orange).. Nothing happening here yet though....

 

[gmarshall]

Was up in Tawas last weekend, and the color wasn’t real strong yet.

[cowpuc]

If you go back to your Michigan roadmap and continue following M-37 north out of Baldwin you will eventually come to the intersection of M-55 and 37, turning right/east there will head you into Cadillac and be following the route we are on in this vid. This would be directly north of the gravel pit that you played in up in the deer woods T.C. and also north east a little of Iron's and that little Jerky store in Dublin. This part of M-55 is lined with Maple, Poplar, Birch, Beechnut and other color producing tree's too so we were very hopeful in finding the beginning of Michigans finest colors for our daughter..

 

[cowpuc]

Heyyy Teee,,, they are JUST starting to change!! Still on M-55 just west of Cadillac and indeed, the colors are just starting to show their brilliance here! Another thing we noticed along here was a massive amount of tree damage from high winds. There were area's that appeared to be almost Tornado damage like in that the downed timber was laying in a tangled mess and the trees were twisted off. In other areas it almost appeared to be straight line wind damage as the tree's, even the ones that were fully uprooted, seemed to be laying all in one direction. Any of our Michigan friends have any idea about this?

 

[leo3wheel]

Puc, Observing a lot of the trees are already bare. Same is happening here. Foliage is slowly dropping before it changes color. Hope you are successful

in your search.

[cowpuc]

Puc, Observing a lot of the trees are already bare. Same is happening here. Foliage is slowly dropping before it changes color. Hope you are successful

in your search.

 

Indeed brother,, STRANGE year for sure.. Thank you for the well wish on finding those colors,, we actually did find em wayy up north.. If you are interested,, keep a weathered eye check on this forum cause WOWZY WOW WOW WOW we did find the mother load wayyyyy up yonder by the Mighty Mack!! Thanks for the well wish brother!!

Puc

[cowpuc]

Do you remember riding your bicycle all the way around Cadillac's Lake Mitchell T.C.? Or riding in our 1978 Ford Station wagon out there by the fish shanties in the winter time? Or flying over the Lake during the winter snow show in that Helicopter? Or the thick smoke from the fire pits at the State Park? This was a must do check for colors as the Lake is still very much surrounded by it's natural tree cover. Sadly though, still no sign of the type of color's Tip, Trooper and I know you will be looking for in this series. We do have another surprise for you though, wait till you get a peek at Part 9 of this series, I think you will love it!!

 

[cowpuc]

I got a hunch that this video will be as much of a step back in time

for T.C. as it was for us. Years ago we lived up here on Crippen

Street in the town of Cadillac. Here we rediscover our little town

house and take advantage of this moment in time to recall a few of the

finer points of life for us. We only lived here a short time while I

finished my degree. Those years had their ups and downs on all of our

children as we had always been country people, but as a family unit,

we survived and later went on to live on acreage of our own with

thousands of acres of State Land right out our back door. A place

where, during the fall, a Michigan color tour was an everyday

occurrence, right Tee?

 

[Sylvester]

No color here in NC yet. Was in the mountains this weekend and leaves have dropped without color. Was 90 degrees a week ago where I live and we have freeze warnings tonight. Pretty much killed the fall leaves.

 

[cowpuc]

Traveling out of Cadillac north bound on Old U.S. 131 toward the little town of Manton Michigan (an area known for it's excellent Mushroom hunting opportunities), the color's were also still in change. While still no where near peak as suggested by the internet (I don't get it T.C., I thought everything on the internet was suppose to be true), the colors were indeed starting to appear!! Ahhh ohhhh,,, whats this,,, looks like that little bridge in town may be out,,, sure enough, good thing your ol poppa and your momma are still experts at drifting because...

 

[rickardracing]

Why do you still have the window sticker in your car?

[cowpuc]

Despite our "ahhh ohhh" feelings about it, the failed bridge detour in Manton actually ended up being a God send. The detour forced Tip, Trooper and I back toward the Lake Michigan shoreline and toward the little Michigan town of Mesick (and no,, I am not kidding, look it up, Mesick IS it's name and it is pronounced Me Sick) which is also THE premier Mushroom hunting town of Michigan (ANYONE who has EVER heard of Morel Mushroom's has also heard of Mesick Michigan). As a matter of fact, and T.C. may remember this, back when I was finishing my degree I was also employed by the college as an Administrator. One of the ladies that I worked with who worked in the offices at the college had actually been elected as Mushroom Queen of Mesick. A highly respected and sought after position indeed!! That is not why I mentioned this route being a God send though,, this cut across over to Mesick ended up being the beginning of some of those AWESOME fall touring colors that we are looking for!!

 

[cowpuc]

Look T.C., your parents are in T.C. (aka: Traverse City Michigan)!!

This video is taken from the trail running eastwardly thru the north west side of town right along Traverse Bay. Among other things, this area is extremely well known for its Cherry Orchards and the Cherry Industry the fruit from those orchards built. As a business man in that field, for many years I did Cherry Pitter Sales and Service - T.C. will clearly remember the days that I spent 2 months of the season chasing around in this area and always came home with PLENTY of "fruits of my labor" for my family. As a matter of fact, one of my favorite customer's had a stone wall home here (this area is also known for its amazing building stone) on edge of the bay that I am filming here). A word of caution, if you decide to make this ride/run,, be mindful that you must stay on 31 as you travel, if you end up taking "37" north out of T.C. it will be easy to go a LONG ways thinking you are on the correct pathway toward our Mackinaw Bridge when in fact, you will be traveling the Traverse City Peninsula that will end up at Old Mission (still a FABULOUS journey - just a LONG way out of the way cause you gotta go all the way back to T.C. to correct the ahh ohh) .

 

[leo3wheel]

Puc, Keep waiting for the money shot!

[cowpuc]

Why do you still have the window sticker in your car?

 

Randy,,, you shoulda seen the expression on the new car Sales Managers face when I told him I did not want them to touch Troopers factory stickers or detail him in any way before delivery =. As a matter of fact, Robb (sales manager seen in 1st video below) had to actually get special approval from corporate to deliver to him as asked and, if it would not have been for my YouTube videos I showed him at the dealership showing Tweek's stickers and how twisted I am about those earned stickers - I truly doubt I would have been successful at aquiring Trooper with every sticker intact just like he had just came off the ship and including the dealership stickers. Though his windshield stickers are long gone (still in his "new born Little Trooper" scrap book),, that window sticker remains intact and will do so for as long as possible, why?,,, because,, well because,,, because I am me and not right in the beaner ,,, if you can figure that one out,, you are actually a much better man then me or any of my doctors ..

 

P.S.,, although it has not started yet because I have been advised to let Troopers paint "harden" = I do have a pretty good selection of stickers he has earned that are just itchin to find their way onto his clean slate of an easel,,, you know,, the one that is covered with Electric Blue paint at this time

 

This discussion reminds me of a discussion I had many years ago with one of my HD riding good friends/neighbors who is just as anal about cleaning/shining/washing his bikes as I am about my stickers.. It went something like this:

Larry (my buddy):

You need to wash that thing!!

Me: Her name is Tweeks and that dirt is from far off lands like Montana, S.D., Wyoming, Idaho, Maine, Florida, California, Texas and, because she earned it,, it is just as much a part of her as the 4 pistons inside those jugs that will put a whoopin on that 103 inch HD any day of the week.. (no joke,, me and Larry go on and on like that for HOURS)

Larry - couple weeks later: bring that thing down to my house and I will wash it for you!

Me: dont you EVER touch my bike with your power washer or any other water for that matter. You have a bike,, you wash yours..

Larry a couple months later: If you dont wash that thing I may have to stop riding with you.

Me: I have ridden many thousands of miles alone.

 

fast forward to present day = my buddy Larry and I riding the memory ride for a buddy who dropped his bike - two best buddies who hammered it all out and, while they may not be totally alike,, they respect each other and are the best of buds (2nd vid):

 

 

[cowpuc]

YEEEE HAWWWW = BINGO!!! Elk Rapids Michigan, north east of T.C. is REALLY looking good!! It is getting late in the day and we are losing the sunshine oh sweet daughter of mine BUT, you can clearly see that once again, that favorite saying of your dad's that he raised you by that goes - "THINGS ALWAYS LOOK BETTER IN THE MORNING" - will probably prove true once again !! Hey,, who loves ya? Why your old Dad Pad that's who (and Mommy too!!)!

 

[cowpuc]

De (the) Zwaan (Swan) of Elk Rapids Michigan!! Get it T.C.? Get it? Why of COURSE you do!! LOL Made ya SMILE didn't I!!

 

[cowpuc]

57.79 MPG!! Trooper!! You are suppose to be the most frugal production car in the world but the reality of owning, driving and enjoying you is still mind boggling!! What an INCREDIBLE piece of wonderful touring buddy you have become!! Not long ago I was reading on one of Troopers "Hyundai Ioniq Forums" about the on going question of how real his factory stated fuel economy actually is and if what is stated is factual, how is it even possible. The factory sticker states 59 hwy and 57 city giving an average of 58 mpg. I have already experienced some amazing distances above 600 miles on Troops tiny little 10 gallon tank after running highway speeds for hours at a time while doing one of our other YouTube video series (western tour) so I knew he was fully capable BUT the proof that his actual readings and calculations even when effected by disadvantages that should really effect the final numbers (like the incorrect math we did in this video) still catch me off guard. In this video it took 8.6 gallons of fuel for 497 miles of a very hard core/good example of variety of driving experience. For one thing, one must remember that while traveling the State of Michigan northernly like we are doing, you are basically traveling up hill continually - this is visually provable by watching Troopers "Economy Gauge" (it reminds a LOT of using a column mounted Vacuum Gauge of yesteryear) and realizing that his eco gauge was actually continually running 1 or 2 lines higher than normal on this trip - of course,, I suppose some sea level research on google of the towns we mentioned would also show it too. Another thing is that the highway mileage part of these miles were spun out by Tippy (who our kids still refer to as "Corilla Devilla" due to her heavy right foot - made you spit out your coffee didnt I T.C.!! LOL) on an interstate journey from our home in Muskegon Michigan to Augusta Michigan (+200 miles) on this tank that I had filled and set the trip meter just before she left). Both these factors are HUGE disadvantages when thinking Hybrid MPG. Another factor to consider here is the ambient tempts that Trooper was being ran in, low 40's with some low 50's. Troop LOVES higher tempts and FLAT ground and can easily maintain +60 MPG's therein.. While we did do a quick math summation in the car here and came up with 52 mpg,, we were way off!! You do the math and see what you find!! In the end, the actual factual MPG out of this precious little Ioniq named Trooper came out to 57.79 mpg FACTUAL AND ACTUAL!! Hyundai engineers - YOU are amazing!!!

 

[cowpuc]

Speaking of colors,, nothing is prettier or more soothing than the Mackinaw Bridge at night. GORGEOUS!! T.C. may remember playing up here at the bridge in the dead of winter or the 6 of us doing the "Bridge Walk" (shutting down the bridge and walking across it's 5 mile span is a crazy thing we Michiganders do every Labor Day) as a family!! Of course, she will definitely remember crossing our bridge many times on our motorcycle as we headed west for a few weeks of touring fun (for a Dad and his daughter - going up and around is always far more fun than riding down and under thru Chicago to head that way - and camping up there in our tent was never anything short of amazing). The Might Mack has got some great memories for our family woven between those uprights!!