Canada150 Epic Roadtrip - Day 17

Day 17 - July 19th Wednesday

Distance travelled for the day - 542 km

Total distance for trip - 9298 km

Route - Green Bay, WI - Petoskey, MI

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I've always enjoyed visiting Wisconsin. One of my favourite cities in the USA is Madison. Although I didn't visit Madison on this trip I bought my motorcycle boots there many years ago.

Green Bay is home to the Packers NFL football team and I was fan of Green Bay back in the Brett Farve era. I took the opportunity to visit the legendary stadium known as Lambeau Field on Wednesday morning. It's located on Lombardi Avenue, named after a famous coach. You may or may not know that the Lombardi Trophy (named after the same coach) is awarded to the winning team of the annual Super Bowl.

After I visited the stadium I started on the next leg of the trip to Michigan. A quick word about gas in the US. At each gas station they sell gas with Ethanol and without. This is also true in Canada but they don't post it on the pumps. I use premium gas in my Triumph and therefore use gas without ethanol but I didn't know this until this trip. This is what the fella in Winthrop was talking about when he told me where to get "the good gas."

Getting gas - You can see the ethanol signs

The Michigan border is 55 miles north of Green Bay and I stopped to take a photo of the sign. The tag line for Michigan is "Pure Michigan", a slogan created by McCann Erickson and launched in 2008. This is somewhat ironic given the Flint water crisis of 2014 and my colleagues ordered me "not to drink the water," during my visit.

A few miles later I crossed into the Eastern time zone. A signal that I was getting closer to home and the conclusion of my epic trip.

A reason for going north through Michigan rather than south through Illinois was to see and ride over the Mackinac Bridge. The suspension bridge connects the upper and lower peninsulas of the state of Michigan. It's 5 miles (8 km) long even though it didn't seem like it when I crossed.

Mackinac Suspension Bridge before I crossed

My final destination for the day was Petoskey, MI which is a lovely resort town on the shores of Lake Michigan. It was bustling with activity on a warm summer evening. I was able to get a place to stay at Stafford's Bay View Inn.

Staying at the Stanford was like going back in time. It reminded of the resort in Dirty Dancing. The decor was old school, the elevator ancient and there weren't any tv's in the guest rooms. The staff was a mix of young and old and everyone was dressed formally. They were very polite and courteous.

It was here that I had my best meal of the trip. Fresh perch with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables for the main course and a slice of homemade cherry pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. The eggs benny for breakfast was also fantastic.

Canada150Michelle CaersJuly 19, 2017livetoride, usa, Canada150Comment