The Motorcycle Trip to Agile Summer Camp 2008

After only a week passing from my trip to West Virginia: I set out to Howell, Michigan for Agile summer camp. I was almost as exited about the ride to Michigan as the event I was attending. The night before my departure I realized there was two hindrances to my ride:

1. The only way to get there in a reasonable amount of time to all highway and freeway.
2. A tropical storm was making it's final appearance over Ohio.

The first hour of my trip was uneventful over familiar stretch of road 21N and 77N. Just before I got on the Ohio Turn Pike it started raining lightly. After stopping to put on all my gear I jumped on I-80 in the light rain. The just after the first plaza the light rain became heavy rain and the road a giant puddle. I could not seem to keep my visor clear with my single wind shield wiper blade glove. When the rain and its winds were not pushing and pounding on me the semi trucks would pass and thrash water and tail wind my direction. My road rage reached a high as cars pull up on my tail and would barely swerve around me as if intending to splash insults in my direction. Really with four lanes I do not think there was any need for cars to be within arms reach of me.

I tried stopping under a bridge for a minute or two only to find the splash from the semi's to be just as bad there. After about a hour of slow driving and being plastered with rain I reached the next plaza and looking ahead there was a break in the storm. Knowing that if I stopped the storm would probably catch up to me, so I rode on through the drizzle and puddles.

After the rain cleared and I shed my gear: the remaining miles on the Turn Pike and Michigan Highways were somewhat boring. I think there was a total of four or five turns and one big bridge one my way to the Brighton, MI area.

With a stop to the Brighton Recreation Area park information I made it to the campsite first, just before 3:00 PM. Not expecting anyone I knew to show up until 5:30/6:00 I decided it would be fun to take a ride about the park for a while. All the roads in the park were dirt, or at least all the ones I was interested in. There was one section that got my blood pumping were the road turned from packed dirt to sand send me skidding around. That hour and a half of riding dirt roads made the trip worth while.