The last leg of the trip, and the longest. Today we would ride 675 miles from our hotel in Walnut, Iowa to our home in Garden City, Michigan, and would lose another hour as we moved from the Central time zone back into Eastern..
It was another very humid summer morning as we packed the bikes and got ready to hit the road. As I wiped the morning dew from my luggage, I bumped into Jim, one of the guys we’d spoken with yesterday about Baxter Days. He was on his way there and gave directions in case we wanted to stop by and check it out. This was exactly the kind of thing I live for, finding new places along our journey. Though we were short on time, I was able to talk Bill into stopping in Marne.
Heading east on I-80, Marne is Exit 51, and we continued down the paved county road in search of Baxter Cycle. We glided past acres of corn as the sun was rising in the east, and I noticed that there were quite a bit of weeds growing through the cracks in the pavement. Although not abandoned, obviously, it was apparent that this road must get more sunlight than traffic.
Several miles down, the road curves sharply to the left and we enter a residential area. Upon spotting the Triumph tractor trailer on the left, we knew we’d found the place. If you are a fan of Triumph motorcycles, you must absolutely, sometime in your life, make it out to Marne, Iowa to see this dealership. We walked around inside for a bit, eyeing the huge selection of not only new, but other vintage models as well. There was a bike run going on today, but unfortunately, our two week exploration was over, and we needed to get home.
We made our way out into the front parking area to find that a gentleman on a Goldwing had unfortunately had taken a spill in the parking lot, and was not yet on his feet, and we feared he was injured. We began to make our way out, as he was being attended to and I’m sure didn’t want a growing audience anyway. The parking lot was on a hill and Bill asked me if I wanted him to turn my bike around. I should have let him, because minutes later, I lost the fight with gravity and ended up on the ground next to my friend on the Goldwing! One scratched windshield and a taped together broken turn signal later, we were back on the road heading to I-80. Bill repeatedly asked if I was okay, which I was. Embarrassed? Sure. But I’m not the first to drop their bike in a parking lot full of people and I certainly won’t be the last!
After stopping for breakfast at the Country Kitchen in Stuart, we continued on through the humid summer day, at times being pelted with grasshoppers that left yellow blotches on our windshields and pantlegs. Ick. We were grateful the weather held out, and though dark and threatening at times, we managed to stay dry throughout the entire day as we made our way through Illinois and back into Michigan. I-94 home is always the longest stretch, through Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Jackson, Ann Arbor, until we finally approach Metro Detroit, near the airport in Romulus..
We pulled into our driveway around 12am, actually making pretty good time with the late start and the stops that we’d made. Putting our bug encrusted bikes away for the night, we made several trips to carry our luggage inside. As we neared the patio, we were very surprised to find a brand new patio set waiting for us, a wedding gift from my brothers and sisters! Wow. Once inside, we text messaged our family and close friends to let them know we were home safe, and spent some quality cat time with our three fur children. Tomorrow we’d spend the day settling back in, getting ready for the workweek ahead, and making calls of thanks for our awesome wedding gifts.
We were home from the trip of our lives, and gave thanks for our safety, and for the incredible experiences of the last two weeks.