Our final stop in Michigan was it’s the biggest tourist attraction in the State. Over 5 million people visit here each year. It is not an amusement park but would you believe a massive hunting, fishing and shooting store. It is unreal. Not only is a one stop shop it has a huge mountain in the centre of the shop displaying all manner of stuffed animals. The walls display 
numerous deer and moose heads as well as many verities if fish. Once you have finished looking at all this you can start to shop. I bought a pair of tramping trou in the bargain bin for $4.77 including tax. Marty dragged me out a couple of hours later but not before he stopped to inspect the mobile log cabin they had for sale. We decided to stick with the Chev.
After all that excitement I had to concentrate on getting us to the swap meet at Lexington following Google’s instructions. We were beginning to feel like the Aussie tourists in NZ who asked their GPS for the shortest route from Chch to Nelson and ended up on the Rainbow Road. Just before paranoia set in we arrived.
Official start day was Friday but when we arrived at 5pm Thursday night it was already looking like a shanty town. Cost $135 for the weekend. (
Twice as much as the pushbike I’d bought just before leaving John and Michal’s’ and something I thought I was going to be glad of here). The cost isn’t really excessive when you consider we got 3 nights camping, entry to 3 days of swap meet, motocross, road racing, seminars and 1 day of trials. The flat track racing was extra and about 20 miles away. The wall of death show was also extra. We never made it to either of these two events as we were far to busy with what was at the course. After settling in to our camp site we went for a stroll around. We met a guy who had a Honda 250 trials bike like ours so we had a chat with him for a while. His name was Murray Gray. I told him that would be easy for me to remember because we have a breed of cattle with the same name back home. He laughed and said an Aussie friend had said the same thing. We caught up with briefly with John Hugel about 9pm and found out when he would be starring in the motocross. Early night – it was going to be a big weekend.
It was a very stormy night with a serious amount of rain falling which ensured there was a lot of mud around. I was glad we were in the camper when I saw some tents below the water line. The rain stopped just as the swap meet was due to start. I wished I had some gumboots but it turned out not to be too bad in most places. It was a 10 minute walk to the swap meet and the first thing that caught our attention was the small paddock of golf carts for hire. There are quite a few walkers only, but most shoppers were on some form of motorized transport. The amount of scooters was incredible. Some people buy a cheap one on Friday and sell it for what they can get on Sunday. We stayed in the walkers club.
We spent all day wandering around the stalls and never covered it all. Only bike stuff – parts or clothing that was it. Ended up at the AJSMOR stand and finally got to meet John Diedrich, whom Marty had met on internet dating. No just kidding, he is a member of an Egroup that Marty belongs to. It was nice to sit down for a spell. Another guy from the club had 3 of his bikes on display and Marty was in heaven. He fell instantly in love with the G50CSR (he is so lucky I’m not the jealous kind) and was on his hands and knees worshipping the ground it stood on. (Actually he was taking pictures but I thought that sounded better). As you can see he 
progressed from the ground to the seat so he was one happy camper. Only 25 of these bikes were ever made so I guess you can understand his pleasure at being able to fondle one. The other two bikes on display were 64 short stroke trials comp and a G85. There was no shortage of admirers for any of these bikes.
It was a fun day and I was knackered, so after tea I had a little snooze while Marty went to see how John had got on at the Motocross as we hadn’t made it. He didn’t find him but ran into another couple of guys who had Matchless engined Rickmans so he had a great old time.
Saturday and the weather was a little better and we decided to go our separate ways today after watching John’s first race. He did pretty well finishing a respectable 4th. I wanted to watch the trials and go to a couple of seminars for the hell of it and Marty wanted to return to the swap meet. Things started badly for me. I went to the woods where the trials were to be held only to find I was a day late. I discovered this when I went to Murray’s tent and asked him what time it was on. Bummer. He was happy with his result. Came 12th in a field of 24. With no trials to watch that put me over an hour ahead of schedule but as I had a long way to walk to the Tower Block where the Seminars were being held I thought I better get started. I also didn’t have a clue where it was. 30 minutes later I was there and early so I sat and watched some of the road racing and chatted to a lady whose husband was also lost in the depths of the swap meet. They didn’t appear to be as organized on the grid as Puke. Riders weren’t on the dummy grid waiting to go which I guess explains why they didn’t get through all the races on Saturday.
The seminar I went to was Motorcycle Restoration. There were about 80 people there most of them blokes. When asked how many had ever done a complete restoration I was surprised that only half a dozen put their hands up. The seminar catered for the other 74 as we were told what tools to buy, the varying rags that would be required, the box (es)of latex gloves that would be needed as you could expect to get very dirty and (lord help you) greasy. I did learn about using walnuts shells as an option to sand blasting and about a ceramic coating that could be used on heads and such like to help dispel heat. I was a little disappointed as I’d expected more in depth stuff. I came away wondering why I still didn’t feel the need to go and buy a box of latex gloves.
I caught up with Marty at the AJ / Matchy tent. He had had a good day but had purchased very little, but that changed when I dragged him off to look at a book I’d passed earlier which was very close to a tent selling helmets. We came away with the book and a new helmet each. We went to the bike auction after tea but most of the British bikes failed to reach their reserves. Some early model Japanese bikes in very good unrestored condition and low milage went quite cheaply. By all the tutting from the crowd it seems the locals thought it was too high. We weren’t tempted………………….
Sunday was action packed. First we went down to the Vincent Owners stand in the centre field. Meet a couple of very nice people – and their bikes. I left Marty talking and went to another Seminar. This time a talk by Carly King on her solo trip around the USA on a Ural sidecar outfit. She was test riding it for the US importer prior to their full import into the States. She also spoke of her trips to China and Italy. Was very interesting and I realized part way through that I had actually looked at her website about a trip she did around China before I left home. I bought her book which we have both read and enjoyed. I raced from that to another seminar on “Packing 
Light, packing Right”. As I am hopeless at this I thought it would be quite useful but apart from learning of some great stuff that will water proof clothing I didn’t learn much. It was geared to American riding where extremes of temperature can be encountered daily, and where huge miles are common place. I have the list so it may come in handy one day. I then went and watched the stunt riders display and had a wander thru the area where you could take a bike for a demo ride. There were Triumphs, Ducatis, Kawasaki’s, Motor Guzzi’s , KTM’s and of course Harley’s. I was tempted but being dressed in shorts and sandals I didn’t fancy my chances at being allowed. There were no shortage of takers while I was there. 
After all that mental stimulation it was time to blob out and watch the road racing with Marty. Mostly all Japanese and Harley machines but it was still good to watch. When that finished we went back to the moto cross and caught John’s last race. He earned a podium finish for the weekend so he was happy.
We stored all our purchases away – including 2 riding jackets that Marty had bought, and over a coffee, decided that we really had blown the budget. Having said
our goodbyes to people we had met over the weekend, headed off to find a Walmart carpark for the night.
We spent our last day in Ohio at the Geneva State Park on the shores of Lake Erie. After such a hard weekend it was great to lie on the beach – swim – lie on the beach - swim……………and think of you all back home enjoying winter.
numerous deer and moose heads as well as many verities if fish. Once you have finished looking at all this you can start to shop. I bought a pair of tramping trou in the bargain bin for $4.77 including tax. Marty dragged me out a couple of hours later but not before he stopped to inspect the mobile log cabin they had for sale. We decided to stick with the Chev.After all that excitement I had to concentrate on getting us to the swap meet at Lexington following Google’s instructions. We were beginning to feel like the Aussie tourists in NZ who asked their GPS for the shortest route from Chch to Nelson and ended up on the Rainbow Road. Just before paranoia set in we arrived.
Official start day was Friday but when we arrived at 5pm Thursday night it was already looking like a shanty town. Cost $135 for the weekend. (
Twice as much as the pushbike I’d bought just before leaving John and Michal’s’ and something I thought I was going to be glad of here). The cost isn’t really excessive when you consider we got 3 nights camping, entry to 3 days of swap meet, motocross, road racing, seminars and 1 day of trials. The flat track racing was extra and about 20 miles away. The wall of death show was also extra. We never made it to either of these two events as we were far to busy with what was at the course. After settling in to our camp site we went for a stroll around. We met a guy who had a Honda 250 trials bike like ours so we had a chat with him for a while. His name was Murray Gray. I told him that would be easy for me to remember because we have a breed of cattle with the same name back home. He laughed and said an Aussie friend had said the same thing. We caught up with briefly with John Hugel about 9pm and found out when he would be starring in the motocross. Early night – it was going to be a big weekend.
It was a very stormy night with a serious amount of rain falling which ensured there was a lot of mud around. I was glad we were in the camper when I saw some tents below the water line. The rain stopped just as the swap meet was due to start. I wished I had some gumboots but it turned out not to be too bad in most places. It was a 10 minute walk to the swap meet and the first thing that caught our attention was the small paddock of golf carts for hire. There are quite a few walkers only, but most shoppers were on some form of motorized transport. The amount of scooters was incredible. Some people buy a cheap one on Friday and sell it for what they can get on Sunday. We stayed in the walkers club.
We spent all day wandering around the stalls and never covered it all. Only bike stuff – parts or clothing that was it. Ended up at the AJSMOR stand and finally got to meet John Diedrich, whom Marty had met on internet dating. No just kidding, he is a member of an Egroup that Marty belongs to. It was nice to sit down for a spell. Another guy from the club had 3 of his bikes on display and Marty was in heaven. He fell instantly in love with the G50CSR (he is so lucky I’m not the jealous kind) and was on his hands and knees worshipping the ground it stood on. (Actually he was taking pictures but I thought that sounded better). As you can see he 
progressed from the ground to the seat so he was one happy camper. Only 25 of these bikes were ever made so I guess you can understand his pleasure at being able to fondle one. The other two bikes on display were 64 short stroke trials comp and a G85. There was no shortage of admirers for any of these bikes.It was a fun day and I was knackered, so after tea I had a little snooze while Marty went to see how John had got on at the Motocross as we hadn’t made it. He didn’t find him but ran into another couple of guys who had Matchless engined Rickmans so he had a great old time.
Saturday and the weather was a little better and we decided to go our separate ways today after watching John’s first race. He did pretty well finishing a respectable 4th. I wanted to watch the trials and go to a couple of seminars for the hell of it and Marty wanted to return to the swap meet. Things started badly for me. I went to the woods where the trials were to be held only to find I was a day late. I discovered this when I went to Murray’s tent and asked him what time it was on. Bummer. He was happy with his result. Came 12th in a field of 24. With no trials to watch that put me over an hour ahead of schedule but as I had a long way to walk to the Tower Block where the Seminars were being held I thought I better get started. I also didn’t have a clue where it was. 30 minutes later I was there and early so I sat and watched some of the road racing and chatted to a lady whose husband was also lost in the depths of the swap meet. They didn’t appear to be as organized on the grid as Puke. Riders weren’t on the dummy grid waiting to go which I guess explains why they didn’t get through all the races on Saturday.The seminar I went to was Motorcycle Restoration. There were about 80 people there most of them blokes. When asked how many had ever done a complete restoration I was surprised that only half a dozen put their hands up. The seminar catered for the other 74 as we were told what tools to buy, the varying rags that would be required, the box (es)of latex gloves that would be needed as you could expect to get very dirty and (lord help you) greasy. I did learn about using walnuts shells as an option to sand blasting and about a ceramic coating that could be used on heads and such like to help dispel heat. I was a little disappointed as I’d expected more in depth stuff. I came away wondering why I still didn’t feel the need to go and buy a box of latex gloves.
I caught up with Marty at the AJ / Matchy tent. He had had a good day but had purchased very little, but that changed when I dragged him off to look at a book I’d passed earlier which was very close to a tent selling helmets. We came away with the book and a new helmet each. We went to the bike auction after tea but most of the British bikes failed to reach their reserves. Some early model Japanese bikes in very good unrestored condition and low milage went quite cheaply. By all the tutting from the crowd it seems the locals thought it was too high. We weren’t tempted………………….
Sunday was action packed. First we went down to the Vincent Owners stand in the centre field. Meet a couple of very nice people – and their bikes. I left Marty talking and went to another Seminar. This time a talk by Carly King on her solo trip around the USA on a Ural sidecar outfit. She was test riding it for the US importer prior to their full import into the States. She also spoke of her trips to China and Italy. Was very interesting and I realized part way through that I had actually looked at her website about a trip she did around China before I left home. I bought her book which we have both read and enjoyed. I raced from that to another seminar on “Packing 
Light, packing Right”. As I am hopeless at this I thought it would be quite useful but apart from learning of some great stuff that will water proof clothing I didn’t learn much. It was geared to American riding where extremes of temperature can be encountered daily, and where huge miles are common place. I have the list so it may come in handy one day. I then went and watched the stunt riders display and had a wander thru the area where you could take a bike for a demo ride. There were Triumphs, Ducatis, Kawasaki’s, Motor Guzzi’s , KTM’s and of course Harley’s. I was tempted but being dressed in shorts and sandals I didn’t fancy my chances at being allowed. There were no shortage of takers while I was there. 
After all that mental stimulation it was time to blob out and watch the road racing with Marty. Mostly all Japanese and Harley machines but it was still good to watch. When that finished we went back to the moto cross and caught John’s last race. He earned a podium finish for the weekend so he was happy.
We stored all our purchases away – including 2 riding jackets that Marty had bought, and over a coffee, decided that we really had blown the budget. Having said
our goodbyes to people we had met over the weekend, headed off to find a Walmart carpark for the night.We spent our last day in Ohio at the Geneva State Park on the shores of Lake Erie. After such a hard weekend it was great to lie on the beach – swim – lie on the beach - swim……………and think of you all back home enjoying winter.
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