Departing the Grayling Restaurant World Polio Day I anticipated a long but uneventful day of riding along the tip of the mitt of Michigan. How wrong I was. I was hoping to test out a few things like satellite tracking, on the road updates, the BMW 310 GS, electronic riding gear. See what works and fix what doesn't. Furthermore, I wanted to do something that only took a day. Do it and get it done. The temperature in Grayling was 35 degrees and dipped to 31 degrees on McKinley Rd where you had to look at those corners and wonder if it was just wet or was it something more slippery. Riding into the sun was a bit of a problem. Leaving Glennie the bike coughed twice and quit. I rolled into the driveway of Chris Loveless, longtime Marathon Volunteer, Veteran, former aircraft mechanic. We determined the battery was toast and my wife Marcia was called who arrived 90 minutes later with a replacement. On I went to Oscoda and then north to Alpena. At Alpena the bike would not start after refueling indicating that either the electronics I was running, electric jacket and grips were dragging down the charging system or that the charging system was failing or I had two bum batteries. I carry jumper cables with me so we got it started and I headed for Mackinaw City. I took a wrong turn leaving Cheboygan and ended up doing a couple miles on I-75 north to Mackinaw City thru what appeared from a distance to be fog but what in fact was a sleet storm. One car was not as fortunate, upside down near the tree line on I-75. . Warmed up at the House house, Dan and Jackie House. Jackie is an artist and Dan is a musician and former BMW rider. Jackie worked with my wife Marcia at the Main Branch Gallery before they moved north. Need to look out for their son on the way out of town who works for the city where they call him Officer House. Then Officer House stopped at the house, he was at one of the multiple accidents in the area because of the weather. I tried to update everyone from the House house but the Microsoft Mothership informed me that I had already sent out too many e-mails for the day and that I could remedy this by enrolling in a premium program. After a couple cups of coffee and a Kogel hot dog I headed to Cross Village. It was starting to get dark as I rode the Tunnel of Trees. On my way to Cross Village then south. I had communicated the night before with Norm Velliquette of the Elk Rapids Rotary Club. He suggested that I think about stopping at Rotary Park in Elk Rapids on my way thru town. They had been watching my progress on-line and figured that I was staying in Mackinaw City so they went home, then they say that I was moving again on the satellite tracking site so they re-assembled at the park. As I headed in their direction I was met with rain in Petoskey. I rolled into the Elk Rapids Rotary Park and was met by an enthusiastic group of Rotarians. We had photos taken and I received generous donations for the eradication of Polio. Then we jump started the motorcycle. Twice. I decided then I should head for home instead of taking the chance of continuing on and having the chance that a trailer ride could be a possibility. No self respecting motorcycle wants to be seen on a trailer. Even at night. The Elk Rapids Rotarians pointed out a shortcut to M-72 and I arrived home at 9:30 PM. A full day with less mileage than I was hoping. The route I travelled was only 361 miles and you can see it on this link.



https://share.garmin.com/wckoppa





We received generous donations from as far away as British Columbia. The donation portal will stay open until November 20th and if you have a group that you would like for me to make a presentation to - let me know. As I write this we have $2,395 in donations on the portal and $230 of donations in hand for a total of $2,525. Something I have fancied bringing up when someone makes a donation goes like this. That is not $2,525 for fighting Polio. That is really $7,575 when the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation gets done with it. If my investments would only work so well. Thank you everyone, you can see where currently we are at on this link.





https://raise.rotary.org/Wayne-Koppa/challenge









Thank you for all the support and donations.



World Polio Day only happens once a year and you made it special



Wayne Koppa

Cell 989-370-5757