Miles: 408
It was kind of nice this year starting out in daylight rather than at 3:00 in the morning trying to get in 1,000+ miles. We started out on I-75 but quickly jumped off just north of Dayton. Our first stop was a little lake on OH235. Not much but it was still before 8:00 and we were not in a big rush. Our second stop was at the Parker Covered Bridge spanning the Sandusky River. A nice restored bridge dating back to 1873. Continuing on we did a little detour to ride past Castalia Farms. This place used to be owned by Owens-Illinois and they would host our company there for conferences but it was mostly fishing, shooting, and drinking. Good memories. The place looked pretty much the same, and it looked like conferences and outings were still happening there. After three stops in the heartland it was time to hit the coast. Our first lake stop was still in Ohio at Marblehead. It was a crowded Saturday at the lighthouse and we arrived right at noon. We walked around some and soaked up the nice sunshine and very mild weather. We continued on towards Toledo and stopped at Maumee Bay Brewing for lunch. Nothing great including the beer, but it was a needed stop. The balance of the day wasn't going to be all that much as we needed to ride through Detroit and travel a fair amount of interstate before we exited to run along the St. Clair River. Unfortunately as we traveled east on I-94 we realized it was shut down for construction and we found ourselves in a completely stopped traffic jam. We came upon the E. Edsel Ford Dr and decided we would ride the wrong way up and get ourselves over to Gratiot Road that was the detour. We got there quickly but it was just as bad. We didn't want to risk finding our own detour and we were low on gas so we just stuck it out and stayed on Gratiot until we hooked back the interstate around St. Clair Shores. We exited I-94 and ran up along the St. Clair River on King Dr and then through the city of St. Clair and into Port Huron. We were staying at the Double Tree right on the river and next to the Blue Water Bridge into Canada. Before getting settled we rode a couple of miles north to the mouth of the river to check out Fort Gratiot Lighthouse. Very good location and well kept lighthouse and park. We had a nice dinner at Freighter's Eatery & Taproom which was attached to the hotel. After dinner we walked along the river before calling it a night.