I'm heading around Lake Michigan this up coming weekend.   I will be leaving Green Bay with another friend around 4pm on Friday and heading down to a friends house just north of Chicago.  That will pretty much just be a boring run straight down there, and then we plan on leaving at 6am on Saturday to get through Indiana before traffic gets bad and then take ride up the east coast of the lake, over the Mackinaw bridge, and probably the HWY 2 though the UP and back to Green Bay. 

Any suggestions along our way?  I've circled the lake once before and I know we HAVE to take Hwy 119 out of Petoskey - that is an awesome road, but aside from that, we don't have much planned.   

I should add, I'm riding with a VTX 1800, Goldwing, and possibly an Indian Chief so this won't be a high speed run, more of a comfortable sight seeing tour.  Last time I did this I was on an R1 and my friends were on other rockets so we didn't take much time to look around. 

I don't have a great camera but I'll try to upload some pics when I get back.

I should add, here was my approx trip a few years back.  We took the Lake Express ferry from Milwaukee to Muskegon and I had to work in Oshkosh for a day, hence the out of the way trip from Green Bay to Milwaukee.  We also ran into some flooding which is why we had to cut into the middle of Michigan.  In essence, we went from B -> C -> A -> B

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Lakeshore+Dr+%4043.217820,+-86.285790&daddr=43.3479852,-86.2467127+to:43.403589,-86.3062621+to:43.49393,-86.43774+to:43.667613,-86.487931+to:43.8576136,-86.4307192+to:44.1635113,-85.7999168+to:44.4063388,-85.74033+to:44.65262,-86.24036+to:44.8129127,-86.0499303+to:45.03459,-85.35186+to:45.45011,-85.05217+to:45.6370726,-85.059847+to:45.6666125,-84.9887086+to:45.6675424,-84.9808057+to:45.6933282,-84.9617698+to:45.6980321,-84.9040323+to:45.6943076,-84.8853402+to:45.7437275,-84.8283482+to:US-41+S+to:44.30462,-88.25329+to:milwaukee,+wi&geocode=FZxzkwIdImLb-g%3BFRFwlQIdyPrb-ilNHqhTHWIZiDEWkQPVjuG6ig%3BFUVJlgIdKhLb-il192cjs98biDFQf8g63Upsew%3BFSqqlwIdlBDZ-ilR-oI-pegbiDFt9sXzn2qIsA%3BFZ1QmgIdhUzY-im_RCRNsPYbiDGLuJ8o505m1Q%3BFc02nQIdASzZ-ikbcZHxmg8ciDHUP7K6IXyIFg%3BFbfhoQIdFMzi-imn0BG1z-8eiDEMnGWByuSNzA%3BFUKWpQId1rTj-im5x2DexVAeiDH8yeoi74UiNw%3BFUxYqQIdmBPc-imNCHWcuQoeiDF1iP4L08JzAw%3BFXDKqwIddvve-inJ42rjVhoeiDFOwGuh_OQdnQ%3BFV4srwIdTKLp-inNUY3zPs9KTTHANNijSKL_DQ%3BFX6DtQId9jTu-ilPxKb-_IhKTTGgTx2Zpk0kIA%3BFdBduAId-Rbu-ikfrqfE_GVKTTG6ay7TxsEhxQ%3BFTTRuAId3Czv-im30th3xG9KTTH2iS7lVlt4uA%3BFdbUuAIdu0vv-im30th3xG9KTTH2iS7lVlt4uA%3BFZA5uQIdF5bv-imrbjh03XFKTTEGO6jCH_pabw%3BFfBLuQIdoHfw-ikDN9L3anFKTTE5mVHVGrbiyA%3BFWM9uQIdpMDw-illeS4wNnFKTTHcaVmmQ-4Chw%3BFW_-uQIdRJ_x-ikLd52_rHVKTTH6Yp5fPmyRLw%3BFaz0pwIdNmnA-g%3BFewIpAIdlly9-ilFsUcGrK4DiDFLpIJyPydOng%3BFba4kAIdVqfC-innR4tX1wIFiDGEe0G1IhlfRA&hl=en&mra=dpe&mrsp=20&sz=7&via=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,20&sll=44.566991,-86.407471&sspn=3.522131,9.876709&ie=UTF8&ll=44.566991,-86.407471&spn=3.522131,9.876709&output=embed

Got back this AM.  Here is the quick summary I wrote up on another site I visit:

Friday:

I headed out of Green Bay around 2 and headed down 43 and met up with another rider in Pleasant Prairie and the three of us headed down to Glencoe, IL to stay at our fourth rider's house. Pretty uneventful slabbing it, but when we got down there we could see some pretty big thunderheads rolling in.

Mile count about 180

Saturday:

No trip for me would be complete without a major storm. Ours came at 12:30am in Glencoe. The thunder and lightening was very loud and woke everyone up. It sounded like trees were going to start coming down. Finally we fell asleep and when I woke up I realized it was much later than we originally planned, but no one was in a hurry. I looked outside and realized it was still pouring out. Chicago received 5.5" of rain in a couple of hours and all of the highways were flooded! Finally around 8 there was a break in the heavy rain and we set out. Fortunately our rider down in IL knew the best routes to take and we made it through Illinois and Indiana with little hassle.

Once we got into Michigan, we got on Highway 12 and headed up the lakefront. We kept on cutting in when reasonable, to highway 94 (not to be confused with Interstate 94), then highway 63, 196, and A-2. Finally we had to hook up with 31 and run some 4 lane highway a bit through Holland and Muskegon, but then we found a nice highway B-15 out of Montague which got us most of the way to Ludington. Front there, we headed up 31 again through Manistee and then hooked up with highway 22 to Franfort. By then it was getting late so we ran highway 115 to 31 and stayed in Traverse city.

Mile count about 370

Sunday

We got up early and backtracked a bit by taking Highway 22 up to Northport and back down to Empire and then took 72 back to Traverse City. This was some spectacular road that we missed on our first circle trip a few years back. It added about 100 miles but was completely worth it. From there we got back on 31 and headed up to Petoskey.

Out of Petosky we hooked up with 119 which should have been the best part of the trip, but after enjoying the first 3 or 4 miles of it, we got stuck behind an old person who was going 15! He took up the entire lane, wouldn't let anyone pass and would slam on his breaks around every turn  by the time he pulled over the best parts were all done. We continued on and enjoyed as much as we could, but it was nothing like the white knuckle adventure last time.

After 119, we hooked back up with 31 and headed to Mackinaw City. It was a little windy but not to bad so the bridge crossing was uneventful. After that we decided we wanted to go as far as possible so we ran highway 2 to Escanaba and then hooked up with highway 35 to Menominee / Marquette. We stayed just over the bridge in WI.

Mile Count 430

Monday

Monday was pretty relaxed. We got going a little late because everyone was "tired" from the night before and we took County Y to S to J which got us to Green Bay. After that the guys from Glencoe and Janesville headed south.

Mile Count 60

Overall it was a great trip. Besides the rain Friday night / Saturday morning which we only rode in for about 30 minutes the weather was good. It was overcast most of the time which actually worked to our advantage keeping us cool. I have to say any doubt I had about buying a Concours is now gone. Having all of the hard storage as well as the power and comfort made eating the miles a breeze. Only towards the end of Sunday did my but start to get pretty sore. I don't know if I would go through Chicago again, we did it to say we did but there wasn't much to enjoy down there. Total mile count for the Green Bay riders was 1040

Here are some pics I took - I always remind people that I don't take good photos...

Here is a shot of Lake MI from Glencoe, IL.  You can see the storm blowing in:


Taking a break to take off rain gear after an Indiana tollbooth. 


Stopping for lunch near South Haven


Northport - the rain blew through earlier in the day so we just dealt with a little bit of spray from the road


The Depot at Northport


Lighthouse at Mackinaw City


Mackinaw Bridge


Definitely would have been nice to had a passenger with a camera.  Tons of beautiful overlooks and neat towns along the way.