Celebration day

After a Cracker Barrel breakfast, we decided to ride to the Cumberland Gap. Discovered a couple of nice roads along the way. The view from the overlook is magnificent. Standing in Virginia looking out over Tennessee an Kentucky. 

Then freshening up at the hotel, headed to Rita and Robbie's to celebrate the memories of those who have fallen in service to our country. Rain postponed the flag retiring ceremony till next year. 

Trip to Rita and Robbie's for Memorial Day celebration

Left home yesterday and drove to Paducah, Ky. 

This morning we headed down thru the Land Between the Lakes. Beautiful road. Well worth the detour. From there we headed to Knoxville. Smooth ride except that we had a 20 miles detour do to an accident on I40. 

Going to meet Robbie and Rita, Les and Amy later for some dancing(at a bar new to us). 

Last leg

Followed the coast up from Traverse City and back down along Lake Michigan, setting our sites on finishing near Holland for the day. After lunch in Frankfort, my mind began to drift towards home and sleeping in my own bed. So we decided to stop at Four Winds to gamble and have dinner and then head home. Pulled into the driveway at about 8:45. Another fun adventure completed. The pictures of the scenery plastered across our minds will never be captured by the photos posted on FB. 

To the top of the mitten and beyond

Leaving Tawas City under blue skies. Temps still cool but we really didn't care. Lake Huron on our right, we scooted up the coast. Reaching Mackinaw city it was time for lunch. Nonna Lisa's provided generous portions. Very cute tourist friendly town. The bridge is quite impressive.

On to the tunnel of trees. VERY narrow road with many twists and turns. Very pretty. Would love to see it in the fall. Settled into Traverse City for the night.  

Around the thumb

Set out north along the coast. Lunched in Port Austin. Stopped in at the Bay City HD. Settled in for the day in Tawas Bay. Took a short walk thru town. Back to the hotel for dinner then out to the tiki bar for a couple of drinks. 

Fifth lake and back to the USA

Looking at the forecast we thought we would only have to deal with the rain near  the border at the end of our day in Michigan. Boy were we wrong. Out for about 20 minutes, we ran into a downpour. After a brief Lake Erie siting we headed for Fort Huron, MI. Wave after wave of light rain until we arrived at Sarnia. About 30 minutes waiting to reenter the USA. I would hate to see that bridge at rush hour. 

Time to fall for the Falls

Headed south of North Bay towards Barrie. Another HD stop and then lunch at East Side Marios. 

Traffic going thru Toronto was bumper to bumper. Thank goodness for the HOV lane. 

Arriving at our hotel, we realized that we had placed ourselves in tourist hell. 

After settling in, we walked down to the falls. Amazing views. Just the raw power of the water is awesome. 

After dinner we had some time to kill before seeing the falls at night. So we decided to hit the casino. Second hand at 3 card poker I hit a straight flush. Then about 20 minutes later my name was called for the poker room. Next thing I know it's midnight and I missed the night viewing. ( go figure).