Detroit, MI

For the past few days I have been resting peacefully here in Detroit at the home of my friends Simone and Max. I have a lot to report on since leaving Mid-Ohio. I left the track around four, at the end of the second race. The local coffee shop was closed, so instead of stopping to update the blog over a cup of coffee, I picked up some fruit at a neighboring farmers market and headed straight to nearby Mount Gilead State Park to set up camp. After setting up camp and dropping off some gear I rode into the center of the tiny town of Mt. Gilead to call my loved ones on the pay phone, as my cell phone was out of commission. As I'm talking on the phone, a police officer rolls up and asks "is that your ratty-ass KLR?" but he has a smile on his face. After I get off the phone, we get to chatting and it turns out that Officer Mark is a great KLR aficionado and an all around bike enthusiast. When we discover that we are both members of the same two obscure motorcycle message boards, in true ADV fashion (advrider.com), Mark invites me to crash on his sofa for the night. It was a great stroke of luck, as Mark turned out to be a really cool guy. I rode back to the State Park, packed up my gear and headed over to Mark's place in town. He let me into his house, said "make yourself at home" and then took off. He was still on duty until midnight but said he'd be back around dinner time. After I took a shower and caught up on email, I sat there alone in Mark's house thinking this is what motorcycle travel is all about. It had all started with sharing a campsite with Phillip, my fellow biker from New York. Phillip had suggested I go to Mid-Ohio which is the reason I ended up in Mt. Gilead. The only reason I met Mark was because my cell phone was broken and I had to go into town to use the pay phone. It's funny how things work out sometimes. Mark came back and we went out in his cruiser to pick up some dinner. On the way to dinner I told him about my plan to buy an unmarked police cruiser for myself. He was a bit confused by the whole idea. I think that's because he was thinking of it as a work car, while I was thinking of it as a super-stealthy speeding machine! After dinner Mark went back out to complete his shift. Before he left he showed me how to get my bike out of the garage so that I could just take off if I woke up earlier than him in the morning. Thanks for everything, Mark! I left Mark's place early the next morning and headed to Columbus on a mission to get my phone fixed. Stay tuned for part two of the mega-update, coming soon. In the meantime, don't forget to check out the new pictures I uploaded in the picture module!