Leg 21 - Mississagua, ON to Villa Park, IL

Left the motel in Mississagua at 6:00 am, June 5th. I have been on the rode now for a month. It was 54 degrees and the predicted weather was sunny and cool. The plan was to ride to Kalamazoo, MI and then spend the night, leaving a short ride to Villa Park, IL the next day.

I crossed the border back into the USA at Sarnia, Ontario. Contrasted to the Madawaska, ME border crossing, the Sarnia border was crowded with many lanes of traffic. I snapped the below photo while waiting in line to present my ID. The biker in front of me was from Manitoba, Canada. Even with the traffic it only took 25 minutes to get through the border.

Sarnia, ON border crossing into Michigan

I got to Kalamazoo, MI around 2:30 pm after a beautiful sunny ride. The time in Villa Park, IL was 1:30 pm with the time zone change to Central time. Since I was just 165 miles from Villa Park, I called my brother Rick and asked if it was ok to come into town a day early. He gave the thumbs up and I pushed on.

I got to my brother's home just before 5:00 pm. Rick and Linda had planned to attend a local concert in the park and asked if I would like to join them. Rick and Linda have a beautiful Classic Harley Davidson and we opted to take the bikes. I unpacked the bike and by 6:30 was back on headed for the concert.

Rick and Linda

There were lots of bikers attending the concert, a tribute to the popular band 'The Eagles'. We parked the bikes and got a bite to eat. By the time we got back from dinner, the line of bikes had grown. I snapped the following photo of the 'Onion in the Petunia patch'. ;-))

Goldwing among the Harleys

There was one bike that got everyone's attention when it rolled in, "The BOSS Hog." This bike was fitted with a V8 car engine souped up with a blower. A painted scroll on the rear fender stated the horse power was '1265 and then some.' Holy cow, the Goldwing has 118 horse.

The BOSS Hog

Overall, 545 miles and right at 12 hours of riding. This was the longest leg of the trip.

I plan on staying in Villa Park, IL for the next couple of weeks visiting the many family members I have in the area and friends and classmates from where I graduated high school in Fox Lake, IL

I called Des Plaines Honda to see if they could get me in to service my bike. Doug, the service manager, was very helpful. When I told him I had a 2005 Goldwing with 10,000 miles that had never been serviced but had changed all of the fluids and replaced the tires, he told me I did not need a service.

Doug told me to bring the bike by on Saturday and he would personally inspect the bike. On Saturday, Doug checked the fluids, found the same small leak on the right front fork, inspected the brakes and tires. One of the passenger handles was loose and he tightened it up. I strap my bags to the passenger handles so it was a good catch.

After 15 minutes of inspection, Doug gave me his 'good to go' blessing. All for NO CHARGE.

In the 45 minutes I was at the dealership, two brand new Goldwings were sold and prepped. Wow, this is a class dealership.