Day 14 - Oxford Michigan

The best part of this trip has been the people. My cousin Judie was a huge part of my life when I was young. Over the past five years, we've managed to reconnect and honestly, she was the focal point for me of this trip. I wanted to travel back to Michigan to spend more time with her.

A few years ago, my company Bravous Esports had an event at Wayne State University. I used that trip as an excuse to stay with Judie and we both felt like we did not get enough time together. That trip was when I first hatched a plan that I would like to ride back to Michigan on my Harley. This summer is the culmination of that trip.

Judie and her husband Gary live on Indian Lake near Oxford Michigan. Their back porch looks out over the lake and from the moment I arrived, I felt like I could spend all summer here if they let me. From the moment I arrived, it felt like no time had passed. Judie used up some of her personal time off to just hang out with me.

Given that her house is at the end of a "nature road" that will never be paved, I wasn't not very excited about riding the Harley back down the dirt road, especially with the rain, but my cousin was happy to drive. Where to?

Harley dealerships of course! I really wanted a shirt from Michigan.

There were two dealerships on my list. Wolverine, and Motor City.

We hit the Wolverine Dealership first.

Harley is a weird company. They build all of this community, culture, and merchandise, but for some reason in the last few years they seem unable to stock the most common T-shirt sizes. Nearly every store I have walked into on this trip has a wide selection of styles and partners - in sizes small, medium, 3XL to 5XL. No XL, maybe one L. I am not a small man, but come on! Where are the XL shirts?

Further, Harley has been phasing out their full color prints for single color prints. Shelling out $10 to $20 more for a Harley brand shirt seemed to be worth it when you got full color graphics front and back, but paying $47 for along sleeve T with a single color... ouch.

Maybe that's why they won't stock my shirt size. To save me money. Ah... I don't think that's the reason. However, the best part of Harley Davidson dealers remained the people. Wolverine Harley was not only out of my size, they no longer stocked their signature Wolverine pattern, but the gal behind the counter did me a solid. I bought the one shirt I liked, (and a poker chip). Then she told me to wait and went to the back room. I totally expected her to get a manager so I could share my T-shirt size rant with that person, but instead, she returned with a complimentary dealer T-shirt. This is the shirt they give people who buy a motor cycle and it had the wolverine logo on it.

Awesome!!

I made sure to take our picture together and posted on Facebook how awesome I felt the service was at Wolverine Harley.

After that, Judie and I headed to Motor City Harley which is in my old home town of Farmington Hills. I was super excited to visit this dealership because that shirt would have my old stomping grounds on the back.

This place had the largest selection of bikes, T-shirts, and Merchandise I had ever seen. They literally had every type of CVO bike for 2024 on the floor (CVO stands for Custom Vehicle Operations - and it is Harley's most loaded factory bike.)

They literally had the CVO ST Road Glide special pearl white racing edition right next to the CVO R0ad Glide 25th anniversary edition. For the briefest of moments, I started running numbers going... could I trade in Ember? The answer is no... not this year. Still, it was impressive to get to see all the bikes in one place.

I am sure if I spent every waking moment working this weekend I could earn the money to buy that bike... but then what's the point of owning a bike you have no time to ride? What's more, the 2007 Electra Glide Special that my cousin Mike rode was still pretty damn awesome despite being 14 years old. My bike is still plenty awesome.

And I found multiple great T-shirts in my size.

Judie and I returned to her home on the lake, and we spent the evening on the porch catching up. Fire flies, light up the night as lightening thundered in the distance. It is so peaceful here, I can understand why they love it. I have been here less than 24 hours and I love it.

I'll probably stay here until Sunday or Monday, then start working toward Sturgis.