Old US-27 Motor Tour

[D Cluley]

Last week I took part in the 17th annual Old 27 Tour. This event happens during the 3rd week of August and consists of driving the old roads and putting on a bunch of small town car shows up the middle of Michigan's lower peninsula. Michigan Old 27 Motor Tour – Back In It's Day It Was The Way

Monday 8/21
Some of the group met up at the weekly show in Coldwater MI.

Tuesday 8/22
The group drove South on Old 27 to Waterloo IN and had lunch in the park across from the historic train station. I left Lansing early to spend the morning in Waterloo watching trains and met up with the group there.

The local FD has restored this Bronco brush truck.

 

[D Cluley]

After lunch, we drove back to Coldwater and spent some time at the local kart track/mini golf place and then headed across town to a show in the evening.

As this show was winding down, some of us crossed town again to make a stop at Short's Root Beer Stand.

 

[D Cluley]

After a fun first day, I headed home.

 

[D Cluley]

Wednesday 8/23
The group had a scavenger hunt in the morning & lunch in Coldwater before heading north. I came down from Lansing & met up with the group as they were leaving town, and drove back north with them. While the majority of the driving is on the pre-interstate route, we do use I-69 to bypass Lansing on the way to the evening stop in Dewitt MI. Along this stretch a break is taken at the Potterville rest area where we meet up with the State Troopers who will escort the tour the rest of the way around Lansing.

Once in Dewitt, we fill up the downtown for the evening.

You have to have some nice Oldsmobiles around Lansing.

Nothing like a road trip in a station wagon

 

[D Cluley]

Hey look it's @Omni

Some little cars to finish up the day.

More to come...

 

[68 4spd Fury]

Looks like a great time!

 

[CBODY67]

Great pictures and great times!

Thanks for posting,
CBODY67

 

[D Cluley]

Thursday 8/24

This is the busiest day. We only cover about 70 miles, but stop and do shows in 5 different cities.

The morning meet up is at a grocery store in Dewitt and then up the road to St Johns.

After a couple of hours, it was time to continue north to Ithaca MI.

I was not the only one with a full size convertible, although the weather was not ideal this day.

 

[D Cluley]

Next up was the city of Alma.

The sky cleared up, so the tops went down before we moved on to St Louis.

There, the local newspaper got its aerial shots the old fashioned way while I stayed on the ground and let my drone do the work.

The final stop for the day was in Clare MI. This is often the largest show of the week, but it mostly got rained out for the second year in a row. On the other hand we missed the severe storms, flooding & tornados that other parts of the state dealt with that evening, so a little rain is ok.

Some of the group stayed downtown at the historic Doherty Hotel which fills up quickly. I stayed at the Quality Inn which also seemed popular.

Still more to come...

 

[D Cluley]

Friday 8/25

Friday we got to sleep in a little and then headed back to downtown Clare before heading to Harrison.

There are lots of opinions about where "Up North" starts, but beyond Clare the topography definitely gets hillier.

Harrison has a street festival the same weekend the tour passes through, so there's lots to do at one of the longer stops of the week.

 

[D Cluley]

After 4 hours in Harrison, we got back on the road for another 50 miles to our evening's stop in Grayling. Snowmobile crossings are definitely a sign that you are up north.

Time for Trucks?

 

[D Cluley]

A little fun with sidewalk chalk and then time to call it a day.

Yes, it did used to be a Holiday Inn.

One more day to go.

 

[68 4spd Fury]

Cool, I used to stay at the Clair Hotel when I was going to Federal Broach in Harrison.

 

[LocuMob]

That looks fun. I'd love to do something like that.

 

[D Cluley]

That looks fun. I'd love to do something like that.

You just need to come back through the Upper Peninsula and do it as a Lake Michigan circle trip.

CATL 2023: C-bodies At The Lake on Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 16-17, 2023 (Route 66 from Chicago to St Louis)
This sounds like a smaller version a little closer to you.

 

[D Cluley]

Saturday 8/26

After meeting up at the High School in Grayling we headed to Gaylord to spend a few hours downtown there. We got some nice pep music to wake everyone up. OK, that was actually for the soccer game getting started on the other side of the parking lot, but it worked.

As part of the tourism boom in the 1960's much of Gaylord's downtown buildings were remodeled to give the town a pseudo-Alpine look like many of the ski resorts being built in northern Michigan.

Suddenly it's 1960.

We took up 3 full blocks on the main street and some of the side streets as well.

 

[D Cluley]

What color '64 would you like?

Our short afternoon stop was in Wolverine MI. It's a little smaller than Gaylord.

Finally around 4pm we arrived at our final stop in Cheboygan MI. The Fraternal Order of Eagles provided not only their parking lot, but were open for food and drinks.

Conveniently, the Continental Inn is right across the street, and many of us stayed there.

The Lake Huron shore is only a few blocks away.

 

[D Cluley]

Since it is nearby, I made a quick side trip to Aloha MI and hiked the entire length of M-212. At less than a mile, it is the shortest state highway in Michigan.

Back in Cheboygan, I finished up with a few night photos.

 

[D Cluley]

Sunday 8/27

Since I had all day to get home, I looped around through Mackinaw City and hit some places on the Lake Michigan side of the state.

After breakfast at Alice's Restaurant (no signs of Arlo Guthrie or Officer Obie) I spotted this GMC motorhome on the way out of Cheboygan.

If I had the space and the money, I would probably have one of these.

A closer look at the Mackinac Bridge.

The MSP Post at Petoskey had the '75 Fury out front.

Saw the bridge at Charlevoix open twice, but no aspiring Elwood's took advantage.

Crossed the 45th parallel on US-31.

Just south of there, one of my last stops was this roadside park on what used to be US-31. The cairn contains a stone from each of Michigan's 83 counties.

Took a few more pictures around Torch Lake and then made the 3 hour drive home.

Total for the week was just over 1000 miles, and the only issues were the grease cap that came loose from the left front wheel (that makes a heck of noise bouncing around inside the wheel cover) and a headlight that burned out. Shout out to the Advance Auto in Cheboygan that actually had one in stock on a Sunday morning.