Lucky Stop

It’s funny how twists and turns, both literal and figurative, can impact your life and enhance an experience.  Working our way through Unionville, Michigan I was compelled to stop for some reason.  There was no fancy landmark, no intriguing restaurant or any other distraction…it just felt like a stop.  Bay Street in Unionville couldn’t be further from Bay Street in Toronto if it tried.  The length of the street in town is lined with memories of what once was.  Closed doors and empty shops echo a time that won’t be back for some time. 

As tourists do, the cameras came out.  As motorcycle tourists do, we snapped shots of the bikes in this ghost town we’d discovered.  For reasons unexplained it’s what bikers of every kind seem to do…take countless photos of their bikes with slightly different backgrounds.  Evidence that YES, we were there!

Aldo wandered off to place an empty water bottle in the trash.  A lone open door had caught his eye and he headed off to look for a trash can.  A moment later he’d call to me from across the street… “check out this old snowmobile!”  Inside Schmidt’s was an old red Polaris from 1965.  What was even more interesting was the man from 1925.  Ted Schmidt, who you better refer too as Teddy was open for business as he’s been for over 60 years.  We’d interrupted his quite book and I’m certain he was happy for it.  As men, or should I say boys do, we gather around the machines and speculate as to their long and storied histories.  Teddy has plenty of information that he’s very happy to share.  For me it was a clear look back to how things were.  A time when people had time to talk rather than email or text.  We were all very much like old friends quickly.  The way it should be but so seldom is.

After a few laughs and some history lessons on the business and his town we were off again to the next town on our journey.  I watched Mr. Schmidt in my mirror as he watched us roll away.  I wondered if he remembered a time when he’d be off on his own adventure.  Traveling around with friends who’ve very likely long since left this beautiful earth.  Maybe he longed for the past when Schmidt’s sold Chrysler cars and dreams came true in that faded old showroom.   Maybe he thought, “…thought they’d never leave so I can get back to my book!” (below: Aldo, Teddy & Me)

What ever the reason was for our stop in Unionville I can say I left with far more than I’d arrived with.  That’s a great part of these journeys…these people you meet on the way.  If I lived in Unionville, Michigan I’d visit Teddy everyday.  Of course then he’d never finish that book now would he?