We started off from a nice, but short, visit with Bob & Susan Peshel to having Bob guide us on our first ride of the trip. The weather was perfect, sunny, 60 degrees and a light tail wind. There is a paved bike path most of the way from Milwaukee to Sheboygan. A distance of about 50-mi. which we covered in record time (for old people on touring bikes) with Bob setting a blistering pace of almost 14 mph. We passed through many lovely towns and got our first view of Lake Michigan. We were astonished to note how beautiful the water of Lk. Mi. is...it's downright Caribbean in color. Along the bike trail we started a conversation with a local cyclist with the greatest UP accent. It was like being in a scene from Fargo. "Yah, you betcha, there's a tavern up in Sheboygen wit the Paaackers game on."
Being Sunday in football season we were eager to get to camp in time to catch some of the Green Bay Packer game. We set up a nice camp in Kohler-Andrea State Park and rode off in search of dinner and a TV. After 3 or 4 miles Bob says "It would be great to come across a little log tavern." when lo and behold there appeared just that. We went in to find a bar and dining room packed with middle aged couples just having a ball, hootin and hollerin for the Pack and sipping their 'high-balls'. They were all very friendly and we had a ball...very authentic. Oh yeah...the Pack came back and pulled out the win.
Next morning we said goodbye to Bob and started making our way up to Door County, the 'thumb' in Lk Mi east of Green Bay. During the night, it had turned wet on us and we took off into a light rain but were so glad to be on the road again we took it in stride. The rain stayed with us through the day and finally cleared up a couple miles before our intended camping spot in another nice Oregon St campground. Our readers may remember our trouble with raccoons on our last trip and how we grew to dislike them intensely. As it was getting dark we heard a noise at the edge of camp and shined our flashlight in the eyes of a raccoon descending his tree. We very much did not want to be dealing with a raccoon all night so I did what any animal lover would do...I pepper sprayed the bastard right in the eyes. It didn't phase him...didn't even make him blink. This is the dog spray that is supposed to protect us from vicious carnivores and it won't make a raccoon blink. What is in this crap? Visine?
At any rate, he didn't come back and we had a quiet, if chilly night. We had gotten Kelly a new sleeping bag which was rated with a 'comfort' rating of 45 degrees and a 'popsicle' rating of 35...that night pushed the popsicle limit at 36 degrees and I awoke worrying that I would have to chip her out of the bag but with some heavy socks and tights she survived the night in style.
The morning dawned beautiful with the sun coming up over the lake for a great sunrise. The weather had gone 'blue' for us and we enjoyed a wonderful ride along the lake on great roads with little traffic through nice cornfields and cute little towns. Sometime during the day we got news that, back home, the nearby town of Weed (yes, that's really the name) was burning (go ahead, make your joke) due to a raging forest fire started by an arsonist. We felt a little guilty about being in such beautiful country, in such fine weather while our home county was burning up but soon recovered and addressed the important question of where to buy a bottle of wine for the evening. After a moments thought we remembered we were in Wisconsin, where alcohol is probably included in the school lunch program, and pulled into the next open store for our 'nourishment'. We spent the night at a small hotel, about 100 ft from the lake and had a great dinner at Scalawags, whose motto is '5-star food in a dive bar'. The food did not disappoint and we had a great meal and some good conversation with some interesting locals. A great day all-round.
