Rainy Door County

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John's Journal

Day Twentyseven

Mileage- 154

Route- Hwy 41 North, I-43 South (for only a bit), Hwy 57 North, Hwy 42 North

I have three words to start out today's entry:
rain
rain
rain

At least there wasn't the "cold" word in there! And I must add it really isn't that bad. It just rained all day. No lightning, no tornadoes, no thunderstorms, just good ol' rain.

I managed to sleep in this morning and have a nice breakfast with my Aunt. She took me to the museum where she is a docent. They have an amazing collection of glass artwork. I am not sure what your reaction is, but I know that I have not seen or just taken notice of glass artwork before. These works are amazing! The craftsmanship that goes into them boggles me. There are pieces with such fine detail you would think there's no way they were crafted with glass, but maybe drawn. The best part of the trip was walking up to the entrance and seeing the beautiful piece of glass work donated to the museum in my Uncle Jack's memory. It is a fine piece of work.

After some of Aunt Kassie's homemade beef and vegetable soup, I slushed off in the light rain toward Door County. I had to stop in nearby Appleton to find an AC adapter for the palmtop (maybe some rain got in, it just stopped working, I used it in Indy) and a new pole for my tent (one of the fiberglass poles started to fracture). It was fun sloshing through a department store in my wet suit on the way to Radio Shack. In the parking lot of the outdoors store, a guy who parked next to me walked up and said that he was glad he wasn't riding with me. I replied that I didn't have any room for him on the back, but he didn't get it. People just come up to you and talk much more frequently, a) in this part of the country and b) when you are on a motorcycle.

I made it up to Door County, WI at around 5 or 6 p.m. I could still make out some of the dairy farms off to both sides of the small, mostly 2-lane highway. It's pretty flat for the most part, but then you go through a few small hills to give you a good vantage point. You can even see Green Bay often throughout the trek up off to the left. Then I started going through the small towns up here; Egg Harbor (with a Brew Pub, Restaurant and Motel, I might add, why didn't I stay there?), Fish Creek, Ephraim, Bailey's Harbor. I have stayed at a wonderful B & B in Ephraim, the Hillside Inn, years ago and I was glad to find it is still there. This was before B & B's were really, really popular, now you see them all over here. I stopped in at the Cedar Motel in Fish Creek.

They were not on the main road and were within walking distance of several restaurants. I dripped through the front door to find a very nice woman happy to give me a very nice room. Perhaps she had some sympathy for me, or maybe she just didn't have anyone else staying there, but she gave me a great room on the 2nd floor with a fireplace (gas, shucks), whirlpool bath (ahhhhh) and heat (I guess they all have heat). And, she even let me use the phone line to send my e-mail. All this for the unheard of price of only $40! No kidding, I must have looked pretty bad walking in there.

The light rain kept at it throughout my dinner of light battered perch. It was great, especially considering I just made it in at the last minute. I wondered about being the last one, but it was worth the risk. I got the cherry cheesecake to go for after the whirlpool. Now, if only my stuff dries out in time to leave tomorrow. My room is stifling hot, trying to dry it all. Not much worry, though, it will just get wet tomorrow.

I am not sure if I will stay or just go on. I am not too excited to stay if it just rains all the time. I can't go for any hikes or see much except for antique shops. But, if it dries out, then maybe I will head up to Washington Island, off the tip of this peninsula, and camp out there tomorrow night.

Something leads me to believe that I will be taking off for drier, warmer, western regions. We'll see.

New Glarus Brewing Co., Uff-da (bock)