Day 42 Sturgeon Bay

July 29, 2018

Sturgeon Bay, WI

Today was ugly. It had its high points, like the donuts and omelette station at breakfast, but it had some seriously low points. We were up and dressed and in the breakfast area just as they opened. We HAD to wait for the omelette station to get set up...asparagus, multicolored peppers, tomatoes (and mushrooms for some), good stuff. We headed out and made our way through Green Bay’s cracked, patchy and potholed concrete slab streets and drivers who’d prefer we stay on the recreational trails. We survived. We cut through the UWGB campus and were inundated with cottonwood. We’ve encountered this on and off since Wyoming. Apparently we’re following the bloom north. It’s like snow flurries in summer, except you want to claw your eyes and sinuses out. It was a hot day in Green Bay and beyond; it was 80 by 9:00 and went up from there. Not only are the biking muscles sore from two 100+ days, the heat just sucks energy from one’s body. There was a SSE wind bringing in that heat and when we were on a northbound portion, the tailwind was great, but on the eastbound portions, not so awesome. We stopped at a diner for lunch and a cool down. We also decided to ditch our camping plans and find a hotel for the night. Thank goodness for Isagenix bucks. We continued our way past more Wisconsin farm land (and odoriferous hot air) on our way to Sturgeon Bay, trying to avoid the major busy thoroughfares. We still couldn’t evade the feed lot stench from fields and tanker trucks.

Even at 2:00 in the the afternoon, the “holiday weekend” traffic is crazy on the Door Peninsula. We found our motel after a stop at Pick and Save (aka Kroger) and went to Custer’s (sort of a step up from McDonalds) for dinner. I was was in a seriously sour mood. Tired and ready for a change of scenery. I went back to the room to sulk and Jon walked the 1/2 mile back to “Kroger” and got some dark chocolate and grapes...anything to lift my spirits. Tomorrow we head to Washington Island and a few days of R&R. I think we need a little bit of that right about now. I guess our few days at Sand Lake wasn’t enough. It’s not too different from our hike on the AT. Even though you’re 2/3 of the way done with your stupidly long human powered journey, you’re not done yet and need to rejuvenate the body and mind more frequently. And, as any long distance hiker/biker knows, tomorrow is another day. So cheers to a NNW route tomorrow and a SSW wind!

Today's ride: 58 miles (93 km)
Total: 1,331 miles (2,142 km)

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