Good picture anyway

Oh, no! We missed another can’t miss Wisconsin experience. We saw fish boils available, but boiled fish didn’t sound appealing to us. I didn’t know that was even a way fish was prepared.

Stinky Bob? It’s so cute though.

A common weed in our gardens in Portland, aka “Stinky Bob”.

Herb Robert.

A new one for me.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Geranium_robertianum

Ahhh - the beautiful lake! I've always loved our tours around all of the Great Lakes - except for the tourists. I don't know how much longer you'll be in Door County but one of the iconic things you should partake in is the Fish Boil. Part dinner and part spectacular entertainment, it's worth seeing if you can get a reservation. It's offered at a number of restaurants in the county.

Your experience is not surprising. The "magic" of Door County in my estimation is time on the water, time in the water and time spent watching the water change with the weather, all capped off by the sunsets of which your photo was a prime example of how good they often are. Trips into or through the towns have not usually been a highlight for those of us with places there. The fall is a terrific time because the county is less crowded, and the fall colors can be amazing.

My sister spent last week at a weaving course at Sievers, the fabric arts school on Washington Island. (You cycled past it at 1:13 of Rachael's video.) She said the county is busier than usual this June, and those in the tourist industry are having a very tough time finding workers.

Rural Wisconsin (and Michigan, I suspect) are serenely pastoral, but the scenery simply does not include the awe-inspiring mountains, oceans, or endless views across a desert or plain that we have in the west.

I probably didn’t get the tone quite right on this post, Kelly. It’s not Door County itself - it’s the towns. Once you get off the highways and out of town, the cycling is really very nice. In about two hundred miles of cycling in Door County, all but a very few of them were excellent cycling roads. The alphabet county roads here and in Wisconsin as a whole are invariably nice cycling. It’s not Southern Utah, of course, but still very nice, We’re glad we came.

Did you know there’s an AirBnB in Gills Rock, btw? It’s associated with the coffee shop.

You mean we are spending all of that money on lodging in Door County and we aren't going to like it? That's disappointing . . . . we've had mixed recommendations. Some says it's a must say, others say it's a tourist trip. I guess we will be finding out for ourselves.

My memory is a little poor, but it seems we couldn't find even a two day stay at near Gills Rock. Or perhaps it was the lack of food . . . but we ended up down in Sisters Bay for two days, planning to use one for a loop up toward Washington Island. I'm not a busy tourist town kind of gal. It might be a long two days . . . .

In general, I'm wondering if this tour is going to be busy - busy roads, busy towns, busy restaurants . . . the vibe I'm getting from reading journals is that there are plenty of people out enjoying their freedom, but quite a few restaurants are closed, and the places that are open are stretched thin.

We will find out!

Good question! I should document this, because with his tin hat memory he’s unlikely to be a reliable witness. Nine so far, if I remember correctly: Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin.

GBO!

How many US states has he visited now?

Doesn’t sound like we’ll be anywhere near each other. We’ll arrive in Amsterdam on August 11th and depart from Rome on November 8th, assuming we can get in. A rough itinerary: Amsterdam/Maastricht/Trier/Koblenz/Heidelberg/Rothenburg/
Augsburg/Salzburg/the Alpe-Adria/Udine/Verona/Piacenza/Lucca/
Siena/Bolsena/Rome.

I think it’s so great that you’re going, and look forward to following along. How is your hip doing?

Yes! Thanks so much. I’ve probably seen this further north without noticing it before. It’s native to BC, but not down further south in the Pacific Northwest.

Thank you Scott for your encouragement about our trip - I must say we are getting a few raised eyebrows when we mention what we think we will do and the question. Why dont you wait till next year? The simple answer to that is that at 82 and 84 who knows whether we will be able to do it next year.
The rough plan. Fly to Hamburg and buy bikes at a shop we know well. Cycle down the Elbe to its mouth then along the coast to Bremerhaven and into N germany a bit to visi my uncles grave. Back to the Weser and follow it and the Fulda to the town of Fulda then turn and go towards frankfurt - when we meet the Main at about Hanau ride up it as far as Bamburg where we will meet the Main/Donau Kanal to Yale us to Kelheim After that we will follow the EV6 to Strasburg , If we have time we go up to the Saar Radweg which leads to Trier. from there a simple ride along the Moselle, the Rhine and the Main to Frankfurt where we will store our bikes till next year! Really a pretty easy ride with nothing to demanding - now days we only do about 60km a day. Home of course to 14 days in MIQ unless regulations change
Although we are booked it is still only a dream and if the covid situation becomes too difficult we will naturally cancel but we are hopefull
Enjoying following your trip to Rome - when do you get to Europe?
Keep safe
Tricia

Ostrich Fern?