June 30, 2018
Day 43 Washington Island
Washington Island, WI
It’s amazing what a difference a day makes. Up at dawn and on the road by 6:30, hoping to avoid some of the weekend traffic. After the first few miles, our entire ride today went along coast of the Green Bay until we got to the top of the Door Peninsula. We road through Egg Harbor, Ephraim and Sister Bay, making our way to Northport and the ferry to Washington Island. It was crazy humid and hot; 80 degrees by 7:30 with 90% humidity. We were drenched by 8:00. But...we had an amazing tailwind the entire way with scenery and woods and cherry orchards. This is what I wanted yesterday! We stopped at one point and enjoyed some deliciously tart cherries and a piece of cherry pie. As we went down a hill into Sister Bay, the temperature/humidity change was dramatic. We’d hit the winds off of Lake Michigan. Felt so good. After a while, the main road turned off and we followed a more wooded winding road along the top towards Northport. Cruised right along, until we turned a corner to a big steep hill. Last big effort before the ferry. It required a dismount and walk, but not too far. A few cars wizzed by us on the winding road in a big hurry to get to the ferry line. Then we rolled right by them when we got to the line. Bicycles get to go to the front of the line. Bonus! We boarded the ferry on our way to some island R&R. Had a great conversation with one of the ferry line employees on our way over. We got to our home for a few days, Gibson’s West Harbor Resort, right around noon. Gibson’s is a wonderful guest house on the lake; our friends Karen and Peter have been staying here every summer for years. We met Karen at Karly’s restaurant (where her daughter Grace is working for the summer) and had some amazing burgers. After lunch, we chilled on the front porch of Gibson’s, chatting with other guests and discussing options for getting us to the UP next week. Later we drove over to the house K&P bought that Jon had done some work on last summer. It’s an old Sears kit home on a great little piece of property with an interesting history. Some of the older residents of the island were born there when a midwife lived there. Then we headed over to the Fiddler’s Green restaurant for dinner. They have a really cool trailer that the owner converted to a stage. They had a band playing and a grill going with kabobs and French bread sandwiches. We were there well before performance time, but we got to listen to the warm up and sound check and enjoy the music, food and evening breezes. Jon ordered food three different times; biker hunger! Then we had to satisfy my craving for chocolate cake and Karen took us to just the right place, the Hotel, where we had an amazing piece of layered cake with espresso filling and caramel drizzle. Perfect end to the day.
Today's ride: 48 miles (77 km)
Total: 1,273 miles (2,049 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 1 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |