Gig Harbor Washington to Bar Harbor Maine 2001

Got up later than I wanted to but earlier than I expected. Got my $3 key deposit back about 7:30 and went looking for food. Almost settled for burger king when I saw a local diner. I got another chicken fried steak, but it included 4! eggs, hash browns and two big pancakes. Also got a quart of iced tea. Didn't leave a morsel or a drop. Guess my scavenger dinner last night just wasn't quite enough.

Continued my county road exploration. I'd been on the first one, another P, for 10 miles or so when I noticed that it's alternate name was Hill Road. It was followed by Hilltop and several others almost equal to Spank the Monkey Hill. I'm sure if I'd stayed with the big roads, I would have had a flat day. But I suffered very little traffic. Guess nobody else was dumb enough to travel those roads.

A later ferry

Followed signs to the car ferry once I got close to Manitowoc. Wish I'd consulted my maps, their route took me in a huge loop around the city just to get back to the middle. Fifty miles by 1:00 was pretty cruel after yesterday's epic. The bike shop was busy and assigned me to a mechanic who should be back by five. I got another great meal - fish soup and a variety of pasta salads, found some more granola, found a flannel sleeping bag liner and mailed back my big bag, along with a lot of cold weather gear. Hope it stays warm.

I just left my bike at the shop and walked to the beach. I'm sitting in the shade with my feet in the sand, staring out across Lake Michigan. Wonder how long it will take these shorts to dry if I jump in?

The ferry across the lake left just as I arrived at 1:00. The other daily departure is 12:30am. The kids and I are going to take it, hopefully get some sleep on the 4 hour crossing, then find a campground for the day and get off the bikes. Even my butt is sore after the riding we've done this week. Gridley is opting for a better probability of a good night sleep at the Manitowoc fairgrounds tonight and plans to meet us tomorrow afternoon.

My bike was fixed up by 6 and I traded Gridley a cold beer for the use of his shower at the fairgrounds. He has a pretty sweet deal. There's just him and a couple of RV's in several acres. He's got practically an acre of bathroom and showers all to himself. The guys at the bike shop recommended Pizza Gardens for dinner. They were all related to each other, but it was still good advice. They recommended the fresh lake perch and the garden pizza, so we got one of each and shared. It was delicious, even without riding hundreds of miles for it.

When we left we saw the kids' bikes across the street at Pizza Hut. Too bad they hadn't noticed ours. They went swimming at the lake after dinner, Mike went back to the fair and I went to the ferry landing.

People were already milling around at 10:00 for the 12:30 ferry. I got lots of questions about our trip and advice about the ferry. The best place to sleep is on the bow of the boat on lounge chairs, but get there fast and take a sleeping bag. We had to load our bikes after all the passengers but we still got chairs, just windy ones.

Blowing in the wind

It was beautiful on the lake under the stars. I'm not sure I've ever seen so many stars. I had to call home and my cuz-in-law and tried to call my mom just to gloat about where I was. Then I fell asleep for awhile. I wish I'd waited a day to send home my warm bag. I woke up freezing, but too tired to gather up all my crap and seek shelter.

Rough night

We crossed a time zone and rolled off at 5:30am. We figured it was too early to deal with the campground so we just pulled into the city park. It has a big white sandy beach along the lake, completely deserted that early. We threw our thermarests on the sand and slept like the dead - between joggers and garbage trucks. Odd time to end a day.

City Park