7/27 - Menasha – Manitowoc, WI - Day 42
 

The theme for the day is: "gee this really is a BIG lake".

Today was a day of split personalities. The total number of miles was only going to be 59. But the trick was it was going to be 50 miles to the city of Manitowoc then we board a huge ferry boat (SS Badger) for a 4 hour ferry ride across Lake Michigan to the town of Ludington, then get back on the bikes and ride 8 more miles to Scottville.

We had breakfast a the Darbay Family Restaurant about 5 miles from the school where we were staying. By the time we left it was 8AM and about 78 degrees.  The time constraint was we had to be boarding the boat by 1PM.  Lunch was being served a mile from the boat until 12:15 and we had to be there!

As it turned out the roads were wonderful, some rolling roads, the sun was out, the temperature was great and we were riding with some fun folks. By the time we hit downtown Manitowoc, it was 10:30 and still only 78 degrees. Plenty of time to brows the farmers' market near the wharfs and the library was nearby, I found several folks checking their e-mail there.  One of the goals of today was to find some wine to take on the journey with us.  Erika got directions to a liquor store and we stopped to pick up some previsions for the trip. 'When we got the the lunch stop, it turns out that the plans changed. The entire group of riders needed to be down at the boat sooner than expected, we didn't have time for lunch. We got on the bikes and soon caught up with the other riders.

The boat is the size of an ocean liner.  It was originally designed to transport railroad cars across the great lakes. It's huge!  The boat was launched in 1953 and is coming up on it's 50th birthday.

We disembarked on the Michigan side of the lake in the town of Ludington and based on suggestion of a local, we stopped at  Scotty's for some drinks.  There must of been 15 of us at Scotty's. We here carrying with the other folks in the restaurant that just couldn't believe what we were doing for the summer! After a couple of drinks it started to drizzle and it was getting late, so we hopped on the bikes and started to bike the remaining 8 miles to Scottville. The original plan was to stop at a restaurant called Steamers, but they didn't have enough room for us.  It was now on to Scottville.  The road was busy, noisy and not at all fun in the constant drizzle, but about 45 minutes later we were there.  We found a place called Steve's that had huge servings of great food and of course, beer on tap. I'm not sure what time we actually dragged ourselves to the school, but I know that by the time I set up my tent, it was close to midnight.  Good thing that we have tomorrow off.