Coop's Corner: Door County Weekend

Monday, October 24, 2022

Door County Weekend - 2022/10/23

Well, happy to say that the weather predictors nailed it...we had an unseasonably wonderfully warm weekend. I very quickly (while still working last week in Iowa) made last minute plans to load the Guzzi with my best pair of shorts and clean toothbrush for a trip across Wisconsin.

To highlight this weather fact, here's what we looked like a week ago...

With Night view, here's the final tally.

Three days, ~250 miles/day....I'm happy with that.

And as long as we're on Zumo XT screen shots, I decided to "Steve" my way over this time, choosing 'Straight Line' Routing.

Looks like this....

There's a very bold purple line off the screen, above (North), that straight-lines it to Green Bay, my Friday night motel destination. The bold dashed purple going up is my shortest path back to the very bold direct shot. The softer dashed purple is the shortest direct path to Green Bay based on my current location. It works and allows wandering while still providing the vector 'home'.

Red, green, blue, in that order.

An early lunch stop in Eleva...

Greg has been thorough in his concern for our chickens and all things poultry and as such, has provided me with a traveling mascot. She isn't named yet (I'm open to suggestions) but I can assure you she's a solid traveler.

Peg made sure that I packed a few fresh Pumpkin Spice cookies....I was fully Geared!

I stayed here this summer on my Around Wisconsin trip. Airport motel, Green Bay.

Saturday morning and very ready for Door County!

The old (and updated) lift bridge in Sturgeon Bay.

I can tell you that I was one of the lucky ones!

Multiple distance marathons were being run....I saw more than a few, quite attractive, tutu's on he's and she's.

Wilson's checkerboard tablecloth burgers were out of season.

Some might say that the colors were so prevalent as to become boring. I am not in that group.

Cherry orchards....

Now through Gill's Rock, almost to the ferry landing at Northport.

I still hadn't made up my mind....would I go to Washington Island or not. When I saw the line of cars waiting, the decision was made. When I don't go, I pull off and park in the overflow area.

I've never been to the Gill's Rock Maritime Museum and took the back way in.

Head gaskets at the ready....

Lots of traffic on my way back to Sturgeon Bay, lot and lots of Peds as well.

Actually quite a few parks that allow beach/water access to the public....

And of course places that do not.

Fish Harbor was especially busy....but nothing like Egg Harbor as I'd soon find out!

Two miles north of Egg Harbor and traffic is stopped. I was patient for awhile...I really wanted to stop at the Chocolate Chicken and bring home some covered coffee beans for old time's sake. But the time...parking...crowds...

I had wanted to go past Birch Creek Music Performance Center and have a look see. Our girls attended summer music camp there and I expected that now, years later, the Center would have likely grown.

I never got as far as County E which drops right into Egg Harbor. Instead, I used some other roads to get County E....I wasn't the only one.

Things were very quiet after-season...

Working my east to Bailey's Harbor and Hwy 57....

Sturgeon Bay, the Fincantieri Ship Yards...

Sunset Park, a favorite place in Sturgeon Bay. This day it happened to be where the Marathon Awards and gathering was happening.

He wanted me to be sure I found someplace hard for my kickstand....

The event tent and looking west towards Green Bay.

Downtown S.B.....

I had planned on stopping at the Maritime Museum regardless but when I saw the new 10 story observation tower, even with just an hour until closing, I had to go!

I messed up...confused #43 and #41.... so this kerfuffle ensued.

Sunday morning and on my way home. One of the last Round A Bouts leaving Green Bay.

West of Nekoosa...

Break time....

Cranberry Country.....

I stopped where once-upon-a-time, there was a Historical Marker. I have proof...from 2013...only 9 short years ago!!

And yesterday??

No Marker!! Who did this one offend??

In my 'neighborhood'....but still 70 driving miles from home.

Up/over on County X, then U and then?? Just out of Waumandee in Harmonia Park, a place passed hundreds of times, only this summer did I actually pull in and stop....was this event taking place.

"It's not a 'Deere plow....we can't get the centerline right...the 5/8" turnbuckle broke, just not big enough.."

Nice of him to share but I have no knowledge of what he was talking about.

The Plow Day video

One last stop at Buena Vista Park overlooking Alma, WI.

Chicken is tuckered....but she'll be strong and ready for our next adventure!

7 comments:

Eric ChrisingerOctober 24, 2022 at 6:59 PM
As always, so well documented.
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AnonymousOctober 24, 2022 at 8:02 PM
Nice images you've gotten very good at travelogs
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayOctober 25, 2022 at 4:52 AM
It was a lucky and fun stop....I could have used any number of roads home. I definitely picked the right one.
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redlegsridesOctober 26, 2022 at 1:14 PM
Well the Fall Colors have come in nicely....
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayOctober 27, 2022 at 5:39 AM
Over in NE Wisconsin, they were about as Prime as they can be.
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)