Curds aren’t so bad

Day 2 of the Door County tour started with an 8:30 AM departure from Green Bay in the 2 CT vans. Doesn’t sound all that bad but when you factor in breakfast and luggage drop and getting yourself all organized to ride, it’s sure not a leisurely morning! We were well rewarded though as we departed on our bikes from Kewaunee at 10AM.

We had 35 miles to do before lunch (yikes) and it was a lovely 35 miles. We started right along the shore of Lake Michigan in cool temperatures with the wind at our backs. What a change from yesterday’s blast furnace in Green Bay. The ride alternated between the shore line and inland past fields of corn and many dairy farms

Half way to lunch we stopped at Renard’s Cheese Shop and enjoyed a cheese curd tasting. Hmmm, they are squeeky and do taste like cheese but I can’t say that I’m terribly anxious to pursue further cheese curd experiences.

The second rest stop was at an old (1902) church with no settlement nearby, just surrounded by a small graveyard.

Lots of highway departments use “road snakes” those little lines of tar to fill cracks and make the riding a little more uncomfortable for bikers. On the road today we saw an interesting addition to road snakes. The local highway department appears to cover them with toilet paper after they put down the tar.

Lunch was a lovely buffet set up in a state park right on the lake. We opted to do a 6 mile loop ride through the park after lunch which was very nice. There is a fire tower at the top of the ridgeline. Unfortunately it was closed so we didn’t get to climb to see the view.

We finished up with a 3-mile ride (not so nice) to the Stone Harbor Resort where we’ll be staying for the night. There’s a nice view of the harbor and a drawbridge from the hotel patio.

We ended up doing quite a bit of the ride with 3 women that are riding around our pace and at the end had one of wonderful guides with us much of the time who was assigned the “sweep” role today. The sweep is kind of like the sheep dog that tries to herd the stragglers back into the pack. 45 miles total. ABout the same on tap for tomorrow so it’s early to bed for us!