I’m not a particularly spontaneous fella, and I like to plan things out carefully on a trip like this, but I try to keep my mind open and stay flexible. And I think I’m changing the itinerary. 

The main thing that got me thinking about it was the weather forecast for the last night/day of the trip, showing almost-certain rain. Bleh. So I considered whether I could finish either half a day or a full day sooner. (The ferry runs at roughly 12-hour intervals, so that’s my constraint.)

Also, I’m feeling like I’ve accomplished most of what I set out to do. For example, I’m already maybe a couple hours from finishing my circumnavigation of Lake Michigan. I still want to tour Door Peninsula, but I can get that done in two days rather than three. 

So I think I’m going to skip the last night’s camping and instead rearrange my route a little to end up in Manitowoc that night, and take the Badger back a night earlier. 

And since I have nothing better to show a picture of at the moment, here’s my scooter and tent:
 

I have a couple of juvenile raccoons who seem intent on invading my camp site. I’ve chased them off half a dozen times, but they keep coming back, close enough that I could kick them if I tried. I have Pop-tarts and granola bars (fresh from the gas station) which will definitely have to be stowed under the seat of the scooter tonight.  I know this means that they’ll instead go after someone else’s stuff, but… I’m not about to sacrifice my breakfast just to maybe protect someone who didn’t prepare for wilderness.  

Despite the wind, today was definitely a better day than Monday. Even with frequent vehicles of various kinds on my tail – my scooter can go 60mph but I don’t like going over 40-45mph – and seas of corn or wheat on either side much of the time, it beats urban/suburban traffic. I’m hoping tomorrow will get even better. 

After dinner I still had time to go for another short hike along Lake Winnebago. It’s no Michigan, but it still does OK in the sunset department.   

I’d been paying attention to the sun/rain in the weather  forecast, but hadn’t noticed what kind of wind to expect. The answer: a persistent wind from the northwest. Which is a little bit exhausting when riding north across farmland. And that also means wind farms. This part of Wisconsin is littered with majestic wind turbines, and with good reason. 

It isn’t just that the headwind slows me down, it also adds to the noise, and requires pushing forward into it. And since it was also coming from the side, it was an ongoing buffeting to the side. I’ve learned how to deal with it, but it adds up to exhaustion. 

 
Eventually I made it to Lake Winnebago, the largest non-Great lake in Wisconsin. You can see across it in one direction, but not the long way.   
I got to High Cliff State Park at about 4pm, so about 8 hours on the road, including breaks. But unlike last night’s park, which is mostly just a fishing destination, High Cliff has interesting stuff to see. The name refers to the limestone cliffs at the edge of Lake Winnebago, which offer some good hiking and some outlooks of the lake. There’s a whole flock of hawks hunting in the area (at one point there were at least 25 of them overhead) and I tried getting some photos of them, but that’s really hard. The place deserves a day or more; I’ll be giving it a few hours. 

I ended up at another bar-and-grill for dinner, simply because it was only a few miles from the campground instead of several to the nearest proper restaurant. So it’s a brat-burger with cheese, chips, and a pint of … the house amber ale.   

My route today is generally pretty simple, heading mostly due north. So I actually have to make a little effort to avoid going in a straight line for dozens of miles. One nice exception was WI-67, a section of which was designated Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive. It was several miles of twisting left and right and up and down through some nice woods. 

I made it to Oconomiwoc at lunch time, and stopped at George Webb, a Wisconsin chain of diners. 

If I’m at Lake Geneva, I must be back in Switzerland, right? Or maybe it’s the one in Wisconsin.   

I got underway from Chain O’ Lakes at 8am, which seems to be becoming a pattern. In the past it’s usually been 9ish, but that’s Eastern Time, and I’m not going to adjust my natural patterns to accommodate time zones.

The territory is definitely nicer than yesterday, so far mostly county roads and cornfields. not quite as nice as woodland or lakeshore riding, but I’ll take it.

The sunset here wasn’t too shabby either.