Continued from Part 5

Leaving Kewaunee, I had 80km (50mi) to cut across the base of the Door Peninsula, back over to Green Bay.

As much as I like farm country, my mind still wandered and I found myself talking to myself or singing at various points. This doesn't take much as I'll do that just driving around on random Wednesdays, but here it was a bit embarrassing as I had "Forget Me Nots" by Patrice Rushen in my head. I was singing along - oooooOOOOooh FORGET ME NOTS - only for a breathy "on your left" to startle the hell out of me. A beautiful cyclist quickly passed me and left me in the dust. I had thought I was all alone out here, as there weren't even that many cars.

The one problem with this route was the lack of stores. Almost all of the named places on the map were just villages with a handful of homes.

Sugarbush seemed a bit more promising, but its restaurant was temporarily closed. Looking at Google Maps today I see Sugarbush has a bar, but I wouldn't have known this was a bar while cycling past.

Part of the problem may have been how early it was as I cycled past, but I also had to get to Green Bay in time for the singular open-on-Sundays mountain bike shop, in hopes of getting a bike box. Except that somewhere around Sugarbush, I called ahead to confirm their hours and they said they didn't have an old box, as it had "been a couple days since they'd built up a bike." Here I thought all bike shops just had a few boxes sitting around, but the same neurotic nature that makes people enjoy fixing mountain bikes, probably makes them neurotic about old bike boxes hanging around. Damn.

One of the main reasons I'd cycled this direction was because I thought I could get a bike box in the metropolis of Green Bay - or at least that it would be more likely than in smaller Manitowoc (pop. 34,000).

Lesson learned to call ahead and ask if they can put a bike box aside.

Nearing Green Bay, I mercifully spotted the Outer Limits Bar, where the bartender looked like Raffi from The League¹ and he seemed excited to get me a High Life - except that I only wanted a couple Gatorades, haha.

Raffi was also really helpful in pointing out a great cycling route into Green Bay that avoided the main highways. Soon enough I was welcomed back to Packer City.

1 - He's also Rosa's crazy boyfriend in Brooklyn 99, if that helps you.

I had to pull off the road when I saw the opportunity to finally explore something on this trip.

This is the last remnant of the old Packerland Packing Plant, a meatpacking plant. It looked like a more exciting explore in 2017, but by November of 2022, this last portion was also taken down.

Fast forward to 2026 and luxury condos now stand on the property.

Exciting stuff.

If only I didn't have a motel booked for tonight and the need to disassemble my bike, I could have thrown up my tent.

One of my more obscure loves is bank buildings from the Great Plains and American West. I was pleased to discover this brutalist beauty here in the Midwest.

One last bit of business in Green Bay was heading to the mouth of the Fox River to check out the Grassy Island Range Lighthouses.

These two lighthouses used to be on an island directly in front of Green Bay's Fox River. Grassy Island was enough of an annoyance that a channel was cut right through the island and two lighthouses connected by a pier were constructed in 1872.

In the following years, the main shipping channel for the Fox River would be dredged almost annually, but it would always take more and more of the western remnant of Grassy Island, opposite the two lighthouses.

A decision was made in the 1960s, due to advances in radar and LORAN, that these two lighthouses that were in the way and no longer needed to be in the way. With their removal, the dredging could widen the channel even more to the east.

Learning that the Coast Guard planned to destroy the two lights, the local yacht club, led by "Admiral" Merlin J. Baenen, arranged for the two lights to be moved to the yacht club's parking lot until a decision could be made about a better location. The lights sat in the parking lot until 1999, when they were then moved to the pier at the entrance to the Green Bay Yacht Club.

The whole pier is finely kept and without much foot traffic, so I enjoyed a bit of rest and reflection at the two lights as I neared the end of my trip.

Another item was of course stopping by the Brown County Courthouse.

My map of Wisconsin county courthouses is pretty funny now, as I have Florence County from when Nailhed and I randomly popped over on our U.P. trip, and then the three counties of the Door Peninsula. If only I went to Manitowac, I could have a total of five courthouses instead.

This area of downtown Green Bay was absolutely deserted. Now I know it was a Sunday, but this was giving off Toledo or Fort Wayne 2010 vibes. I loved it.

Some pretty buildings in downtown GB.

One of the other reasons I went for a loop back to Green Bay instead of heading to Manitowac, was that I knew of the neighbourhood taverns in Green Bay. I was very excited to get my bike packed up and head back out for a triumphant, post-trip drink or two.

I only randomly stumbled on these two, but I loved how many of the neighbourhood bars were still hanging on in Green Bay.

I also liked this sign indicating "No turn on red when children are present."

Would be pretty funny if there was a hangout green box or a three stair, where the kids have nothing to do with the intersection, but you'd still be in your car like, "Frig! I can't turn on red because of these damn nearby kids!"

I thought of taking a celebratory photograph at Green Bay's range lighthouses, but even I realize that Lambeau Field is where you take a celebratory photo in Green Bay. (Heck, there were even wedding photos being taken nearby.)

The cycling of the trip wrapped up with 498 km (299 mi) cycled. You might ask why I wouldn't go do a 3km loop to get over 500, but the thing that's always chapped my ass is that my Nova Scotia Cycling Trip was 990km and not 1000km. Going over 500km here wouldn't change the fact that I should have rode 10 more km in North Sydney in 2011.

There were two motel options in my opinion - a sketchy one without online reservations that was near the bus station, or another one that was still budget, but looked better and took online resos. The latter was a handful of kilometers from the bus station, but it also put me out near Lambeau and closer to some cool neighbourhood stuff. My bus was leaving at 6am and I figured I could get a cab or a Lyft.

So after all that rushing to get to Green Bay in order to get a bike box, I arrived somewhat early in the day and there wasn't that much of a rush anymore. I went back out to casually find some 40's to bring back home, pool noodles to protect my bike in transit, and some type of garbage bag/tape solution for packing. One thing that seemed like a pretty good score was a $3.95 frame backpack at the Goodwill.

Then things just took forever. It was a matter of having so much time that I wasn't moving my ass. Dinner ended up being at the restaurant across the street and there was also no time to pop out to any nearby neighbourhood tavern. I'd rode 88km (55mi) today and it felt like it was catching up to me a bit, so maybe my body was making an executive decision to move slow instead of adding a walk to and from some tavern or dining establishment.

As things crossed into the midnight hour and even later, I'd already discovered that the local cab company didn't seem to answer their phone after a certain hour. And looking at the Lyft app, I could only see one car driving around Green Bay. Uh oh. Maybe we shouldn't have eroded cab companies in places the size of Green Bay, where sometimes people need a ride in the early-morning hours.

I got two fitful hours of sleep before I got up early enough to have time to deal with this problem. That same one car was going around Green Bay, but as I requested it, it would take other rides, or I'd watch the whole current ride unfold on the app. And then they disappeared. Shit. The cab company wasn't picking up either. Why didn't I stay at that motel by the train station? Why didn't I go to Manitowac?

I had 6.9 kilometers (4.9 miles) between the Bay Motel and the Green Bay Transit Center and I was about to get my money's worth out of that Goodwill backpack. Throwing one pannier inside and fastening the other with the outside strings, I then stuffed everything else I had into the remaining space. Throwing it over my shoulder, it was a reasonable weight. My camera bag then went on like a sling bag, before I bear hugged my bike and made for the door and out into the dawn hours.

Huffing and puffing up the street, I tried to move my legs as fast as possible to shorten the length of time I had to carry all this stuff. I was also cutting it close with the bus departure time. I would run at times, but it seemed inefficient as I'd then slow right down to a crawl. So instead, I just manhandled all my stuff and speed-walked, focusing on trying to clear my brain of the muscle burning, sweating and huffing for air. I had a plane to catch after the bus and I was going to be royally screwed if I didn't make it to the bus station.

I impressed myself with how fast and effectively I was moving, but I was also realizing I just wasn't going to make it on time. I would periodically pull out my phone and with sweaty fingers check the time. I may have been moving at a good pace and this was only taking an hour, but that wasn't good enough. Maybe the bus would be delayed for whatever reason? It is a Greyhound after all, I thought.

Finally, mercifully, spotting the transit center, I rumbled down the last bit of road and dropped all my stuff while trying to catch my breath. I asked someone standing nearby if I'd missed the 6am bus and I had.

"You know there's another bus coming in 15 minutes, right?" Oh thank the Lord! Apparently there's two morning Green Bay to Milwaukee busses (6am and 630am).

Now I also almost missed the second bus as I struggled to buy a ticket online, but thankfully the purchase went through just as the last bit of luggage was stored underneath.

The bus was uneventful, save for a view of Manitowac and thoughts of what could've been with different plans. Transferring over to the Amtrak in Milwaukee, it was July 4th and they wished America a happy 246th birthday over the intercom. I thought about how close they are to 250 and all the pomp and excitement and joy that would come with that in four years time.

Stepping out of Chicago Union Station, I made my way over to Lou Malnati's in order to bring deep dish pizza home to Isy and Shelloo. Leaving there, I then had my mountain bike in a weird wrapped garbage bag, my backpack, my camera bag and a medium deep dish pizza to carry to the subway station. At least no one sat near me on the ride out to O'Hare as I looked like one of those homeless people who has all their possessions surrounding them at the end of the train car.

Thankful to drop off some of those possessions with Air Canada, I then grew annoyed that none of the airport bars or restaurants seemed to be showing sports. Maybe it isn't only Halifax Airport that sucks, I thought to myself.

Finally I found a Cubs-themed bar that had the TVs set properly. I also figured this was a good time to try another Chicago dog, as the only one I ever had was a stale 8th-inning offer at Wrigley. This one still wasn't great, but it was good enough that I could see a good Chicago dog being good.

Happy to see my bike making it on to the plane!

And happy to see it back in Deer Lake!

Overall a good trip and one I'm happy I used a week's worth of vacation to accomplish.

Thanks for reading as always.