Two years ago, Roger and I wound up at Manitowoc on the western shore of Lake Michigan and took the SS Badger across to the Wolverine State and the Eastern time zone. This time, Rachael and I would reach our northeast terminus here before rolling down the lakeshore back toward Milwaukee. But the ride from Appleton to Manitowoc would be our longest and most “hilly” to date so our late departure out of the Paper Valley on a cool, drizzly afternoon necessitated some focused riding. Happily, with the occasional good wind and some rerouting onto empty roads, we had another splendid day.

Once past Appleton, one of our first sightings was a cruel architectural abomination that rivaled the anticlerical destruction of the French Revolution:

Though this picture doesn’t do it justice, for aficionados of Wisconsin supper clubs, here is one of the icons – Van Abel’s of Hollandtown, evidently around since 1848 (in some guise):

We never found out what this is but it was impressive from a bike perspective:

While I stopped to take some more farm pictures:


Rachael crushed the hills (see if you can spot her in the distance):

Hilltop Road was a fun ride with as much in the way of “rollies” as we would encounter. By late afternoon, we reached downtown Manitowoc and some familiar sights.



Manitowoc used to be an important port town, and with the onset of WWII, it had a bit of a heyday building submarines and other watercraft for the war. The loss of the Mirro Aluminum Company a decade ago or so (I took a bunch of pictures of the old plant two years ago) knocked the town back a bit but there are some signs of recovery. The old theater has been recently restored:


and has become a focal point for the town’s cultural life. Local Hmong farmers bring their produce to market a couple of times a week, and the Courthouse Pub remains Manitowoc’s see and be seen watering hole. But it was The Fat Seagull where we ran into “poor mad Tom,” who deserves a post of his own.