July, 2023

      We said goodbye to Kewaunee on July 3rd and traveled about 20 miles south to Manitowoc.  I was kind of sad that we would miss the fireworks in Kewaunee, but hopeful that Manitowoc would have some to make up for our loss.  

    We arrived early afternoon so we decided to take a bike ride to scope out our new town.  There is a bike trail that passes through here….in fact two trails, the Ahnapee State Trail and the Ice Age Trail. We took the bikes off the boat and struck out into town.  We followed the trail south along the edge of the lake. Look what we found around the first sweeping turn!

That’s right- a giant badger and his baby brother🤣

  We continued north from this point to a lovely bench overlooking the lake and one of many sunken ships. All together we rode around 5 miles then called it a day.  We were saving our strength for the 4th.  Manitowoc had a parade planned for 10am, a street party from 12 till dusk and then fireworks right off the point south of the marina.  We were going to have a busy day.

    The following day we walked with our chairs up to the road in front of the marina.   We joined the crowds of children and adults waiting for the parade to arrive.   It wasn’t long.  Small town parades are always so revealing.   You tell a lot about the community by what appears in the parade . We saw MissHarbor Cities, ads for the Harvest Festival and the Yacht Club and lots and lots of tractors.

Damn big tractor

Steam Powered Tractor

Women’s Lib Tractor in Yellow

A Case at work

     When the parade was over we walked over to the lighthouse.    Word on the street was that it would be open to the public for 4 hours.   Turns out it’s never open to the public except on special occasions or if you rent it for an affair.   

Bob at the top of Manitowoc light with grain elevators in background

Clare at the top of the Manitowoc Light

Manitowoc Lighthouse, built in 1895

Walkway out to the light

Next we walked through the venues to see what kind of music was playing.  It was all LOUD!!  We stopped and got in a food line run by the Salmon Fish Rodeo Committee.  We were hoping for some sweet salmon but all they were serving were Derbyburgers, burgers, and brats.  We opted for Derby Burgers - you know, when in Rome eat like a Roman.🤣.  A Derby burger consisted of a brat patty, a slice of Wisconsin sharp cheddar, a beef Patty topped with sauerkraut all on a hard roll.

Derby Burger with refreshments

     We took our burgers back to the boat and ate them on our back porch-the music was just the right volume from there.  We sat and enjoyed watching all the people go past for an hour then began preparing for the fireworks show.  We spoke with many locals about the best vantage point and determined that our boat was in a primo spot.

       As dusk arrived  we moved up to the flybridge to enjoy the fireworks.  We were not disappointed. We played our own music and had a great view of Manitowoc fireworks plus those north in Two Rivers.

Happy 4th!

     The following day, July 5th, was predicted to be stormy.  We woke To an overcast sky with big storm clouds piling up.   We had a smattering of rain before lunch but the the skies seemed to clear.   There were more storms on the way but we saw a window of opportunity and hopped on our bikes for a ride.   The Mariner Trail followed the coast of the lake both north and south.   We decided to head north towards Two Rivers where we were told there was a hardware store. It was about a 6.5 mile ride along the spectacular coast of Lake Michigan.  We rode the streets of Two Rivers then found the hardware.  They actually had what we needed even though the front desk girl said they didn’t carry brass screws, Bob and I found them!  When we left the hardware we noticed that the skies were clouding up again and the wind had picked up.   Must be time to head back to the boat. 

    Later, after the rain storms had passed, we rode bikes down to see the USS Cobia.   She is a WWII Pacific fleet submarine.   You ask, Why did they put a submarine in Manitowoc?  Excellent question.  Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co., to help the war effort, began building submarines.  They built 28 in total.  The Cobia was not one of them.   Go figure.

Maritime Museum

USS Cobia

USSCobia

    We had hoped to go to Sheboygan next but their dock master insisted that they had no slips available so we will carry on to Port Washington.   Sorry we missed Sheboygan and sorry we couldn’t help boost their economy. 

    We had a bumpy ride from Manitowoc to Port Washington.  There was a one foot swell that could be annoying at times.  We arrived in Port Washington around 2pm and took advantage of their “cheap” diesel prices - $3.53/gal.  We are on a t-head because we are larger then most of the other boats in this marina.

Port Washington Lighthouse

Port Washington Marina

We take the  whole t-head which is set up for two boats. We plan on staying here for a couple of days then moving down to Milwaukee for a brief visit.  I’ll fill you in on our visit to Port Washington in my next installment.   There are more bike trails, lighthouses and other points of interest.  Stay tuned.