SAGBRAW 2007 – Day 3

Up very early again, and on the road. Another extraordinary stretch this morning was Sleepy Hollow Road, a deserted back byway through farm country.

Arriving in Mishicot, over the river and through the woods park was a large pavilion holding a rest stop and pies. It was quite a production; clearly the villiage of Mishicot (pop. 1400) went all out. Sadly, by the time we arrived (as usual, we were among the last riders, though the joint was still hopping when we showed up), there was no more pie. We had to settle for other delicious baked goods.

The women and boy scouts running the the stand seemed almost as heartbroken as the cyclists that the pie was gone. (Perhaps they had planned on one piece of pie per person?) This was the village’s first year as a rest stop, and I’m confident that next year there will be all the pie anyone could dream of.

Today, according to the literature we received pre-ride, was funny helmet day. I had brought decorations for my helmet, but staff didn’t have much clue that today was special and there were no reminders. It wasn’t until we headed out out (long after our bags were packed up on the truck for the day) that I started to see a few funny helmets. I was crushed, but decided I would wear my funny helmet the next day.

We had a nice ride through Point Beach State Forest and along the lake shore, stopping in Two Rivers for lunch.

Between Two Rivers and Manitowoc, the route was along a lakeshore bike path (pretty, but crowded), but then through town it followed busy streets. Ugh, especially when there seemed to be a much nicer route just a block over. Overall, the routes were very nice, but the endgames in Manitowoc and Sheboygan were really quite bad.

We set up at the school, showered (brrr!! there were pretty much no hot showers the whole time), and took a shuttle into town to find a coffee shop to hang out and read. These shuttles were a nice feature, especially for those not on the meal plan.

Kathy was back for the rider meeting tonight, and it was terrible. Most of the meeting was spent telling us that there was a fancy bike company that would loan us bikes for the day, and that these were the kind of bikes you’d buy if you won the lottery (that’s what they said!). Well, she started out talking about that, at least, and then somehow it morphed into a lecture on how the important thing was finding a bike that fits you.

Brushing my teeth in the locker room, I overheard a woman talking about how the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis had collapsed! (!!!) But, she didn’t have much info.

Please continue reading on Day 4.