Washburn,WI to Port Wing, WI

I woke up at 5 AM and looked outside my tent to see a clear sky filled with bright stars that reflected on the lake. I found it ironic that the lake was so peaceful but I could hear the sound of the heater from the camper a couple sites away. With my down sleeping bag there's no need for heat. Being in the central time zone we can get going earlier. First stop was back to Coco's for breakfast and also picked up some raisin bread, scones, cookies and a sandwich for lunch. Twelve miles up the road in Bayfield we stopped at Newago Fish Market and bought some smoked whitefish and trout. The son and grandson catch the fish and the mom and wife run the shop. Next we visited the Info center where a couple of men were trimming the small trees on the city property to keep the town looking nice. Bayfield once had a population of over 2,000 but now it's about 1,200. It's a natural port on the lee side of the land and Apostle Islands and was busy in the "old days". Once again we ask about the roads and they say not too hilly, but they've never biked those "flat roads" towing 50 lbs. I was definitely at my limits today with the hills and head winds, questioning why am I doing this. We stopped at a park that's part of the Apostle Island Lakeshore for lunch. The park ranger, Aime told us about the artesian spring up the road in Cornicopia. Sure enough we stopped to filled up our bottles with cold clear clean water. Only 15 more miles and we thinking just over an hour more of riding. The wind got stronger and the hills longer while the road had expansion cracks. It made for a long 15 miles. Arriving in Port Wing we planned to stay at a campground at the marina. We got there and there's no campground and the marina office was closed. This was the icing on the bad day cake. However since we're in a tiny little town we asked a marina neighbor about camping there. Turns out that Faye is a relative of the marina owner. Faye called the owner left message that she made the execute decision to allow us to camp there. The bathroom facilities were all locked up but that's okay because there's a basic vault toilet down at the park and we can take a bath in the lake. Fortunately the lake is still warm. As we were drying off the owner came by and gave us the key to the restrooms and told us about how they want to keep this a small personal campground. We had our best dinner of smoked fish, wine, cheese, raisin bread and a cookie right at camp. We're the only ones here. So for after a very trying day it turned out perfect. What a great trip. This is truly Americana at our best! And to think people say "Why do you do this?" or what was your best and worst day? Today is the answer. Gotta love it.

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