Once again we crossed Sturgeon Bay, but this time on another bridge. The other two bridges connect the north and south sides of the city while this one is off to the east. Sturgeon Bay was named after the sturgeon fish, not because there were sturgeons there but because the bay looked like a fish.
Sturgeon Bay looking its best
The natural bay ended about a mile from the east coast of the peninsula. Some enterprising souls decided to dig a canal from the bay to Lake Michigan which took a few years. It ended up being a great thing to do as it cut about 100 miles off the trip from Green Bay (city) to anywhere in Lake Michigan south of Door County. In addition it eliminated the need for ships to go through the dangerous strait known as Death's Door between the peninsula and Washington Island at the northern tip.
Wisconsin calls itself America's Dairyland but we've seen very few dairy cows. We have, however, seen a lot of beautiful farms. We know the dairy herds are around somewhere as they have to provide the milk for the cheese Wisconsin is so famous for.
Picture postcard Door County farm
Fox River entering southern end of Green Bay
Green Bay's city waterfront is all industrial but not too unattractive. The structure in the background is a power plant, fueled by low-sulfur (dirty) coal. There are piles of coal in the foreground but they're at what looks like a storage facility on google satellite so they may not belong to the power plant. The plant has been in trouble over its air pollution.
After Green Bay the quality of our travel deteriorated a great deal due to the bad condition of the roads and, once again, lack of rest areas or even any places we could pull over. As for Lovie and the cats.....shake, rattle and roll applies. They were not happy but they endured, seasoned travelers that they are. What choice did they have, after all, other than to throw up (and other things) which they did.
Shortly before arriving at our destination in DeForest, 15 miles north of Madison, we passed another striking farm.
Massive amount of grain storage equipment
The amount of money invested in all this equipment, not to mention the motorized equipment not visible in the picture, is tremendous. Farming must be a really nerve-wracking occupation. All that hard work and a couple of serious run-ins with Mother Nature and they're ruined.
Our campground is a very nice KOA just off I-39/I-90/I-94. How's that for getting the most out of your interstates?
Tomorrow we'll head into Madison to visit the capitol and the Olbrich Botanical Gardens.
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