THE LOUNGE CHAIR LEGENDS: Lake Michigan Road Trip Pt 2: Day 1

Day 1

Start: Madison, WI
Finish: Algoma, WI
Miles: 227
States: Wisconsin

You may have heard rumors that I went on a trip to Tennessee and North Carolina back in June and I can confirm those rumors to be true. My plan was to "write" about it as well but it turned into such a waste of time AFTER ONE DAY that I blew it off. It wasn't so much the trip itself as it was the company that I kept on the trip but we're past that now and hopefully on to better things. A quick recap of that trip though.

It started with a long ass drive to Nashville which was pretty uneventful. I had no intention of spending any time in downtown Nashville but when the "I didn't come to Nashville to swim in a hotel pool" came out, those plans changed. Fair point but I didn't come to Nashville to stand ankle deep in vomit and listen to country posers play covers of Eminem and Miley Cyrus while paying $13 for garbage ass drinks. You win some, you lose some. My friend Joe summed Nashville up best when he said "Fuck Nashville. It's a great place for 23 year old white women and nobody else." Hahaha, explained my feelings better than I even could. The 2nd day was the Nashville Zoo and it was easily the highlight of the city.

Neat skyline though.

Halfway to the top.

View from the top.

Another summit view.

The next 2 days hiking in the Smoky Mountains (see above) were alright but once you've been out west, all other mountains are 2nd rate. Check out the Alum Caves Trail hike though and make sure to go all the way to the top. From there it was a drive to the ocean and a visit to Kitty Hawk, NC. A few years ago I read the book The Wright Brothers by David McCullough and ever since, I have wanted to visit there. There was some beach time mixed in here and the drive back but that was officially my favorite thing about the trip. Also, fuck Illinois and their toll booths.

Rip tide tried to get me but I wasn't bottles of vodka deep like Panama City Beach

The first plane to EVER fly.

On to the trip I've been excited about since last August. Heading up the WI side of Lake Michigan then to the UP again. The day started with a drive from Madison to Port Washington. No real reason to head there, just seemed like a good starting point north of Milwaukee. I did take attempt to take a little stroll out to the Port Washington Breakwater Light but it was under construction.

See, under construction.

Next was the Kohler-Andrae State Park where I purchased my first annual state park pass (in July). As you can imagine it was a bunch of sand dunes, hiking trails, and a lot of beach front. I took a dip in Lake Michigan here and it was cold AF. I had to keep going back in because the "lake" flies would not leave me alone until I moved to a different spot.

"Lake" flies are apparently just regular flies by the lake.

Another staple of the Sheboygan area is Whistling Straits Golf Course so I had to give that a drive by. The 2020 Ryder Cup is taking place there in less than 2 months and they had people watching both entrances so I didn't even bother to try and drive in. From what I could tell online, you can't see a whole lot unless you're actually playing the course. Maybe I'll spend that $430 another time.

USS Cobia

From there it was a quick drive up to Manitowoc and the Wisconsin Maritime Museum. I probably would have skipped this but THERE WAS ANOTHER SUBMARINE TOUR! This is the third one I've been on and if you count all the times I've seen U-571, it would make 4. This tour was guided which came with pros and cons. One pro was getting extra info from the volunteer assistant tour guide who was a former Navy cook on a submarine. The main con was being in close quarters with 15 other people (we wore masks, chill out). I can't imagine being on that thing with a crew of 80! Also hard to get pictures but here is the aft torpedo room.

Aft = rear.

You probably don't know what's coming next but if you ever watched Making A Murderer on Netflix, you just figured it out. The Avery's Auto Salvage yard was only 20 minutes from here so I took a drive to check it out. Nothing too crazy as it looks like what you saw on Netflix. A whole lot of scrap cars and not much else. I did talk to Steven and Brendan while I was there though. Steven is enjoying life and Brendan spends most of his time watching reruns of Wrestlemania matches. Nah, I'm just kidding. They're both still in jail.

Last stop of the day was heading to Algoma and the beach front motel I was surprised to find for a reasonable rate. I exchanged my room with AC and no view for a room with no AC and a view of Lake Michigan. Turned out to be a good call because as soon as I got there and in the water, a wicked little storm rolled through so it was cool to have a front row view. The news just mentioned that it was a "super cell" thunderstorm. I also got up at 5:15a to check out the sunrise but another massive storm was on it's way through.