Honeymoon in Door County via 308GTS, August 2010

hey all

Last Sunday my little lady and I got hitched so on Monday we loaded up the 308 and pointed her north to Ephraim, Door County for a couple days of R&Rs. We figured that it makes no sense to leave WI during this awesome summer we're having, so will be taking another trip in Feb or March to the islands when it's not so much fun to be around here.

The 308 handled the ~450 mile trip almost flawlessly. Except for the chilly evening returning from the drive-in movie on Tuesday night could have done without the ever present blast of warm-to-volcanic air coming through the footwell (I bypassed both heater cores but there is still some gaps letting rad air in).
Also, on Wed morning I came out to find a ~1/2 gallon puddle of anti-freeze about under the firewall. Traced it to a dripping hose clamp, so drove a couple miles with one eye on the temp gauge to a shop where they put her on a lift and gave the clamps a twist then a system pressure test. Was dry as a bone after that, so the $50 it cost (included 2 new wiper blades) was a small price to pay. Other than that she ran like a champ, gobbling up highway miles at 75mph+ with the top off and Haley napping or reading her book.

one quick video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I67aQy-mQ40&feature=channel

I don't know how to embed photos with descriptions inbetween them, so here's a re-cap roughly matching the photos below:

- Oops. While taking my german buddy out for a pre-wedding spin, a friendly but ultimately unsympathetic officer gave me a gift I wish could be returned
- quick stop for a pic in front of Milwaukee's War Memorial
- taking the plunge!
- much rejoicing
- heading north through snowmobile country
- Eagle Bay (town of Ephraim)
- Blast from the past: Skyway Drive-in Theatre. The sheepskin-clad seats were quite warm and comfy for 5 hours worth of Despicable Me and Inception, and actually decent sound through the single speaker since we have no radio.
- best popcorn we've had in a long while (last photo, forgot to upload in correct order)
- some asian tourists checking out the ride, while we checked them out from the top of a 80' tower in Peninsula State Park
- one of the many scenic overlooks
- went for a 1.5 hour ride on a Stilletto Cat. I tried to get Capt Peter to fully unfurl the sail to really rip but no go, only hit ~10mph per my GPS in 20+knot winds.
- Earl the Fish Boil Master about to give the Lake Michigan whitefish their final swim at the Old Post Office restaurant
- super yummy
- coming home along the eastern shores

Quite happy with, and proud of, how the 'fancy fiat' perfomed. Will not hesitate to take her on more road trips (after I plug each and every one of the bulkhead gaps....)!
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thanks Michael and Chas!

 

thanks!

we took a pretty direct route up there (due to remnants of hangovers) and didn't find much to write home about in terms of curvy roads, but coming home we drove down rt 57 to Sturgeon Bay along the eastern shore and had more fun.

Peninsula State Park would make a fantastic rally/road course. The 25 mph speed limit was killing me, expect for that little bit in the video where I made sure the road was cleared of bikers/hikers and stepped on it.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Milwaukee,+WI+53202&daddr=44.513155,-87.900238+to:Ephraim+WI&hl=en&geocode=FdjVkAIdhs3C-inH8jLpARkFiDEVC6MeIYr-Jg%3B%3BFRoIsQIdWuvN-inpfAMj5ThNTTFAi6RzSC_xEg&gl=us&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=10&via=1&sll=44.696969,-87.480011&sspn=0.465637,1.229095&ie=UTF8&ll=44.276671,-87.989502&spn=3.751778,9.832764&z=7

 

holy shnikies look at that road!!!!!! Thanks for the new desktop wallpaper.

Driving through Peninsula park we remarked several times how stunning it must be in the Fall. I saw colors like that every autumn in NJ/New England where I grew up but with Haley coming from Texas they're especially beatiful to her.

We are definitaly going back, and you can be damned sure we'll be taking Hwy 42 all the way to the top!

 

thanks Joe!

Also looking forward to meeting up again.
Íf you'll be at the Milwaukee Masterpiece tomorrow shoot me a text, we'll be there ~11AM for a few hours then probably go down to Bradford Beach for a bit.

 

thanks Thad and Don!

Yeah now I'm kicking myself for not driving just a bit further north on 42....

Don - the basket is filled with big hunks of caught-that-day Lake Michigan white fish, about to be dunked into the cauldron of boiling water, salt, potatos, and onions.
This constitutes a 'traditional' Door County Fish Boil, and is basically the same technique scandanavian settlers/fishers/loggers used ~150-200 years ago.

There are 4-5 other places that do this in Door County besides the Old Post Office restaurant in Ephraim.
For $20, which includes bottomless iced tea or lemonade, coffee, cherry pie or custard and more than enough food, it's fun to see prepared and quite delicious!