Today was a day to rest, and enjoy the island! We still woke up at 6:30 as we have every morning, but managed to keep dozing until 8:30 by which time the sun was heating up the tent too much, not to mention the big ol’ bird that landed on top of it! Later on a red-winged blackbird attacked my head, so it seems it’s the birds that are the pain in this campground. During last night’s adventures I had packed all our food into my pannier, under the theory that a raccoon opening a pannier and leaving us foodless would be a lot less bad than ripping a hole in the tent. Luckily all food was untouched when we returned, so the Kelley’s Island raccoon team, if it exists, could use some lessons from the birds.

We took a 3 mile ride along the west coast of the island to get some breakfast at the brewpub; don’t worry, I had milk and Rett had a coffee drink. Then Rett went to get a massage while I did some writing in the park at the center of town. We slowly rolled back to pick up all our gear back at the campground for 1pm checkout.

After one last look at our lakefront real estate, we rode back to town, parked our loaded rigs in the park, and stopped in The Casino for a dockside drink, their toilets, and to look at the gross dudes pulling in with their floozies in their cigarette boats. Maybe since it’s the low-key island, it seems like there are a fair number of past-their-prime prowlers about, which adds to the charm.

We stopped over to another place for their lobster chowder, and another drink, but by that point maybe all the drinks or food of the past few days caught up with me and I started feeling pretty blah. So back to the park where I laid down in the grass and shade, while Rett checked out a couple shops. For some reason I actually felt a little weird admitting that I wasn’t feeling 100%, but was then simultaneously proud of myself for doing so. Especially since I felt quite a bit better after the rest.

Then we made a failed trip back to the brewpub for dinner (they closed at 5), and instead ended up at a martini bar/restaurant, perhaps the fanciest place on the island. A lot of locals, like the bartender from the chowder place, or the ambulance driver who rescued the barstool-faller the night before, were hanging out at the bar. Late on a Sunday afternoon, it really had the feel of the end-of-season rather than the beginning, with most of the tourists gone, and only the interwoven dramas of the summer employees left, and fading like the sun.

We originally had planned to camp for two nights, and leave on the Monday morning ferry, but less than a week before the trip I noticed that on the 2014 schedule, there would be no Monday morning ferry! Good thing I noticed, since otherwise we would have been stuck on the island til Friday. Or, maybe that actually would have been perfect.

Anyway, we caught the last boat to Sandusky, this time the Jet Express catamaran, where we might have been the only sober people on board. Rett reveled in the knock-you-over speed and spray as we flew past Cedar Point and into Sandusky. A couple miles down the road brought us to our nicest cheap motel so far, where we decided to pay $20 more than the campground to insure against the risk of rain overnight and to get the best rest possible for restarting our ride tomorrow. We’re gonna miss that island, it was the perfect place to take a break.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 1st, 2014 at 9:03 pm and is filed under 2014 Bike Tour, bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.