Two Rivers and Manitowoc

While at Point Beach I took some time to explore Two Rivers and Manitowoc a little bit. I drove into Manitowoc looking for their Trek bicycle shop and picked up a basket and a rearview mirror for my bike. Across the street was a store called Natural Market, so I stopped in to see if there was any food I could pick up for lunch but the only food on hand was candy bars. Couldn't resist that! I asked for suggestions for lunch, but the ladies behind the counter didn't seem to understand my request for a "healthy" lunch and suggested the local buffet. A customer came to my rescue and told me how to get to a place called "Wrap it Up".
I followed the one way streets of downtown Manitowoc to the location but the business was closed. Foiled again! While downtown I took a moment to stretch my legs and walked into their county courthouse building, whose dome I had seen from the lakefront.


I also stopped into the Lincoln Park Zoo while driving around Manitowoc. I've been in some small zoos in my travels, but this one was definitely the smallest. There was only a handful of exhibits and the only animal out and visible was the timber wolf. He was very curious and followed me around behind the fence. It was a bit unnerving to see a canine who should've been wild act like a common housedog waiting for you to pet it. The zoo did have a lot of local wildlife, however. There were feed pans of grain left out under the bushes and birds, rabbits and squirrels were having a party and didn't seem bothered by my presence at all.  One squirrel was especially acrobatic climbing up the timber wolf enclosure and jumping from tree to tree with her prize in her mouth. She seemed to be interested in me as well.

As you can see in this photo, Manitowoc's Lake Michigan lakefront in the background is pretty grim. When I drove along their lakefront I couldn't even figure out how to get to their small lighthouse in the maze of industrial ugliness that included a wastewater treatment plant and what looked like a coal plant. Nothing like Kenosha, which isn't much to look at it in general but has a nice lakefront area that also winds through beautiful historical neighborhoods. The bike trail pictured with the flowers is the Mariner's Trail which starts where the Rawley Point Recreational Trail ends in Two Rivers and goes into Manitowoc. Mostly it is just pavement with a four land highway on one side and the lake on the other, but they have these nice little gardens spaced out in between. There are also a couple of sculptures on the trail like the ones pictured below.

As I mentioned in my last post, trying to find something to eat was difficult. I stopped into a store called the Honey Pot which was across from the Mariner's Trail in Two Rivers and had such a nice cup of coffee there on Monday morning that I went back again on Tuesday as well. The very small selection of muffins and scones did not look bakery made so I got a chocolatey treat instead and had my snack outside. The owner was very nice and if we camp out here again I will definitely be back.

I ended up getting a tuna sub from Cousins after stopping at 5 restaurants in Two Rivers trying to find something to eat on Monday. I ate half and tried to save the other half for later but it got warm and I was afraid to end up with food poisoning so it was another night of pretzels and candy for dinner. Thank goodness I had brought some of  Laurie's breakfast cookies with me that I took out of my freezer before I left and had for breakfast every morning. If not for those I just might have starved to death on this trip!



Total miles hiked on Monday were 8 and I rode 12 miles on my bike also. In my next post I'll tell you about my hiking experience at Woodland Dunes Nature Center in Two Rivers which turned out to be a wonderful place to stop on my trip.