"A couple weeks ago I was joking with some friends and saying that when gas goes over $3 a gallon, I won't pay it, I'll refuse to use my car," said Janelle Gunther, 35, and a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

The next thing she knew, she was leaving her Toyota Camry in the driveway and peddling the five miles to the lab. She figures she is saving about $40 a week. She usually showers and changes at work, although more than once she has found herself scurrying into an early morning meeting still clad in her Lycra cycling gear. "No one bats an eye," she said.

According to the most recent national figures, Jenelle's helping to up the numbers in the 2000 census that measured only 489,000 Americans who pedal to work, compared with 97.1 million who drove solo. But those numbers are starting to take a dramatic shift says Alex Williams in a recent NY Times article.

Several years ago Door County Chamber Chair, Karen Raymore was peddling a slide show that depicted the Swiss model of completely integrating bicycles with automobiles in roadway planning. In "theory" and in the law, drivers of either form of transportation are considered to have equal rights. The Swiss model reinforces that ethic giving cyclists greater consideration at intersections and stops. Back then I envisioned a turning point for the entire cycling movement in Door... but that enthusiasm faded.

Now Chris Hornung, the chief executive of Pacific Cycle in Madison - the largest distributor of bicycles in North America - says that a boom is occurring with sales of multigear adult cruiser bikes with medium-wide tires and cushy seats, "the sort commonly associated with commuting, jump(ing) off the Richter scale," rocketing 20 percent in the week of Sept. 7 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the spike in gas prices.

For a number of reasons, some of which are economic affordability, Door County seems to be slipping in popularity. It seems that many local business people are starting to see the flaws in trying to marry the groom of golf with the wild bride of unspoiled nature. Discussion might now begin to include marketing Door County as a mecca for bicycling and healthy family recreation. With gas prices said to rise like a rocket and sink like a feather, there is no reason to expect them to ever fall below $2.50 a gallon. A campaign to promote Door County as the cycling capitol of Wisconsin could do no harm, especially if it starts to develop that Swiss-style of peninsula bike trails that once looked so promising.