Saturday, August 22, 2015

Day 36. SS Badger

The skies have indeed cleared and it is a beautiful day for a Friday bike ride.  I have my typical oatmeal with PBnJ on tortilla breakfast and I am off.  

The descent down the hill I climbed the day before is fun and fast.  If only I still had those 10 logs strapped to the back, it would have been even faster, if not dangerously unstable.  

A beautiful morning for riding.  Light breezes, warmer temps (68 degrees and rising) and short ride will make it nice.  The ride itself is uneventful.  That is not to say that it did not have great scenes and birds escorting me along the way.  It was however, very similar to the previous days.  Small and large farms, mostly dairy were stretched along the county roads. The one issue that has come up several times, but especially on this route today, is that on the back roads they do not always take the time or effort to "sign" the roads.  There will be an intersection about the mileage I think I should turn, but there are no signs.  I guess if you are local, you know what road it is.  Not helpful to us.  When I have cell service, I pull out google maps and confirm.  When I don't have cell service, I trust my count and turn.  It has not been an issue, just one of those things to take your time to get right.  "Measure twice, cut once", as it were.  Not fun to add mileage to the route because of misread map.  

A little over 40 miles I reach the port for the ferry I am to take today, the SS Badger.  The notes I ready said it is 10-15 degrees colder on the water.  What I was amazed by was that that cold water breeze hit me the instant I turned up the shore to the port.  We know Lake Michigan is big, but it did have an ocean feel to it when you look at the watery expanse in front of you, including the whitecaps.  

The boat is listed on the national historic registry, I note as I leave my bike in the undercarriage and head up on deck. They have a few buffets type places for lunch.  A TV viewing area, quiet lounging sections, patio tables and a few lounge chairs around the bow.  They even have a small movies room where they showed two selections on the trip. They coordinated some trivia games in one of the table sitting areas and allowed you to spend money in a gift shop, if so desired.  The sailing was smooth with enough whitecaps to give the water texture.  The breezes were cool and refreshing, as the predicted.  I spend my time enjoying the relaxation.  After 4 hours we dock in Ludington where there are boatloads of fisherman and quite the crowd waving and welcoming the ship.  It was a fun and fantastic diversion, as I had hoped it would. 

I am now in Michigan and the Eastern Time Zone.  I must be getting close.  

Today song in the head:  Gordon Lightfoot; The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.   

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