Cruisin On Lake Michigan

Steak, shrimp and lobster at Brett Favre's steakhouse last night made an excellent birthday celebration for C-Zuki, topped off today with a relaxing cruise across lake Michigan from Manitowoc to Ludington: eat, read & sleep.

Built in 1952 the SS Badger is younger than me and the last of fourteen Ludington based car ferries plying . . . well here you can check it out for yourself:This is one very big boat. When it docked in Manitowoc the first two vehicles to drive off were a school bus (full of children) and an escorted oversize piece of machinery pulled by a tractor trailer! The Badger formerly hauled railroad cars and it has the old tracks embedded in its deck to prove it.

Before loading passengers and vehicles a truck fueled up the ship with a tractor trailer full of coal. Apparently there is considerable controversy over the future of this ferry service. Word is that by 2012 it must stop dumping its waste ash in the lake or else . . . . I will say that the smoke stack left an unmistakable haze over the lake as we passed even though the wind was very strong.

We arrived more than two hours before the scheduled departure and were the first customers in line. Four more motorcycles showed up. The first two were another V-Strom (from Grand Rapids) and another BMW (from British Columbia). A Harley and a Honda pulled up later. We all tied our own bikes down and were then banished to the upper decks. No telling how the bikes fared until the trip was over. Fortunately everyone arrived A-OK.


The "cruise ship" includes: 1) a restaurant and snack bars, 2) a floating bingo game, 3) a gift shop, 4) a movie theater, 5) TV lounges, 6) a sun deck and 7) a cruise director. Overnight it doubles as a hotel while docked in Ludington. Guests stay in the staterooms on the middle deck. We opted mainly for the sun deck which was comfortable in the sun despite the cool temperatures and wind. However we awoke from our naps to discover we were sunburned. But after all it is a vacation.

In the older days cars could park on the upper deck via a ramp on shore. Glad we were parked below and could drive straight off. The old ramp looked uncannily like a roller coaster. I would have hated to have disembarked down that monster coaster!

Ludington is a quaint lakeside resort town and the drive down to Muskegon on Route 31 was pretty and a real joy since there was no crosswind and little traffic. What a relief to ride easy without fighting the wind. Tomorrow it's off to Cleveland, Ohio and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.