We reversed the trend today! While we started about 25 minutes later than planned, it was at 840am. The early start was because today, we had the first fixed-time checkpoint to make - our ferry across Lake Michigan requested that we be present to board at 1215p, and Google claimed a nearly 3hr drive time to Manitowoc. We left an extra hour or so for margin.
...and it's a good thing we did, because the route mapped out in the link above isn't even close to the actual route we took. I tried figuring it out post hoc, but I can't; US-151 was closed, and the detour took us through a mess of county roads through rural Wisconsin over to I-43. However, we actually made very good time on these roads (as you can imagine, there wasn't any traffic), and it was a nice view. Rural Wisconsin is very different from rural South Dakota - for one thing, there are actual trees. (For another, the roads are all very uncreatively named: "County Road C", "County Road R", "County Road TT"; come on, really?) This was probably compounded by the GPS taking weird routing decisions, but either way we got into the port with over an hour and a half to spare.
"Big ship, more fun!"
Good timing too, because about 20 minutes later, we saw our ferry, the SS Badger, pulling into port:
The Badger was launched in 1953 primarily to ferry rail cars over the lake - it has railroad tracks built into the car deck so that freight trains could move directly onto the ship without having to unload. Later it started taking leisure passengers and their cars too. When the railroads found it more economical to just run trains around the lakes, the service stopped, but in 1992 it was restarted as a car ferry service across the lake, both for vacationers and for freight trucks.
You'll notice the clouds of black smoke - that's because the Badger is coal-fired (the last operational coal-fired steamship in the US, they say). They're quite happy to remind you that coal is an abundant domestic fuel and doesn't require sending money abroad; there are huge piles of coal by the dock in Manitowoc, and it's loaded on by truck before each voyage:
After availing ourselves of free hot chocolate and coffee (and making sure our cars got on board!), we boarded the ship about an hour before departure:
This was definitely one of the most pleasant parts of our journey - for the first time, we were covering miles where we didn't have to watch out for traffic, #$@! road construction, or potholes - and got some fresh air to boot. The ship had a galley (where we got a pretty solid lunch), arcade, movie room, and plenty of deck space. I took a nice nap before departure (the ship's horn woke me up), and spent most of the ride wandering around the ship and admiring the view outside. There were plenty of interesting exhibits detailing the history of the Badger itself as well as ferry service over the lake.
One thing they don't tell you: even if it's pretty warm on either coast, the lake itself is cold. We hit a wall of fog in the middle of the lake, and even when that lifted, it was frigid outside. Once the sun returned, everyone seemed to enjoy taking a bit of time out on the decks:
Finally, we reached Ludington right on time (615 Eastern), they unloaded the cars, and we were on our way:
After another couple hours' drive, we arrived in Kentwood, MI for the night's stay. Dinner was at the Shang Hai Ichiban restaurant, which operated in two halves - the Shang Hai side was Chinese, the Ichiban a Japanese teppanyaki-style place. We went for the latter and were not disappointed. Great food, great service (even though we arrived just in time for the last seating - taking notes, Prime Rib Restaurant of Gillette?).
Couple hours driving, 5 hours napping and relaxing on a boat, and another couple hours? Most civilized traveling day we've had so far - I'll take it.
Milestones: Car hit 24,000 miles today.
PS - Today's post would be incomplete without a link to the following video.
Tomorrow: Kentwood, MI -> Ithaca, NY
Are you seriously wearing a Hot Or Not shirt?
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