Michigami - Day 7

Reporting from Ludington, MI

LAT 43 deg 57 min
LON 86 deg 24 min

We awoke at our second “we're the only ones here” motel--clearly intended for fisherman, considering the warnings in the room. It was a decent, clean room, if a bit dated.

We had some crullers from Grebe’s (a Milwaukee staple) and headed south.

Did you know Two Rivers, WI is the (reported) birthplace of the ice cream sundae? From Roadside America:

"In 1881, George Hallauer asked Ed Berner, owner of a soda fountain, to top his dish of ice cream with chocolate sauce, hitherto used only for ice cream sodas. It became a popular concoction, but was only sold on Sundays. One day, a little girl asked for one, saying they could pretend it was Sunday. Voila -- sundae (the spelling is attributed to a mistranscription on the check)."

Onto Manitowoc, and a few items. The marker in the middle of the road where a piece of Sputnik IV crashed…

…the shipyard where 28 US submarines were built and launched during WW2…

…a giant cow in front of a creamery…

…and an even gianter (relatively speaking) badger by the port.

We then found a local place for brunch (Mindy had a smash burger, I had French toast). This is a case of "Manitowoc 4.7"--where Google Reviews are skewed by locals who have never left the town.

After killing as much time as we could, we headed back to the port and boarded the SS Badger--a car ferry to take us across Lake Michigan to Ludington, MI. The Badger is a steam-powered ship dating back to 1952, and is considered a national mobile monument (also included in that category are the cable cars in San Francisco).

You get your tickets scanned, pull your car into the lot, and wait as the ship disembarks cars and people coming the other way. Watching people wait for their cars to come off is kind of like giant size baggage claim.

Then it was our turn. It's a cool day on this side of the lake (highs in the 40s), so we were bundled up. The ship is an antique, but is also being maintained very well. There's lounge areas, a bar, two food counters, and some private rooms if you want to spring for them (which we didn't). So, most of the trip involved reading for us. It was too cold to really venture too far outside on the deck. For the most part, the sailing was rather smooth, although there was some rocking back and forth. We tried out the snack bar, which is what you would expect.