20030919                    Open new window with today’s pictures.

September 19, 2003
Friday


Start:   Seagull Marina & RV, Two Rivers WI
End:     Poncho's Pond RV Park, Ludington MI
Miles:   10 by land, 65 by carferry
Hi Temp: 74.7
Lo Temp: 55.0



It rained during the night, not very heavily, and we could feel the wind pushing the trailer around as the front went through.  We got up at our normal time, and watched TV during breakfast to see the results of hurricane Isabel's landfall in NC and VA.  In Virginia, it seems as though the Tidewater region (Norfolk, Newport News, Virginia Beach) took the worst, as expected.  No word yet from son Bill on our place.

We wandered around Manitowoc and stopped at Wal-Mart for some knitting things for Dolores and a couple of magazines for the trip today.  Then we went back and hooked up the trailer.

We drove to the carferry lot in Manitowoc and checked in.  We paid our fare ($212 for truck, trailer, and two people) and left the key in the ignition.  The ferry came in from Ludington at the same time, so we got to watch it dock and begin unloading.

At 1:00pm, we were able to board the 50-year-old carferry "Badger", the last operating carferry.  The business of carrying railroad cars across the lake (to avoid the tangle of railroads in Chicago) declined and then ceased in 1990.  A member of our church, Zion Lutheran in Holland MI, had founded a company named Thermotron, making environmental test chambers; Charles Conrad had been a boy in Ludington and had a deep affinity for the carferries he remembered there.  He put together a team to buy the carferries and work them as tourist attractions and automobile transport, summers-only, between Ludington and Manitowoc. He died in 1995, but the carferry attraction is still going strong.

We found seats in the TV lounge and watched CNN coverage of post-Isabel. I went out and watched them back our rig onto the ferry (cars are driven in, then turned around inside). Then I went back in, we moved, and watched the Wisconsin coast recede into the distance.

The old coal-burning ferry churned right along.  We were lucky in that the wind and waves were from directly behind us.  The rolling of the ship was negligible. The speed we were making was about the same as the wind, so you could sit on deck without being blown away.  Despite the cool weather (some sun, mostly cloudy), we were quite comfortable.

Half-way across the lake we saw a funny-looking contraption on a reciprocal course to ours.  It passed down our port side a mile or so away. It looked like a barge with a tugboat pushed into the stern; the barge also had some sort of boom on it.

We had lunch on board from the cafeteria.  The sandwich was good, the rest satisfactory.

When we came to Ludington, the waves were slapping the breakwaters and breaking over them.  We came into the channel, through it, and then turned right, toward sister ship Spartan (now a spare-parts locker for Badger). Then the captain dropped the anchor and swung on the hook until the stern pointed at the dock. Then he backed into the slip.  I suppose he used this method since it would not be affected by the strong wind out of the west; if he hadn't used it, he could have had a lot of trouble getting lined up.

Our rig was nearly the first thing off the ferry, so we grabbed it and headed for the (really plush) campground. We got there ahead of quite a few other rigs checking in.  We got a site that we could pull into and stay hooked up to the truck.  We plugged in the electric and water and settled in.  I went to the office and got the email.

Then we had a small meal and really settled in.  We'll run to the Holland area tomorrow to visit my brother and family.