Day 10 – Part 2, Manitowoc, WI / Ludington, MI

Today, I finally made it to the ferry boat, the SS Badger. It was only a 28-mile ride, counting a side trip to a very nice bakery. Most of the ride was hot and humid, but down near Lake Michigan I stopped to put on a long sleeved riding jacket; it was foggy and cool.

The doughnuts in the State St bakery were top notch. They didn’t have tea, so I settled for coffee, only the 4th cup of coffee I have ever had. It was okay, I survived it. If you’re in town, check out their doughnuts.We sailed at 17:00 and after a four-hour voyage, we landed in Ludington, MI. Currently, I have to leave my hotel room in Ludington, MI in less than an hour, so I’ll enter some more later, or in tomorrow’s update.

As promised, here  some additional notes about the day:

The voyage was full of vehicles. There were two buses full of an Amish contingent. It was quite a sight to see them running all over the place. They seemed to be quite fascinated with the ship, it may have been a first voyage for many of them. Who knows?

I met another lad as we were boarding, Jesse. I think he said he was from New York. He just finished his civil engineering degree and decided that he would like to do a coast-to-coast bicycle ride before plunging into a carrier. I thought that a wise decision, it may be some time before he gets another chance.

We parted ways on the ship for a while. I then ran into him in the cafeteria and joined him at a table. The ship has lots of activities going on  and had Badger Bingo playing when I arrived. The ship’s captain had just finished answering questions about the ship. I caught a few facts:

• The ship goes through fifty tons of coal a day.
• The ship is considered a national landmark.
• The engines are two, 3,500 horsepower steam engines that spin at about 125 RPM.
• The ship is 410 feet long.
• To see more: https://www.ssbadger.com/about/

I’m not a bingo player, but Jesse had a card and played on, to no avail.

Later they switched to a trivia game. I’m not much for trivia, but I offered to help Jesse since teams were allowed.

He was very smart and was doing well. I assisted with a few tough ones and he ended up with a score of 34, the highest in the room. When they called him up for his prize, he insisted I go too. The game master interviewed us for a short bit, asking about our rides, etc. and then had us choose prizes. Jesse went for the Badger playing cards and I took a Badger bumper sticker that he had showed interest in. When we returned to the table, I gave him the sticker, he seemed thrilled.

In all it was a fine voyage and a fun thing to do if you are in that area of the world. The Badger is truly one of the last steamers in active duty.

Enjoy.

Author: Dennis Blanchard

Dennis Blanchard was born in Bristol, Connecticut. He and his wife Jane moved to New Hampshire in 1980 where he has climbed thirty 4000-foot mountains, biked the trails and enjoyed the wilderness. Never living very far from the Appalachian Trail, Dennis was always aware of the seductive siren’s call to hike it. Dennis is an electronics engineer who has freelanced for amateur radio, technical and motorcycle adventure magazines. He now lives in Sarasota, Florida. View all posts by Dennis Blanchard