7 miles (bike), 60 miles (Ferry)
Today was mostly rest, with a little casual bike riding mixed in. Not considered a real rest day by some in that they had deadlines to meet. We loaded luggage at 9 am but didn’t have to be at the ferry dock until 12:30 pm, leaving us with what we could carry in a backpack and on our bikes as our entertainment. I took advantage of the time to get closer to being caught up on these posts while my tablet PC was upgrading itself to the latest release of Windows 10. On the short ride to the ferry I grabbed a sandwich and soda at a convenience store and ate them on the dock while we waited to board.
We all boarded together, stacking our bikes against each other on a corner of the auto deck to be secured by a couple of ropes. They seemed to do just fine there.
The SS Badger is a coal-fired ferry. At least two trucks backed in to dump loads of coal into the hold while I was there. In 2004 I counted three trucks so perhaps there have been efficiency improvements. You wouldn’t know it from the emissions from the ship’s exhaust stack, though.
There was on-board entertainment, including television and bingo, a gift shop, a snack bar and buffet, and a bar.
Even near the middle of the lake, I could see the occasional butterfly fluttering near the ship.
With the four-hour ferry and entering the Eastern time zone, we didn’t arrive at our hotel until about 7:30. As is often the case, our hotel was on the outskirts of Ludington but we found an asian buffet restaurant that had decent food.
