We departed from Frankfort and headed into Lake Michigan for a straight shot route to Ludington, Michigan. Well, that is not entirely true as you shall see we made a slight turn at Big Sable Point, and this lighthouse (yup, you guessed it) is the Big Sable Lighthouse. As we made this turn, we headed directly to Ludington. As you can see, there were people on the beach, and the catwalk around the top of the light looks asymmetric because one side was full of people. The are many small dunes in this area, which is at the north Ludington State Park. The "Point" is more of a rounded corner, but you can see that the shoreline has a steel bulkhead with large stones in front so the storms here can evidently get fierce.
The total distance for today was 51.7 miles and we arrived at the marina about 2:30 pm. The picture at the left shows the Northside Channel Marker at the entrance to the outer harbor at Ludington. If you look at the left side of the base of the tower, you will see what looks like a big, black snow plow. The "plow" is designed to deflect waves during the severe north winds in winter storms.
As we headed up the channel into the inner harbor, we passed this picturesque US Coast Guard Station. The other side of the channel had some very attractive condos. At the end of the channel it opens into a large inner harbor, and our marina was the very first one on the port (left) side. We stopped at the fuel dock since the Admiral had called ahead to learn that they had diesel fuel for $3.879. We could only hold an additional 145 gallons, but this was the lowest price that we have seen in at least 3 months. We also got a pump out since we were getting close to full. The marinas that are part of the Michigan Harbors of Refuge Program have really spoiled us. They are clean, well maintained, etc., but most importantly the pump outs have worked at every one where we asked for a pump out. Along the Gulf and East Coasts, it seemed like the pump outs at more than half of the marinas were "out of order".
We set off on a walking tour of the downtown area at about 4:00 pm. Ludington is big enough to have real shopping centers, etc. so the downtown is not quite as busy as the small towns that we have visited. However, there were more than enough stores to satisfy the shopping urge for today, and I even managed to get a haircut. Wow, isn't that exciting???
For dinner the Admiral chose the Blu Moon Restaurant (picture at left). We at on the main floor, but it also has a roof top dining room/bar. The range of items on the menu was amazing. We had Shrimp & Grits as an appetizer, and I had Sheppard's Pie as an entrée. The menu went from steak, seafood, to sushi and Asian fusion to ???
As we were about to board Lucky Us, we heard the horn blasts from a large ship. It was the SS Badger, which is a passenger/car ferry that makes two round trips daily to Manitowac, Wisconsin during the summer. In the picture at the right, the Badger had just passed by my location and was starting to turn around to back into her dock across the inner harbor. It was quite the spectacle with a Coast Guard escort, two small tour boats and numerous pleasure craft watching.
The next picture shows the Badger with the stern door raised to prepared for loading/unloading vehicles. You may be able to see the symbol for US Highway 10 on the raised door as she officially connects that US Highway across Lake Michigan. There has been ferry service like this for over 60 years, and for some drivers it saves several hundred road miles during a relaxing 4 hour voyage across the lake.
The weather forecast for tomorrow is kind of "iffy" at this time so we may be in Ludington another day. If all goes well, we plan to cross Lake Michigan to Milwaukee, Wisconsin when the weather forecast is acceptable. After Milwaukee, we will continue to work our way down the west coast of Lake Michigan to Chicago!
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