Day 33 - Anchors Away on the S.S. Badger

Rise and shine mates we got places to go and people to see. We left our bunk in Minneapolis early and were off towards Wisconsin by 6:15 AM. We had 300+ miles to cover to get to Manitowoc to the catch car ferry across Lake Michigan. The countryside across the cheese state was flat and boring and the major routes were noted in letters – like X or J – as opposed to numbers. We moved along fine and were on schedule until we got to Green Bay.
My dad had always wanted to see Lambeau Field. As we got close, he decided a detour was in order. He steered the car off the exit to a small town similar to where my Pa Pa lives in Virginia. While doing so, he broke out silly Fordham trivia questions. I learned Fordham’s football team is the pits now but was top of the heap many moons ago. Vince Lombardi played for Fordham in the Sugar Bowl and was one of the famed “seven blocks of granite”. The stadium was in a neighborhood with small homes and a drug store across the street. My dad began to talk in his lowest voice...” welcome to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field home of the Green Bay Packers and legendary coach Vince Lombardi”. Flash Mom quickly grabbed her camera and clicked away while dad stared on with a silly look.
Soon we moved on as we were behind schedule and we doubted the boat would wait for us. We arrived at the boat dock and my dad tried to joke with the attendant who greeted us. She was all business and didn’t crack a smile. No worries, however, we were on the boat called the S.S. Badger and ready for a 4 hour cruise across the 60 mile wide lake. Fact of the Day; depths of water are measured in phathoms and not feet. One phathom equals six feet and the deepest part of Lake Michigan is 160 phathoms.
The ship was big and so cool. It had a museum and quiet room, kid’s play area, arcade, movie theater, gift shop, two decks with restaurants and many old lounge chairs to lie on to relax. Me and Lea were not in the relaxing mood so we bounced around checking things out. Some passengers even had their own private rooms. We met the cruise director and she set us up at bingo with Harry who told jokes and Michigan trivia. We were hoping to win Bingo because the prizes were in “Badger Bucks”. The whole family played with many other older passengers but we couldn’t get Bingo fast enough. We did laugh a lot though to help us get over our misery. After Bingo, they had “Badger Idol”. You had to be 16 to enter and get up sing in front of everyone. Most contestants shouldn’t quit their day jobs but the last guy belted out some love song and every old lady seemed to melt right in his hands. He was an easy winner.
The water was calm today and we arrived in Ludington, Michigan as the sun set. When we just got to the dock all of a sudden Torey dropped her sun glasses. They almost hit somebody’s head on the lower deck but it missed. Thank goodness!! We are here for the night and ready for the beach and the chance to swim in the lake tomorrow. We stayed at a bed and breakfast just down from the dock, had dinner and settled in for the night.

Thanks for sailing with us mates,
Erin & Chris