July 19, 2023

How do you pass the time on the four hour car ferry ride to from Manitowoc, Wisconsin to Ludington, Michigan?

BINGO and local beers of course – well maybe some music and views of the lake for miles…

The SS Badger – the last coal fired passenger vessel on the Great Lakes – connects U.S. Highway 10 between Ludington, Michigan and Manitowoc, Wisconsin. It is a registered National Historic Landmark too

While the passenger capacity is over 600 – there were less than 300 passengers on our trip across the 62 miles traveling at about 20 mph. The lower deck held several large RV’s, 20 motorcycles, several classic cars, and over 50 autos and even two cyclists touring across the states from Europe. Here’s a shot of Verne being driven ashore at the port in Ludington. He was excited to have a nice rest as the drive would have been well over 200 miles!

This ship is tailored for fun for sure –

We spent the night about 2 miles from the ferry and the next morning in Ludington – I took a walk along the sandy shoreline enjoying the views and the solitude before driving to our next stop in rural LeRoy.

Rob road along Bicycle Route 20 – a series of roads officially dedicated to cyclists. We landed at a rustic state park for the night.

We did not secure a spot for Wednesday night in the Midland area – so I headed along the route to see what I could see. I found a RIVIAN Adventure Network charger in Clare and had a great stop there. A little bit about the Adventure Network – these are RIVIAN only free fast chargers. However, unlike Tesla – RIVIAN has one of these fast chargers designated for use by all EV’s. That’s right a free fast charger for all to use! Also interesting to note – at all of the Adventure Network charging sites there is at least one charger set up to accommodate a pull through vehicle – as the RIVIAN is designed to be able to pull 11,000 lbs. I am looking forward to seeing that set up one day!

When I made it to Midland about 20 miles ahead of Rob, I could not find any available accommodations due to an Invitational Golf Tournament. So after a brief chat with Rob, I headed East – well, it took another two stops before I found a spot in Bay City!

Rob road almost 100 miles yesterday! Beast mode. I’ll update his journey later this morning. In the meantime, we are keeping the rubber side down and making our way to Ontario with hopes to ferry across on Saturday from Marine City. Julie and Rob