Crossing Lake Michigan on the SS Badger

My family took a trip to Michigan from our home in Minnesota. To save time, we took the last remaining car and passenger ferry in operation on the Great Lakes - the SS Badger - on a four-hour cruise across Lake Michigan from Manitowoc, Wisconsin to Ludington, Michigan.

Below is a picture of the SS Badger's twin ship, the SS Spartan, which has been out of service since 1979. It's docked at Ludington, Michigan, and its parts are often cannibalized by the Badger. (And...I forgot to take a picture of the Badger...)

We arrived the recommended hour before departure and waited in a long line of cars, motorcycles, semis and mini-vans. Once the line got moving, it moved quickly as we passed drug-sniffing dogs and gave our tickets to the...ticket taker. The boarding of vehicles was impressive to watch, as the workers run out to the vehicles and drive them expertly onto the ship. Once your vehicle is on board, passengers don't have access to them until they are unloaded at the end of the trip.

Once on board, passengers have access to two decks. There are plenty of amenities; a couple cafes, a bar, gift shops (pretty much the only place to find air conditioning) a tiny (tiny, tiny) museum, a small movie theater (two free movies shown during the voyage, a kid movie followed by a movie geared to older audiences.) There are also a couple TV lounges scattered about where you can sit and watch whatever happens to be on at the time.

Most people, however, scramble to get good seats on the decks if the weather is cooperative. It was hot when we went, and I found the best place to catch a good breeze was on the bow of the upper deck. Seats and lounge chairs were at a premium.

An available option we used was renting a state room. The cost is $50, but it was definitely worth it to us since our son has autism and often needs to escape crowds. We were assigned state room #1. Below is the cute old-fashioned key we used!

The state rooms are tiny. They have a small bed (actually two, if you want to pull the other down from the wall and have no room in which to walk.) There's also a fan right above the head of the bed, as well as a sink and toilet at the foot of the bed. The window can be opened to let in the lake air and allow you to listen to the soothing sound of the ship passing through the waves. Melissa, Zach and I took turns taking naps.

Zach with his stuffed animals and Melissa

Many passengers spent time chatting, reading, or just gazing at the lake while sitting on the decks.

Speaking of reading, the gift shop contains a small selection of books. One of the books was Final Crossing: Murder on the SS Badger, by Richard Baldwin. I always find it fun to read a book that takes place in the same location I'm going to, am in, or have recently been, especially a mystery novel like this one, so I bought it.  The novel was fun to read for that aspect, though I didn't think it was very well written. The dialog, in my opinion, is amateurish, and there are many hard-to-believe leaps of logic. Still...fun enough.

Just a note to those prone to motion sickness; the ferry does not have the same stabilization features as the big ocean-going cruise ships have, so you really feel the motion of the waves, even on a relatively calm surface like we had.

Below is the pilot ship guiding us toward the picturesque marina at Ludington, MI.

Disembarking was also an efficient and painless process. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience - one I'd recommend, especially to shave off a few hours in lieu of traveling around Lake Michigan.

Prices and booking information can be found at the SS Badger website. The site also contains many more (and better...) pictures than I took.

Here's a book about the SS Badger itself: SS Badger; The Lake Michigan Car Ferry if you'd like to learn more. It's an affiliate link to Amazon, and if you purchase it through that link, I get a small commission which helps support my enormous cocaine habit writing endeavors.

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Weepy Old Man Syndrome

Over the last decade or so, I've been experiencing what my wife likes to call 'weepy old man syndrome.' I get teary eyed at the simplest of things, whether they're inspirational videos, sad movies, happy movies, sappy stuff...even some (ack!) commercials. I never thought I'd be one of those people, but I guess I am.

There's a particular song that gets me going a lot lately, and it's this Sesame Street song:



The reason is because I sometimes catch my 12-yr old son Zachary singing it. Zach has autism, and I often wonder if he's lonely. When he sings this song, perhaps he just likes the tune; he doesn't seem sad or melancholy while singing it. But still - to me it feels like a punch to the gut.

Zach's pretty non-communicative, so it's hard to tell what's going on in his mind. Sure, you can tell when he's angry (he screams and/or hits) or excited (he practically bounces from one end of the room to the other) but the reasons are often unclear. And overall, he's a sweet kid.

But this song. Geez. It's so melancholy - someone just wanting friends to play with, the longing, the loneliness...I wonder if Zach feels that. Maybe he's perfectly fine without friends, or without others his age who get him. I don't really know how much peer interaction he gets at school other than that it's pretty limited.

And so when I hear this song, no matter who sings it, I get a bit teary and wish so badly that Zach was able to have friends, just regular friends like so many of us had growing up.

And damn, there I go again...

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Poopy Soup - or - Zach Tells a Joke!

My son, Zach, as you may or may not know, has autism. He's eleven and a good kid. Well...99% of the time, anyway - though when he has a tantrum watch out! Screaming, hitting, breaking things. But like I said, the other 99% of the time he's great.

Last night he made a joke. One of his first, if not the first.

Laughter is an important part of our family; we all like to make each other laugh. Although Zach may not get all the bad puns that fly around our house (or possibly, he ignores them out of politeness) he loves humor. Slapstick, especially. Tickling is good, too.

We had grilled burgers and baked beans for supper last night. The sauce of the beans was darker than usual. It was a mesquite flavor, and instead of the typical navy beans, black beans were used. When Melissa dished it up, Zach looked at it, pointed, and asked, "Is that poopy soup?" Then he laughed.

We all laughed.

Last night he officially joined our ranks of low-brow humor. I'm guessing next come the dick jokes. We'll gladly take them. It's progress. We'll take all we can get.

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