Up the coast to Ludington

 Friday, May 26 -- Whitehall to Ludington (47 miles)

Silver Lake State Park includes an area for off-road vehicles to run on the sand dunes. It is the only open dune ORV area east of the Mississippi. Ed's brother Bill came over at ten to take us for a ride in the sand dunes in his open Jeep and it was a real thrill. Janet was brave and sat in the front seat while Ed and I sat in the back. We all bundled up because it was only about 60 degrees. You can see from his rear bumper that Bill is an experienced ORV guy.

After our thrill ride on the dunes, Ed and Tami drove us back to the marina and we took off for Ludington soon after. The lake was calm and there was hardly any traffic. We rode in the cabin again because it was too cold to go up top.

Noteworthy sights during our run included the old lighthouse at the entrance to White Lake (where my Uncle Bill worked as a volunteer for many years), Little Sable Point lighthouse, dune buggies running in Silver Lake State Park, and the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant. This last item is jointly owned by Consumers Energy and DTE Energy and was build fifty years ago to help level the load of nearby baseload nuclear power plants. It replaces the need to build natural gas-fired peaking plants. Wikipedia has a good article about it. 

Ludington is a good-sized town and the county seat, with two very nice municipal marinas. Diesel fuel at the marina was only $4.00/gal, which is probably the lowest price we've paid since we bought the boat (or certainly since the start of the war in Ukraine). The downtown is within easy walking distance. There is a very sturdy lighthouse at the end of the channel entrance pier (built to withstand winter storms).

One of the major attractions in Ludington is watching the SS Badger come and go. This is a car ferry that runs twice a day between Ludington, Michigan and Manitowoc, Wisconsin -- once over and once back -- taking four hours to make the 62-mile trip. The Badger was launched in September 1952, so it is a year older than our Captain, but comparably handsome and functional. It's the last coal-fired passenger vessel operating in the Great Lakes. Behind the Badger you can see her sister ship the Spartan, which is idled and just used for spare parts, which can be a problem when you get to be 70 years old.