Ludington, MI


Ludington, MI almost became our next permanent address!  Not because we fell in love with it (although it was nice) but due to poor weather conditions we spent 7 days here!!!  We have never had to wait this long in one place.  One thing the long layover allowed me to do is almost catch on my blog posts, so that was positive.




Everywhere we have been the flowers have been amazing.  Not dead from the Texas heat by August.





Apparently there is a "walk" loop too!  Who knew?


There was a beautiful park area adjacent to the marina that had all these bronze figures depicting the rich heritage of the area.






Michigan, the mitten state.  We definitely have learned all about the "mitten".


Downtown area of Ludington



As I've said before, public art in these small towns along our trip has been a great surprise. The public piano and murals have been awesome.



At 7:00pm each evening the SS Badger docks across from the marina.  It is a 410 ft. car ferry and a passenger ferry.  It takes you from Ludington across Lake Michigan to Manitowoc, WI in 4 hours. It makes two trips a day. It drops an anchor and pivots around to dock. The ship and its boilers are registered historical sites in Michigan and Wisconsin.



It carries cars as well as 18 wheelers and railroad cars in its belly.



One of the lighthouses, the Ludington North Breakwater Light,  that we visited was at the entrance to our channel. Notice the flag, one reason we are not traveling!


Photos inside the lighthouse taken at various times.....we wouldn't be traveling on those days either!!


The photo above (date below) was taken on the same day of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.



Many Loopers had to stay put in Ludington with us.  More than likely we will all leave on the same day.


The second lighthouse we visited was the Big Sable Point Lighthouse.  We climbed to the top of both of them.  As you can see many waves out there again.  Trying to be patient!!



Another ice cream parlor....she is making the waffle cones on those wooden cones.


After dinner one night there was a band and bonfire out on the beach.






One last tourist stop was the Ludington Maritime Museum.  It's main focus was the SS Badger.



Michigan has a BUNCH of Lighthousese.


They had a pilothouse replica of the SS Badger where you could test your docking abilities.









Interesting display in the next 4 pics below of how (back in the day) boats measured their speed through the water and how the term knots came to be the unit of measure.






The Great Lakes can be dangerous as we know. The story below tells how a vessel with a very experienced crew was lost in the 1980's in severe weather.




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