Last night I rummaged through all my luggage looking for my anti-sea-sick patches that Beth brought to Casper, WY. They were no where to be found! I eventually emptied EVERYTHING out of my duffle bag…and then dumped out the contents of all those baggies and stuff sacks. Still no medication…. As I went to sleep, I realized there was still one place they might be — in my “mechanics box” that is stored on the Box Truck. OK, not the most logical place to keep the medicine, but I’ll bet for those of you that know me well this possibility does not surprise you at all.

I ran into Jeff and Jim (both Staff) this morning as I was going to Perkins and they were leaving and heading back to the hotel — Jim was kind enough to get my mechanics box and sure enough, there were the patches! Whew! I put one on immediately and the pent up anxiety of maybe having to do the crossing without the patch just drained from my body. I KNEW I was gonna be OK on the crossing now!

As days off go — this one was a little strange. After breakfast (on our own), we headed downtown to kill a few hours, get lunch and be at the ferry loading area by noon. Most folks wore “street” clothing and normal shoes. I wore my cycling shorts and my Shimano sandals (no cleats) and brought my long pants to put on while on the boat. Worked great for me.

At RAP the staff told us the boat loads at one o’clock and takes off about an hour after that. There’s a nice maritime museum and submarine exhibit in town — complete with a WWII submarine tied to the dock that folks were touring. I’ve been on submarines before, and I decided I didn’t need to get on this one! They are rather small and tend to be hot and cramped. I did go into the lobby of the museum and looked at some interesting books in the gift shop. 

I met up withJoe, Jeff and John (Ohio) at the museum though so I rode around the harbor with them and then we went to an old fashioned ice cream shoppe. Very cool!

Emily (left) and Danielle served up the ice cream sundaes . Jeff and John (Ohio) were the only ones who had the hand-made ice cream and they said it was REALLY good.

There’s a big Budweiser plant right on the water front with huge murals on their grain silos.

Gerard took this photo of me and Scooter — but Scooter didn’t fit in the frame. That’s how big these beer bottles where!

A quick stop at Subway to get a little something for lunch (I was told that if I eat something I’d be less likely to get sick). I like the fact that a 6″ turkey sub in Manitowoc is gonna be just like the one I can get at home. Kinda like buying bananas instead of apples because you always know what the banana is gonna taste like whereas you buy an apple that looks crisp and hard only to get it home and bite into a mushyk yucky tasting piece of fruit. Anyway, we all assembled at the tree by the picnic tables at the ferry dock at the appointed time. Too bad the staff didn’t think to verify the departure time. It had changed…. luckily, it was later by an hour. We’d really have been in trouble if it had move up an hour! As it was, we all just chatted and hung out as we watched the S.S. Badger come in and dock. Quite a sight! I’ve taken many ferries before — and this ferry was one of the bigger ones that I’ve been on.

The ships staff drives all the passenger cars on to and off of the ship! It was incredible to watch them running back and forth — they sure didn’t need a membership to a fitness club! They also loaded on four semi-trucks of coal. Rumor has it that plans are underway to convert the ship to a cleaner fuel but today, it was all coal!

We loaded first — as a group. Our bikes were all leaned up against the wall on the parking level. The ship’s staff took them and just leaned them up on groups of five or six. I was glad that Scooter was on the outside of one of those groups — we wouldn’t have to wait for anyone else to come get their bike before we could leave the ship once it docked on the other side.

Somehow I managed to get on ahead of Leo — here he is getting ready to hand “Tuesday” (his Bike Friday) off to the staff for to stack. I’m on my way up to the upper levels of the ship to find my deck chair.

The rest of our group seemed to have a good time while we crossed. The ship had a small movie theater, a quiet room, a game room (with BINGO) and lots of chairs on the deck. I opted to sit in a chair (in the shade) on the deck and look out at the horizon.  A bunch of folks went up to the front deck and slept or read books — in the sun. CRAZY?! Leo and Sue got a state room — and had to rub it in to those of us that did not get one….

Micheal (tandem) and Beth (from Boulder) sat with me for quite a bit of the crossing. We read USA Today, chatted and stared out at the horizon. They both brought their MP3 players — which is a bit of a treat since we can’t use them while we ride.

Before we headed back down to the bikes to disembark, I had my photo taken of me at the bow of the ship (I keep wanting to call it a boat!). I don’t look too green around the gills, do I?

The crossing was 60 miles and it took us a little over 4 hours. Unfortunately, we lost an hour somewhere in the middle of the lake. By the time we ate and rode our bikes ot the hotel it was 9:00pm — and tomorrow we have to ride 113 miles! DUH!

One cool thing about doing the crossing into Michigan — when we arrived and got off the ferry we were all together at the “Welcome to Michigan” sign. Mike (staff) let us all gather by the sign and then snapped a picture with each camera that was piled at his feet…. needless to say, we were there for a couple of minutes!