DAY 03 - "What was that about Rome?"

Day Three began with a sigh of relief that the Volvo wasn’t jacked up on cinderblocks, followed by a quick jaunt on a socked in, desolate roadway up to the Muskegon Ferry Terminal.

Turning into the marina, we emerged from the thick fog and were greeted with blue skies and perfect Simpsons clouds.  The forecast: smooth sailing.

Boarding was easy and we found the ferry to be about a quarter full…which is to say, quite empty, allowing for window seats and wandering.

Can we talk about Michigan for a second?

Does anyone else find it odd that this state is on East Coast time?  It seems so much more prone to the Midwest: logistically, mentally, socially, financially, emotionally.  It’s like calling San Francisco, “Northern California.” 

Please.  Look at a map.

It also bothers me, to no end, that this thing is called “Lake” Michigan.  It’s. Huge.  And I know size is not a factor when defining a ‘lake’ versus a ‘sea,’ but come on.  It’s just so big; there’s gotta be another word.

At least the Time Zones are in our favor traveling East to West.  We picked up our first hour in the middle of the Michigan Ocean as the high-speed ferry barreled toward Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Isn’t it just so much fun being on a boat?  Boat people rule.  Doesn’t matter how big or how small, people are always smiling and waving to each other from a boat.  …Lotta of bad-boat examples out there though, I know, but today we had a grand time.

We didn’t really have an absolute final destination, in case we pulled an Edmund Fitzgerald, but we knew we wanted to get as far into Minnesota as possible.

Burning across Wisconsin, we were rather surprised by the sheer volume of bone dry, dead-looking corn fields…unless it’s all meant to be field corn, but, yeesh, there sure is a lot of it…

Pausing briefly to tip our hats to the famous Pink Elephant in DeForest, WI, we cruised into The Land of 10,000 Lakes, making it all the way to Fairmont, MN.

We freshened up and headed down to the local haunt, Tami’s on the Avenues, to have a taste of the Minnesota state fish, the walleye.  Pretty, pretty, good!

Tomorrow, we head to The Badlands and Rapid City, South Dakota.  It’s going by too fast!

DAY 04