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9:18 a.m. - 2008-08-09
We hurrah, hurrah, we greet you now, Hail!

Took the Lake Express ferry to Muskegon yesterday to visit our friends in St. Joseph / Benton Harbour. There were some rather large and consistant rollers the entire way and I would most definitely "chunked" had I not used accupressure on my wrists for three and a half hours.

I knew of those wristband things with little buttons that apply presssure to your pulse point, and, when in India, I was able to avoid motion sickness by digging my thumb or two fingers into my right wrist (which curiously worked better than pressing my left).

A grandfather was holding a puke bag WHILE EATING A HAMBURGER and I managed to catch his attention and taught him the technique. The trigger smell of vomit would have been the end of me. I was SO hungry yet could not eat until nearly there and then it was just a few peanuts.

I had never been on the Michigan shores but had heard about the dunes and as we neared the coast my near nausea subsided.

I really enjoyed the entrance to Muskegon's harbour. There were some fine looking beaches, kite surfers in perfect conditions, whipping along at high speed. There was a large house with loads of charachter that was being used as a Great Lakes research facility. It was this part of the trip that I thought was going to take kind of long but the ferry only went slow for less than half an hour.

At first there's a short bit of wide "canal" where a small maritime museum was located. There's a WWII submarine there that, at first, made me wonder if it was The USS Cobia, formerly anchored in Milwaukee but it was USS Silversides and it appeared a lot longer than my memory of The Cobia. I read upon docking that one can spend the night on THIS sub. It was pretty cool.

Then the harbour spread out widely, as if it were another LARGE lake.

The weather was perfect (again) and there was a regatta of small FAST sailboats which were really fun to watch. They had three sails and had to tack this way and that, pulling in the front sail (spinaker?) each time they swung the boom in the other direction, then that sail would just fill up with a TON of air and they'd be FLYING again. One managed to capsize.

I was enjoying the sailing race when I noticed a large passenger liner off the starboard side. I was pleasantly surprised to see the SS Milwaukee Clipper. http://www.milwaukeeclipper.com/ Last I heard, it was moored in Chicago. Now it's here and I'd like to see it someday and, as we have friends just down the coast, we probably will.

We were a little late getting off the boat as Lyra needed to use the "ladies" and I was mildly and not noticeably miffed by her usual timing as we had to pick up a rental car like many of the other passengers but it didn't take too long.

I don't know if it was my preparation, humour or general "hotness" but when it came time for getting the keys, the woman asked me if I wanted a Kia Rio or ... a Mustang. Hmm. I said that I'd take the Mustang and got it for the same price as my initial "economy" choice. It must have been something about me because Lyra was off looking at a map so I don't believe it was her usual magnetism playing a role with "the ladeez". A bloke with whom I spoke while boarding, got the Kia which was parked right in front of the Ford said something to the effect of "Nice ride!" Heh!

There was a bit of a queue to turn left out onto the main road and I said to Lyra, who said she wished we HAD this car, that I'll have to gun it to see how fast it is. Oh my! I believe it has the V8. So we were on our way.

Holland, Michigan has an exit to a street named "Felch".

After driving the hour and a half back to Muskegon to return we found out the ferry was cancelled. I made the necessary arrangments and then it took EIGHT hours to drive back to Milwaukee. Chicago was fine but road construction before Gary, Indiana slowed us tremendously.

The last two nights before our flight back to Noncultureland were ended with a double guys night out. So I had a chance to visit with a friend who's moving to Minnesota which was good.

Ok. Must pack and wash this stanky body before picking Lyra up.


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