THE SS BADGER

We left Trish’s mom’s home and are headed west. Instead of driving down and around by Chicago, we planned to take the steamship SS Badger across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin.

The Badger is the last operating steam powered vehicle in the United States.  This information sign posted by the boarding queue tells her story.

We watched while they loaded cars and trucks into the belly of the steamship.

Once on board, we had breakfast and then explored things to do on the four hour voyage.  We discovered several large lounges, lots of chairs outside on the top deck, the movie theatre, cafe,  bar, history room, and, of course, the gift shop.  You could also book a cabin, but, for day crossing this had no appeal.

Since there was a chilly breeze on deck, we chose the main lounge and got a table by a window. In a short time Badger Bingo started.  We played along, but didn’t win anything.  After that there was trivia time.  Trish and I did much better then.  There was a three way tie at the end of the game. The winner was to be determined by the team that could list the longest value for mathematical pi. My memory from Roy Haupt’s eighth grade class came to the surface and 3.1415926535 made us the winners! (The prize was two drink cups that change color depending upon whether their contents are hot or cold…wow!)

It was a very pleasant journey an a calm day.  Once off the ship, we drove to St. Cloud, Minnesota, for the night. On to North Dakota tomorrow.