The Great Lakes Part 1 - Lighthouses

We are currently heading to Minneapolis. After spending most of our time till now on the shores of one or another of the great lakes, we are finally leaving them behind.

It’s hard to get my head around just how enormous these lakes are. Looking out over them is like looking out at the ocean. Endless water to the horizon. An occasional island. Lake Superior, the largest, has a surface area approximately the size of South Carolina and contains an estimated 10% of the world’s fresh surface water.

The Great Lakes are a shipping corridor for tons and tons of cargo. Freighters up to a certain size can navigate from the westernmost port of Duluth on Lake Superior all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Most common cargoes are iron ore, limestone, coal, grain - all heading east.

Back in the day, these waters were extremely dangerous. There have been over 6,000 known shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, and an estimated 30,000 mariners’ deaths. That’s in less than 250 years. Gordon Lightfoot has been playing on a loop in my head this entire time.

Lighthouses were built on the shores of the great lakes and their islands to help ships navigate and avoid the dangers. Most of these are obsolete now what with the use of modern technology such as GPS. But countless lighthouses remain and are maintained because they are just so darn photogenic.

Tawas Point Lighthouse, Lake Huron, Michigan

Manning Light, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore , Lake Michigan, Michigan

Charlevoix Harbor, Lake Michigan, Michigan

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse, junction of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, Michigan

Grand Marais Lighthouse, Lake Superior, Michigan

Au Sable Light Station, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Lake Superior, Michigan

Marquette Harbor Lighthouse, Lake Superior, Michigan

Marquette, Michigan

Presque Isle Harbor Breakwater Light, Lake Superior, Michigan

Two Harbors Lighthouse, Lake Superior, Wisconsin

Split Rock Lighthouse

Split Rock Lighthouse Fog Signal Building

Split Rock Lighthouse Keeper’s Houses

Duluth North Pier Lighthouse, Duluth, Lake Superior, Wisconsin

Duluth South Breakwater Inner Light, Duluth, Lake Superior, Wisconsin

Fun Fact - The US Post Office issued a “Lighthouses of the Great Lakes” Series in 1995. Each stamp cost 32c. These were first class stamps, not postcard stamps. The first stamp in the set was the Split Rock Lighthouse, see above. I used those stamps for the invitations and rsvp envelopes for Eli’s bar mitzvah.

Extra Credit – For each lighthouse, does the lighthouse look like a

A. McMansion

B. Rocket Ship, Flash Gordon era

C. Rocket Ship, Space-X era

D. Water Tower

E. Firecracker

F. Science Fair Project

G. Grain Silo

H. None of the above

I. All of the above

Fall Foliage Review

We are currently in Duluth, Minnesota on the westernmost edge of Lake Superior. Three weeks into our trip, winter has finally arrived. The temperature was in the low thirties yesterday and it went as low as 17 degrees last night. Until now, it has been so warm we sometimes only needed a light jacket. Fortunately, Our V's heating system keeps us toasty warm.

Fall foliage is finally over, as of about a week ago. We didn’t expect to see any on this trip this late in the season and this far north. But it has been spectacular.

The Daylight Saving Time Effect and Other Adventures

They changed the clocks last Saturday night. I hate when they do that. I end up not knowing what time it is for about 2 weeks. My sleep gets messed up and I feel like it’s time for my next meal all day. Ok, so I feel like it’s time for my next meal all day even when it’s not a change in Daylight Saving Time, but still.

It’s not just me that has problems with the time switch - studies have shown that changing the time in both Fall and Spring is bad for both your physical and mental health.

This last time change has been especially difficult for me. We're not only dealing with a DST change but with a change of time zone.

Even Google gets confused. This is a photo of Google Maps directions we were following. It shows that we will be arriving at our destination 6 minutes ago, in 54 minutes.

And sure enough, when it we got there, Google thought it was an hour earlier.

We are currently on Madeline Island, WI, in Lake Superior. We are at the ferry dock waiting to see if the 9:30am ferry back to the mainland is actually going to depart, or if we will have to spend the winter on the island. Or at least stay until the lake freezes over and we and we can drive the 2 mile ice road back to land.

See: https://www.visitashland.com/member/ice-road-to-madeline-island/

The ice road gets plowed regularly and its edges are marked by discarded Christmas trees. When the icy water is too thick for ferry service but too thin for vehicles, the Madeline Island Windsled becomes operational. The Windsled is basically a flat-bottomed airboat that can travel on the ice but will float should the ice not be thick enough. (But it doesn't carry RV’s.)

OK, looks like the ferry is loading. Signing off now…

Our Latest Adventure Has Started, Not With a Bang, But With a Whimper - Part 3 of 3

Normally when someone has Covid, they are instructed to stay away from other members of their household. We couldn't do this since we are living together 24/7 in an indoor space that is about 20 x 6 x 6 feet and sleeping in a bed that is about 3 ½ feet wide.

Bob was exposed to Covid for a few hours over a Friday and Shabbos; I was marinating in it for days. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

By Monday, the day after Bob got the monoclonal antibodies, I was feeling flu-ish. We headed off to Lake Huron anyway. By Monday evening I was running a fever and felt like I had a bad case of the flu, some cold symptoms and had lost my sense of taste and smell.

Tuesday morning, just a week after we had left, Bob was feeling a lot better, but I was feeling so sick, we considered coming home. We tried unsuccessfully to find a place where I could get tested to confirm it was Covid. Drug stores that had big signs in front advertising “Covid Testing”, were not testing that week.

Finally, Bob found an urgent care center to test me (after waiting 1 ½ hours to be seen). I couldn’t believe it when the rapid test came back negative.

But the next day I was feeling a lot better. That afternoon, I got a call from the prior day's urgent care center, letting me know that my PCR test came back positive!

I was actually relived. I felt validated for all my kvetching.

We tried to set up an appointment for me to get the monoclonal antibodies. Very long story short, I was eventually put on a triage list, but told not to expect a call back. Since I was already starting to feel better, we gave up on trying to get me antibodies and continued on our way.

The end of this long and sad Covid story is that Boruch Hashem we are both well now, enjoying our trip and feeling better.

Just one more thing. This past Monday, 5 whole days after I was put on the monoclonal antibodies triage list, I got a call that I could schedule an appointment now! (Keep in mind that It is important to get these as soon as possible after infection.) Given that I was feeling much better and was actually in the middle of biking an 11 ½ mile loop in Marquette, MI that day (slowly and with numerous stops, of course) I told them thanks, and to give the appointment to someone sicker.

Moral of all this - Try not to get Covid, but if you do, don't get it in Michigan.

Coming up soon - Various Great Lakes and Lots of Lighthouses

Our Latest Adventure Has Started, Not With a Bang, But With a Whimper - Part 2

We had reserved a campground in Michigan for Wednesday (2nd night of our trip) based on its proximity to the Henry Ford Museum which we had planned to visit on Thursday. Instead, as I mentioned in my previous post, we spent Thursday visiting emergency rooms. Thursday was also the only day during our first week when it didn’t rain most of the day, just in the evening.

We camped Thursday night in the parking lot of the second emergency room. (Fortunately for us, and the local population I suppose, it wasn’t a busy hospital, so it was a quiet night.)

Friday afternoon I got my second (rapid) Covid test which was negative.

Because we had to hang around in the area till Sunday so Bob could get his antibody infusion (we hoped!), we went back to Wednesday’s campground for Friday and Shabbos. Not only was it near the Henry Ford Museum, it was on the beautiful shores of Lake Erie. It was also scenically located between the coal burning DTE Energy Monroe Power Plant and the Enrico Fermi II Nuclear Power Plant.

Straight ahead was a great view of the lake. Off to the side though, let me just say that we could always tell which way the wind was blowing.

Bob spent most of Shabbos sleeping while I read. Later in the afternoon, when it stopped raining for a while, I took a walk along the nature trail in the campground.

Sunday, Bob was able to get the infusion. Boruch Hashem. Sunday night we camped in the parking lot of that hospital.

Monday morning we headed off to a campground on the shores of Lake Huron. 

To be continued…

Views from the campgrounds

The morning we left the rain had stopped. For a while. There was a great sunrise.

Our Latest Adventure Has Started, Not With a Bang, But With a Whimper - Part 1

We left NJ on our latest adventure on Tuesday Oct 26th, at the tail end of a Nor'easter, two weeks ago. The very next day, on entry to Michigan (free testing at the Michigan Welcome Center!), Bob tested positive for Covid.

Bob had a mild case because he (we) had 2 doses of the Moderna Vaccine. (A booster had only just been approved. Ironically, we were planning to get it that week.) Were it not for the positive Covid test, he would have thought it was only a bad cold. We touched base with his primary care doctor who told Bob to go to any emergency room and get Monoclonal Antibodies. Easier said than done.

Bob spent the better part of Thursday, 3rd day into this trip, trying to get the infusion. Emergency Room #1 kept him for about 1½ hours until they let him know that they don’t give the infusion. And could not tell us who did.

Apparently, we could not just go to any hospital.

So, we called the Michigan Covid Hotline (number helpfully provided to us by the Michigan Welcome Center where we were tested) to get the names of hospitals where he could get the antibodies. One was about 15 minutes away. He tried calling to confirm but couldn’t get through. Because it was so close, I said to just go. Emergency Room #2 also kept him waiting about 1½ hours just to tell him they stopped giving the infusion 2 weeks ago. So much for the Michigan Covid Hotline!

Meanwhile, back in NJ, one of our sons found out that a friend of a friend worked at a hospital in Michigan that was giving the antibodies. Bob called and was able to set up an appointment! We couldn’t get a slot for Friday, so we set up an appointment for Sunday.

To be continued…

Our drive - Great fall foliage on display through the fog, rain, and occasional hail