9/23/2012

Lighthouses of Lake Michigan

On Lake Michigan, there are 50 or so lighthouses. Some are large, old and works of art while others are small electronic structures.  Nevertheless, Michigan has 18 while Indiana has 6 and Illinois' contribution amounts to 30 or more.   Over the past few weeks, I've visited a few on the western shore in the state of Michigan.

Small lighthouse at St Joseph, Michigan
















Little Sable Point Lighthouse, Pentwater, Michigan
















White River Light Station, Whitehall, Michigan















Grand Haven Lighthouse, Grand Haven, Michigan















Just as I was about to leave the area, I saw a couple of people
in the water.  It's not something you would look for but found
a couple of surfers trying to catch a wave.  One who turned
out to be a girl was mildly successful.
















Grand Haven Channel Marker, Grand Haven, Michigan















Ludington North Pierhead Lighthouse, Ludington, Michigan
















Mackinac Lighthouse, Mackinaw, Michigan (one of several)














Near the Mackinac Lighthouse, is the mile long Mackinac
Bridge spanning lower Michigan and the upper peninsula.  It's
a big deal up here.

















As an added curiosity, there is a windfarm being installed just
offshore of Lake Michigan, near Pentwater and Ludington.  A
quick count out the window, suggest a couple of dozen of them
scattered across the countryside.

9/02/2012

Michigan....once again


I Received a call Friday morning from the home office, beckoning me too Ludington, Michigan. Of course, they wanted me there now. There were no flights out of Baton Rouge so I booked a 5:20 pm out of NOLA and enlisted the aid and truck of my brother-in-law for the trip to the airport.

It never entered my mind to check road conditions and 10 miles south, we found the interstate shut down due to flooding from Sorrento to LaPlace. I called DOTD asking about closures and the nice lady told me that I-10 and even I-55 was closed so we hooked back to Baton Rouge then took I-12 toward Covington & the Causeway. I found out too late that 55 from Hammond to LaPlace was not closed.

After rerouting back on I-12, we ran into congestion such as you could not imagine on an interstate. Realizing I would not make my flight, I called in and changed it to a 6 a.m. Saturday morning out of New Orleans.

Four hours later, we arrived at the airport

To shorten this tale, lights were still out near the airport rendering all the hotels nearby out of business, so I elected to camp out in the world's most uncomfortable seating currently available in US airports to wait for the sun to rise and an airport coffee shop to open.  The stores and shops close early at MSY so I managed to grab an overpriced shrimp poboy before everything shut down.

















It seemed like every 10 minutes some maintenance guy would roll a cart through making lots of noise or one of the cops would sail through on a 3 wheeled scooter and key his little Micky-Mouse siren, so there wasn't much sleeping going on. 

I may be getting too old for this nonsense.