July 20: Grand Rapids to Chicago

The drive from GR to Muskegon is an easy, 50-min freeway cruise and I'm at the Lake Express terminal in plenty of time... in fact I'm the first to arrive in the vehicle boarding queue. The ferry eventually arrives, 30 min late, and docks bow-in. It unloads passengers and vehicles, and we queued vehicles are summoned to drive on. I'm the first car waved on, so I get to be stuck right under a stern passenger stairway. I'll certainly not be first off, methinks (correctly).

We eventually depart, 30 min late, and head--sedately, due to the number of pleasure craft around--across Muskegon Lake to the navigation channel that opens out onto Lake Michigan. As we clear the breakwater, the 4 × MTU 16V 4000 (2320 kW) diesel engines are throttled up, and the 4 × Kamewa waterjets start to do their business for the 78-mile voyage. In a minute or two, we're up to our cruising speed of 39 mph, and the breeze across the top deck blows me down the stairs and into the comfort of the passenger saloon.

After 2½ hrs, we arrive at the Milwaukee Terminal, where the vessel docks stern-in, the ramp is lowered, and we're soon driving off. I stop momentarily once clear of the ship and the exit drive to program the car's GPS with my hotel destination in Chicago, and I'm soon out of Milwaukee and cruising at 70 mph down Interstate 94 in the growing dusk.

It's dark as I arrive into the northern suburbs of Chicago, and I'm grateful for GPS and Apple Carplay as I take my place in the solid line of red tail lights, and keep one eye on the Google Map display. The inner-city spaghetti junction known as the Jane M. Bryne Interchange has my eyes spinning as I somehow manage to make sense of my display, which has the arrow-head (me) somewhere off the blue line (the one I have to follow). But it's just that it's all happening too fast for the GPS, and the arrow-head soon darts back into place, to my great relief.

My Holiday Inn is about three minutes off that interchange, and I come up on it soo quick, I go past and have to 'chuck a blockie' to get back tor a second go. There's a public carpark right beside the hotel which costs $20 for 12 hrs. That's better than the hotel, which charges $65 to let you park there! I'll only be parking for one night, as I plan to take the car to the nearest Enterprise Rental outlet first thing in the morning.

I've chosen a good hotel, as it's a 5-min drive to drop the car, a 2-block walk to Union Station for my train on Thursday, and a 4-block walk to Stop 2 for the Hop-On/Hop-Off bus! But could I have gotten here in the growing dark without that GPS? I can't imagine it, without a navigator with a map on their knee.

I was ready for a bevvie... Czytaj więcej