[R. Dale Flick]

Dear Pete:
I knew you would be one to know the S.S. BADGER well. The account of shipping your auto is interesting. The deck crew, as stated, park all vehicles within inches of each other complete with side mirrors turned in to avoid busting them off. Two Harley Davidson clubs boarded at both ports with cycles for the transit. There are still remnants of the old train rails on the lower deck harkening to her rail work as built for C&O Railways. 'Easy access' facilities are provided for those challenged walking or in wheelchairs. Her bow is doubly reinforced for ice breaking conditions in the days when the BADGER and SPARTAN ran in tandem through the winter. I can't begin to conceive what a winter crossing was like in those days. While underway steam escapes from the lower sides above the water and, on looking closer, you can see the underwater jet of coal ashes. Fred Rutter got a closer look than I did during the coaling operation and said the fuel is smaller than nuggets--more like granules. The big coal truck drove in on the Wisconsin side, tipped up, shook a few times to dump the coal down through the steel gratings to the bunkers. On the return trip east later in the day crew members hosed and scrubbed the decks down. It was cool and windy with a storm front blowing up from the south. Forget cell phones in mid Lake Michigan. We called Woody and Bee Rutter back in Marietta, Ohio and tried to reach Doc Hawley on Frank Prudent's phone but with no luck. Coal smuts were evident but not as bad as some expected. The MOR group held a brief memorial on the port side in memory of the late 'Butch' Guenther presided over by Mike Jones with cameras clicking. As far as I know the MOR group was the only--and largest--group of its type aboard for both crossings. A number of passengers and crew approached us with questions as to who we were and where we came from showing such interest in the ship and her propulsion. I'm sure if we had a clutch of S&D brochures we could have nailed a few new members. During the docking operation in Ludinton, MI I talked to two ladies who had been driving for four days from British Columbia to attend a reunion in Michigan. Lots of interesting people from here and several foreign countries were aboard: Central America, Germany, France, England.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick - Leland, Michian - summer.