Follow the Lights ... Day 2

Starting Tripometer Reading: 279.3

Ending Tripometer Reading: 549.4

Lighthouses Viewed: 6

Our second day was just as rainy, but ended up being a very good day. It appears that we have spent the last two days in the remnants of Hurricane Ike. They say it's supposed to clear up by tomorrow afternoon, and we should have a sunny week!! One of the prettier lighthouses that we saw today was the White River Lighthouse (seen here):

We actually got to climb this particular lighthouse, although it wasn't very high. It is actually surprising that we were able to make it to any of the lighthouses over the past two days. It seems that each time we tried to follow the GPS system, we saw the following signs:

We got so frustrated at seeing those stupid signs, that I just had to take a picture. Okay, now on to the light of the day. Dannie and I picked the Big Sable Lighthouse (pronounced \sa-bul\). Although it might not have been the most beautiful lighthouse, the story behind it makes it special.

We arrived at the State Park in pouring rain (yeah, I know, hard to believe, huh). We were told we had to walk to the lighthouse, and it was a 1.8 mile hike over packed sand each way. We thought about it, and when Dannie looked at me and said "You up for an adventure??", we paid our admission fee, put on our rain jackets, and off we trekked. We arrived at the lighthouse cold and half soaked (the rain was only blowing in our faces, so only our front halves were wet). We spent over 1.5 hours at the lighthouse touring the facilities, climbing the tower, and touring the lightkeeper's house. The two volunteers were so friendly, they took us upstairs to an area of the house that is usually off limits to the public. They also allowed me to walk out on the catwalk, even though the wind was howling around (Dannie was a little too scared, cold, and wet to step out on the catwalk). Here is a picture of the wet trail that we hiked down to get to the lighthouse grounds; taken from the top of the tower.

Tomorrow is another day, and we're not quite sure how we're going to spend it. We might spend the day around Traverse City, we might take in some local lights, or we just might not do anything at all!!! I guess you'll have to check back tomorrow to see for yourself.

PS at 10:30 at night, Dannie is STILL COLD!!!