Saginaw Bay – Bay City

The Inside of the Thumb – Port Crescent to Sebewaing

The M-25 is the rural highway that hugs the coastline of the Thumb. I’d followed it along the Eastern side from Lakeport to Port Austin, and it was fairly consistent – long stretches of views of the rocky coastline, broken up by occasional small towns on sheltered bays, often featuring a sand beach or marina.  But when you turn back Southwest after passing the tip of the Thumb, the character changes significantly. Here the coast is primarily private property, so most glimpses of the water are between closely spaced vacation houses perched on the edge of the shore. From time to time you encounter a public park or access area, but it’s obvious this is where the downstate Michiganders keep their summer cottages “up North” as they say.

Practically every house has a shingle hung at the road identifying it, be it the simple name:  Schumacher, Alejski, Czarniak or the ever popular vacation house names my step-mother Mary Ann loathes like For Sail, Shore Leave or the perennial Do Drop Inn. On this side of the thumb, the favored product to vend roadside changes as well, from firewood to ice cream.

I noticed one other trend of interest that I had not encountered before:  off shore boat storage. A lot of these lake houses didn’t have a traditional boat dock. Instead, there would be a steel frame positioned twenty feet or so out in the lake where a small boat or sea-doo was kept. It appeared the craft was lifted out of the water via a crank and cable contraption and then just left there a couple feet above the water until it was needed again. I only had brief glimpses as I drove, so I didn’t get to see one loading or unloading, or how the owners got to and from the thing in the first place. Perhaps one of my readers has experience with these and will elaborate in the comments.

I had hoped to find a spot to camp for the night somewhere along the inner Thumb, but between my lack of reservations and limited public lands that didn’t pan out, so I continued South to Saginaw Bay.

Bay City

I arrived in Bay City a day before I had a campsite at Bay City State Park, smack dab in the middle of their Fireworks Festival.  It was the 6th of July, but they take their skyrockets very seriously in Bay City, with nightly shows  leading up to a 36 minute long mega-finale on Saturday. This was what I had come for, but with no other place to stay I had to fall back on my emergency contingency plan: the Walmart parking lot.

There are people who cross the country “camping” at Wallyworld, a practice that is encouraged by the corporate overlords, and tolerated by local store managers where local laws don’t attempt to prohibit it. I am grateful for the option the company offers, and I patronize their stores frequently for supplies. However it is not something I like to do, and avoid it if any other option is available. Enough said about that.

Early the next morning I moved over to the State Park, which was jam packed but still much more to my liking. After getting the trailer set up and myself squared away I headed back into town for the fireworks show. I must say it was very impressive. The show was free, but if you wanted parking within a mile you had to pay.

I located an office building with a large parking lot across the river from the launch site that was being run by the United Way – expensive, but it was for charity. There was a bit of drama before the show began when one reveler tried to swim across the river and the Sheriff boat had to effect a rescue, and then the massive show got under way. I especially appreciated the fact that there was not a sound system blasting patriotic ditties by country music stars during the show. I’m sorry folks, but Lee Greenwood has just about ruined fireworks in the South for me. 🙁

It was one of the best fireworks displays I’ve seen in years. Here are some outtakes:

USS Edson

On the way in, I had spotted a Navy ship tied up in the river downtown. A little research revealed this was museum ship USS Edson, a Vietnam-era destroyer. I had a few days booked in Bay City, so I checked her out a couple days later.

My overall impression was that the Edson was in a much more original/raw state than other museum ships I had been aboard. Despite the fact that she had been in the Intrepid Museum in NYC for 15 years, it still felt as if the Edson was fresh from active service. Part of this was because most of the ship’s spaces were open to the public, something that is definitely not the case on the much larger battleships and aircraft carriers. Some of those spaces contained a bit of a hodge-podge of items in display cases. Stuff that was military-related but really didn’t have a connection with the Edson specifically. Add that to the fact that the day I was there volunteers were actively working on repairs, and the resulting impression was of an amateur work in progress, not a slick professionally produced museum.  I liked this, and enjoyed a nice chat with one of the old guys working on restoration.

Since most of the other ships I have toured were built decades before the Edson was commissioned in 1958, it was also interesting to see the advancements in technology in this age of naval hardware. Transistors replacing vacuum tubes, vastly improved radar, automated guns and climate controlled crew spaces were noteable changes. Though I think of destroyers as escort vessels and sub hunters, the Edson’s career was primarily as an artillery sharpshooter. Her five inch guns were highly accurate at ranges up to 9 miles. With a rate of fire of 35 rounds a minute each, her three guns could put a lot of shells on an inland target in a hurry.

The Edson tour is self guided, so I spent a half day exploring her thoroughly. Here are some highlights:

My Pop always used to call Kool-Ade “bug juice”. I thought that was weird when I was a kid, because I never heard anybody else use that term. The museum rents out the chow hall on the Edson to groups as a way to raise funds. Down at the end of the steam line, I noticed this:

 

Next time: Right Side of the Mitten – Tawas City to Alpena