I woke up at about ten minutes to five this morning and could see out the window that there was already a glimmer of light on the horizon. I do love this time of year when I can get up at 6am to broad daylight and go to bed just after it gets dark after 10pm. The days are crazy long and it almost seems like it is light all the time.
Unfortunately, six months later, the opposite is true. Darkness reigns supreme. Oh the joys (and sorrows) of living in northern latitudes.
We checked the ferry schedule to Middle Bass Island and saw that the first ferry for the day was 9:15am. With a 20-minute drive time, it was very doable but we made sure we got on the road right away and then made final preparations in the parking lot for the ferry. We took our bikes along and packed the panniers with snacks and the second half of our Zimmerman’s sandwiches for lunch. We’ll usually order the full-size sandwich, eat half, then save the other half for another lunch. It’s usually a bit more cost effective that way. Economies of scale and all that.
The boat ride to the island took about 40 minutes. Not much to do during that time but enjoy the breeze and the scenery. Lots of lighthouses also around these parts and we sailed right by one of them.
Interesting to see all the large vacation homes perched on the water’s edge. One of them, created by the Ford Motor Company, is the forecastle of a cargo ship which spent over 50 years hauling logs and iron ore around the Great Lakes. It now is perched near Put-In-Bay, quite a landmark.
Middle Bass Island is not real big. We rode across the entire island twice and took several side trips down dirt pathways--and put a total of 16 miles on the bikes. Much of the island is privately owned, so several roads are not accessible to us mere mortals on bicycles. Middle Bass Island State Park and the Lonz Winery are about the only publicly accessible places. Other than that is ride the main roads. The East Point Nature Preserve is supposedly a nice section to visit, but it is accessible only by kayak.
After riding the island from end to end we stopped at the state park campground to search for sea glass on the beach. The tiny rocky beach off the campground contains lots of glass shards that have been pounded and rounded by the surf. One small section had them in abundance. We collected a couple handfuls and then headed to the state park office to see about renting a kayak to paddle around the island. We were there earlier and the rates were reasonable and the place was open until 4pm.
When we got there it was all locked up and a paper sign in the door said “Closed for Maintenance”.
Yeah, right.
That’s probably island talk for We’re not busy so we’ll just close up shop and go home.
So much for kayaking. Now we had three hours to kill and we’ve already been across the entire island. The ferry doesn’t leave until 5:15pm. We rode across the island again and we eventually ended up back at the campground collecting some more sea glass. Deb wanted to fill a jar with it and do some decorating so she wanted enough raw material for this.
We found quite a bit. We even found some shards of old pottery. Kind of made us think we were doing some sort of archaeological dig. We were hoping to find some uranium glass but later inspection with an ultraviolet flashlight did not reveal any.
The ferry left the island at 5:15, right on schedule. It was surprisingly full of vehicles, most of which were going back and forth about their business. Several were on the boat this morning, and were returning for the day. It wasn’t shown on the schedule, but we made a stop at Rattlesnake Island, where three more vehicles were waiting to board. Watching from the upper deck, it was rather interesting to see the juggling that was performed to get three vehicles on a boat that was already rather full. This delayed our return for a good half-hour, and we discovered when we disembarked that they finally fit everything by partially lowering the aft gate and backing up the garbage truck to hang over the back of the boat in order to fit that last pickup truck on the front.
Ok, so we’re easily entertained.
The result of all this was that we arrived back at the RV quite a bit later than planned and were roaring hungry. The leftovers that we threw in the fridge saved the day and we had dinner made up in short order. That’s the nice thing about an RV: you can make dinner right in the parking lot of the ferry terminal.
Now we’re back at the same backyard as last night, hoping the weather cools a bit. It was a warm day and is looking to be a warm night. Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain.
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