Great Loop Date: 09.13.2010 (Monday): Over the Mountains and Around the Bend…

Day 32: 719.9 miles (today: 64.4 miles in 7.5 hours at 9.0 mph)
Port #12 – Pier 33, St. Joseph, MI

Well, that’s what my dad used to say when I’d ask “How much farther is it ?!?!?” The rolling waters Lake Michigan has dished out are starting to get to all of us, Charlie included. We would probably opt to stay in port on rolling days, waiting for a flat lake. However, Lake Michigan is just not going to give us a flat lake. A flat lake here would be a frozen lake!

In the last 32 days we’ve had 12 travel days. We did spend 4 days in Put in Bay by choice. That changes the calculation to 12 travel days in 28 days. Considering we left Mac City 13 days ago and have made 5 ports, our average for bad weather days is not the norm. We’re closer to 1 good day out of every 3 days!

Oh yes, and it’s Happy Anniversary! We’ve been living aboard and on our adventure in OB for a month now. All is STILL well…except for the cold Todd has picked up. Our life is comfortable.

Of course, comfortable is when we are at dockside. Again we made our way south in 2 to 3 foot seas belting us on the beam. It feels like a swizzle stick in a martini glass with someone swirling us full circle around.


As we went south, the sand dunes turned into limestone bluffs lined with big, beautiful homes.

I thought this was a quarrying operation.  It is two houses having the bluff terraced for gardens!

The bluffs diminished into lake level dunes but the houses continued.

The entrance into the St. Joe River was confusing with both lights on the same pier.

The St. Joe Lighthouse was built in 1846. In 1907 the pier was extended and a steel outer light was added.  It serves as a range light structure.  Lining the two lights up one in front of the other guides deeper draft freighters into the river.

Railroad swing bridge on the St. Joe River.  Sea Estate and NII Wishin had to wait for it to open.  It stayed open for us.

As we cruised up the river, sculptures were scattered throughout the first mile or so.

I almost missed this fellow.  A few of my surgery friends will remember my stickman drawings ;-)

Another pretty garden in the sculpture park.

After riots some years back, St. Joe is trying to bring back their tourism.  They definitely have their boaters back.

  Poor Charlie is feeling it too. A dog that can’t wait to eat has dissolved to eating half his meal and waiting for an hour to finish it off. His equilibrium has to be upside down.
Our little armada chose to stay farther up river in St. Joe (as it’s called). We docked at Pier 33, another nice marina. The docks were higher and metal so Charlie really balked at getting off the boat. Todd had to lift him onto the dock for each ‘relief’ walk. The last evening and morning, he noticed that the two steps up to ground level from the dock were open (he could see through them). Suddenly he took issue with that as well making me worry that he was going to fall into the river as he clumsily made way up or down the steps. So this has been another adventure for the poor fellow.

Charlie goes into total relaxation as soon as the rolling seas are done and the engines are turned off.

The marina was walking distance to Wolf Marine Store. Wolf has been a favorite of ours for many years now. They have always been present at both the Cedar Point Boat Show and the Cleveland Boat Show. We’ve taken advantage of their discounted prices especially when buying some bigger, more costly items (anchors and a refrigerator, to name a few). This visit we bought 4 lines (2 to replace the lines that were fouled in Leland), 4 chafe guards, 4 fender lines, one small fender (to replace the one we lost in Put in Bay) and some Marine Tex to patch in the door stop for the salon door. You know how happy the Captain was with that bill. The owner from Wolf’s was kind enough to drive us back to the boat with our treasurers.

Back at the boat, we arranged for Dial-A-Ride to pick us up and take us to WalMart so I could replenish our stocks. As we waited in front of Pier 33, a kind gentleman from who keeps his boat at the marina offered to take us to WalMart and we gladly accepted.

Lowe’s was right next to WalMart. Todd went over there to pick up wheels for the salon and port pilothouse doors. I gathered all we needed in WalMart. We came back to the boat in a Dial-A-Ride van. I have to comment that Dial-A-Ride is a national transportation service. Findlay could certainly benefit from it. Senior citizens (me) can ride for $0.75 to $1.00 anywhere in the area of operation. Folks not in the Senior age group ride for $1.50 to $2. Not a bad deal.

Todd and I live in such comfortable surroundings, it’s difficult when we see poverty. As we rode back to the marina, we picked up an older woman who had 4 huge bags of freshly washed and dried laundry. The van took her to her ‘condo’…an old, dilapidated, two story motel. She had to lug that laundry to the second floor. Her son came down and got some of it. We both said prayers for those folks and all who live in poverty.

Back at the marina, we enjoyed steaks on the BBQ. We haven’t had a steak since we left Put in Bay. They tasted mighty good. The red wine and dark chocolate after dinner wasn’t bad either. We did feel guilty enjoying our indulgence after what we had seen earlier.

As we got ready for bed, I noticed the water wasn’t running from the faucets as well as it had been. I’ve been using our onboard supply since the hose connections have not been handy for direct hook up. Thinking the problem was a low tank, I went to the bilge to switch to the full tank. The area below the water pump was wet. I looked with a flashlight and the water pump was dripping water. As seems to be our luck, it couldn’t do that before our trip to Wolf Marine, could it? So I guess we will pay West Marine a visit in Chicago.

Some interesting facts about St. Joseph/Benton Harbor:
• are locally known as the "Twin Cities". That could be confusing to folks from St. Paul/Minneapolis.
• was inhabited by both the Miami and Potawatomi Indian tribes.
• The St. Joseph River also allowed for connection with the Sauk Trail, which was the major land trail through Michigan. It started as Indian trails, became horse and buggy trails and, finally, highways.
• In 1669, the mouth of the river was discovered by European explorers. French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle built Fort Miami on the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. In 1679, he waited for the ship Le Griffon which never returned. Once the ship was deemed lost, LaSalle and his men made the first land crossing of the lower peninsula by Europeans.
• The next permanent white settler was William Burnett who started a fur trading post in 1780.
• In 1829, Calvin Britain, laid out the plat of the village, then known as Newburyport.
• The first lighthouse in St. Joseph battles Chicago's original lighthouse as the first to be built on Lake Michigan.
• Newburyport changed its name to St. Joseph when it was incorporated in 1834.
• The first water route across Lake Michigan between St. Joseph and Chicago began as a mail route in 1825.
• On October 11, 1898, Augustus Moore Herring took one of his gliders, fitted with a motor, to Silver Beach in St. Joseph. Herring’s machine lifted ever so slightly off the ground and actually flew for seven seconds. Eleven days later, the inventor made another flight of ten seconds. While Herring had a powered heavier-than-air craft, he did not have a way to control it. It was left to the Wright brothers to perfect controlled flight five years later, and give themselves and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, a place in history that might have ended up belonging to Herring and St. Joseph.
• In 1911, Louis, Emory, and Frederick Upton began a business that produced household washing machines. In 1929, Upton Machine Company merged with Nineteen Hundred Corp., taking the latter name. The company began marketing a line of appliances known as the "Whirlpool" brand in 1948. Whirlpool has its world headquarters outside Benton Harbor.


Benton Harbor has some interesting history, as well:
• In 1863, the settlement was given the name of Brunson Harbor. In 1865 the name of the settlement was changed to Benton Harbor in honor of Thomas Hart Benton, a Missouri Senator who helped Michigan achieve statehood. In 1866, Benton Harbor was organized as a village and in 1891 was incorporated as a city.
• One of the sites of interest in Benton Harbor are Shiloh House, built in 1910, which served as the administration building and men's dormitory for the House of David colony, a communal religious group.

So I had to check that out, too:

The Israelite House of David is a religious society that was founded by Benjamin and Mary Purnell in Benton Harbor, Michigan on March 17, 1903. At a very young age, David knew he wanted to preach. Throughout his life, he lived the New Testament. He felt he had been anointed as the Seventh Messenger (Rev.10:7) and his followers were anointed as well. A colony developed and called themselves the Israelite House of David (and is referred to as a commune today).

Difficulties arose for the colony in the 1920s, as 13 young women confessed in court that they had sex with the patriarch while being minors. The Detroit Free Press and other newspapers began running vulgar articles about Benjamin F. Purnell, just to discredit his character. Even though Mr. Purnell was tried for "public immorality," their claims were thrown out of court as false accusations similar to the Salem witch trials. According to published data, the Old House of David had 350 members in 1935, 24 of whom were clergy, and 150 members with 10 clergy in 1955. As of 2010, the group was reported to have three surviving members.