Catching an Old Friend

As I said in a previous post, my original plan was to catch the Blough was she was passing under the Mackinac Bridge.  I knew there would be no way I could get up early enough but I figured I could make it to the Bridge in time.  As I made a stop somewhere, I saw that I could catch the Cort at the Soo.  Since the Soo only goes between Gary and Superior or Duluth, I had to go see her instead.

 The Stewart Cort has the distinction of being the first 1000 footer on the Great Lakes.  She was not entirely built on the Lakes though.

 They sometimes call her Stubby because a shortened version of her was sent through the Welland Canal.  It was cut and extended at one of the shipyards on the Great Lakes.

 You can see the #1 on her deckhouse.  That is showing her status as the first 1000 footer.

 It's funny because the first 1000 footer could have been the Blough.  The executives at US Steel didn't think a 1000 footer could make the turn at Johnson's cut, so they shortened her.

 I wondered if they realized that bow thrusters and what not would help her make that turn.  As it was, the Blough still wouldn't be first because she had a fire during construction and that delayed her entering service.

 At any rate, it is nice that the first thousand footer has the configuration of a classic laker.  Including the look of a straight decker (versus having the unloading boom).

 She has a shuttle system that is similar to the Blough but unfortunately for her, that limits the number of ports she can visit.

 In fact, I think I heard that the Cort might be headed to layup soon.  I'm not sure how many ships are laid up but that is quite a few.  Given the nature of the products these ships support, that can't bode well for the economy.

 Anyway, it was nice to see her.

 Her pilothouse.

 Her deckhouse.

 The rear of her pilothouse.

 Her unloading system.

And one more shot as she continues on to the Locks.

Indian Paintbrush

After catching the Clarke and the butterflies, I headed back to the Soo.  I needed to use the facilities and there is a roadside table on the side of the highway.  The roadside table is an earlier version of a rest area.  Typically they are found along the side of state and US highways.

 My mom said this is Indian paintbrush.  People on a site I go to on Facebook say something different.  I'll go with what my mom says.

Whatever it's called, it's pretty.

Catching an Eastern Swallowtail

As I was getting my pictures of the Clarke, I noticed some lilac bushes.  There were some butterflies flying around them.  I tried to get some pictures of the butterfly.

 I will note that I say tried.  The butterfly wasn't being particularly cooperative.  He'd stand still for a brief second but usually it was somewhere I couldn't get a picture of him.

 This is almost my favorite picture of the day.  You can tell that it is an Eastern tiger swallowtail.

 Sadly they would duck behind the flowers and I'd get a stern shot.

I think I like this one the best.

I even tried to get a shot of one in the air.....that was even less successful.

The Philip R. Clarke at Drummond Island

It turns out that the Philip Clarke was docked at Drummond Island.

 I think she was actually loading here.  There is a quarry somewhere on Drummond Island.  I'm not sure where the use the stone.  I have seen ships docked here before.

I'm not sure where she was heading after this but it was cool to see her here.  Within the last week, I found out that she was heading into layup in Toledo.  It seems that loads are down this year due to Covid-19.  I'm hoping that things will pick up soon because I found out that the Blough was heading to layup as well.  I was hoping that I would go catch her yesterday but I wasn't sure when she would be passing under the Bridge.  So I ended up chasing other ships instead.

Catching a Lady's Slipper

I'm still working on my backlog of pictures, so please bear with me.  It's not that I don't have time on my hand, it's more that I'm using that time to go out and take more pictures.  When I get home, I don't feel like uploading them because I usually have to put words with these pictures.

Anyway, I decided to head up north on 6/26/20.  I was going to just go up to Mackinaw City and catch the Blough as she passed under the bridge but I saw that the Cort would be passing by the Soo in about the time I could get there.  It also helped that some of the boatnerds were still having their Engineer's weekend gathering, so I decided to head there.

 I ended up heading up to the Soo by way of Detour.  I saw that there was boat docked at Drummond Island and I wanted to get pictures of her.  As I found a park where I could get a decent shot, my mom pointed out that there were some lady slipper flowers there.  I tried to get pictures but unfortunately not the greatest.

this was probably my favorite shot.  Maybe if I cropped it, it would be a little better.

And I was right.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

Fighters Over Toledo

So it wasn't too long before I heard the sound of an F-16 taking off with full afterburners.  After hearing that, I don't understand how people complain about the sound of modern passenger jets taking off.   The F-16s were loud and it was a pretty cool sound.

 As I said before, the Wing has been here a while.  They've had the F-16 since the early 90's.  I like the way the afterburner pattern sets off against the dusk sky.

 this one wasn't taking off with afterburners but it was still loud.

 After about 15 minutes or so, the next group started to take off.

 This one has the squadron markers.  The squadron itself is called the "Stingers".

 I kind of like the idea of seeing a loaded combat plane.

 then there was another group.

 If this is like other traditions, this one may belong to the squadron leader because the markings are in color.

 I didn't see any more F-16s, but I did see this Cessna.  It was probably a good thing I didn't see any more F-16s because I was losing my light.

 I saw this one on FlightRadar, so I figured I would stick around to see it take off.  It was an Allegiant A320 heading to Fort Lauderdale.  I think Allegiant operates a couple of flights out of Toledo.

This plane was getting loaded near me and I heard it as it spooled up for take off.  Even though it was almost dark, I decided to stick around to see if I could get some take off pictures.  Unfortunately, this was the best I could do.

The Moon Over Toledo

So last Thursday I headed over to Toledo.  I heard that the National Guard unit there was going to be doing some training.  I wanted some dusk shots because I saw some on twitter and liked the looks as they were taking off with afterburners.

As I was waiting for the planes, I looked over at the moon and thought it looked pretty cool.