No Thunderbirds but the Michipicoten Instead

On Sunday, I found out that the US Demonstration teams were using Selfridge as the staging base for their appearance in the London Air Show.  I was hoping to get some pictures of the planes because they were going to have the F-16, A-10, F-22, F-35 and the Thunderbirds.  Somebody on the planespotting group I'm on said that you could get good pictures from the Selfridge Museum, so I was going to go there to get some pictures.  Unfortunately, it was a drill weekend and they were having some issues with the system they use to grant clearance to get to the museum.  So we didn't get to the Museum and I didn't get pictures.  Apparently, I could have just stayed on the side of the road like the rest of the crowd but I didn't want to chance it.

I decided to go chase ships instead especially since there was one I wanted to catch.

I don't remember where she was coming down from but the Michipicoten was taking a break from her normal Marquette to Soo run and was heading down this way.

She was heading down to Toledo but since I'm not sure where she was coming from, I'm not sure what she was carrying.

Given that it was Toledo, she may have stopped at Port Dolomite or Drummon Island and picked up stone on the way.

Anyway, she is a rare visitor is these parts, so I was happy to catch her.

And I was especially happy to catch her on the downbound side.  I think loaded ships look better than unloaded ships.

They are certainly lower to the water.

And from the iron dust on her side, you can see that she is mostly used to carry iron.

Like I said her normal run is either Marquette or Duluth to the Soo.  She will pick up taconite in either spot and transport it to the steel mill on the Canadian side.

I'm not sure how many times she does this run in a season because it is fairly short compared to some of the other runs on the Lakes.

Marquette is roughly 12 hours sailing time from the Soo, with unloading time it is probably one day and a half to two days for a full cycle.

Compared to some of the trips on the Lakes, that is not bad at all.

One more shot with my normal camera.

And then I took to the air.  I am really liking this drone.

It was a little on the windy side on Sunday, so the drone was giving me the wind warnings.

And because of the water levels, I didn't really have much space to move around the little place where I pull off by Algonac State Park, but it was enough.

The almost beam shot.

And she continues on.

From this point it is roughly another 6 hours to Toledo.