September 16, 2017. Ludington, MI to Itasca State Park, MN.

We knew this would be our longest travel day. We left Summer's Inn to get in line for the ferry at 8 AM.  We boarded the SS Badger and the porters drove the trucks onto the boat.

We asked a stranger to take our "beginning of adventure" photo while on the ferry. Diana designed and purchased the shirts this year. Here we are in our "Rollin' on the River" shirts: Dianne, Doris, Dennis, Fred hiding behind Dennis, Bill, Diana, Tom and me.

Soon after boarding Dianne and I found a nice table to play Scrabble. We ate lunch on the boat to save time afterward--we still had an 8 or 9 hour drive ahead of us after the 4 hour ferry ride!

We finally arrived at the Itasca State Park Douglas Lodge at about 10:30 PM. I had called them earlier and they left the keys in an envelope taped to the doors of our rooms.