Lily Pad Travels: Summer of 18-#12-Indiana Dunes State Park, Michigan City Lighthouses, and Disasters

May 22nd, 2018

Today was a travel day. We needed to fill up with gas(petrol) and I had found a Pilot service station in Gilman, Illinois, with dedicated gas RV lanes. These are so much easier for Bryan to get in and out of but are few and far between unfortunately. Thanks Pilot!!!

We carried on and crossed into Indiana. Yippee, another sticker on our map.

We arrived at Indiana Dunes State Park, which had this lovely entrance.

The view from our site and Bryan taking the bikes off of the back of the car.

We got everything, including the satellite connected with no problems.

May 23rd, 2018

We had our day planned and off we went to Michigan City, Indiana to see lighthouses. We saw this as we were approaching the lighthouses. Our first thoughts were it was a nuclear plant!!! When we went to the lighthouse museum, a lady there told us it was a cooling tower for the power plant. Thank goodness for that.

We parked the car by the museum and walked down through the harbor and docks to Michigan City East Pier Lighthouse, Indiana.

The harbor

Our first peek of the pier lighthouse

Canadian Goose coming in to land

and landed!!!

Looking toward the drawbridge into the park and docks, with the bridge down.

On the way back we saw the bridge up to let boat traffic through.

We had a sit down for a few minutes and I went live on Facebook.

It was so very peaceful here and I was thinking of my Auntie Hilda whose funeral it was today, and our friend Kathy, whose funeral it will be tomorrow. They had both been at mums funeral and I remembered us all reminiscing after the service, and I had been helped by their recollection of memories they had. Wished I could have been there with them, but thankfully Ray will go. Thanks Ray. This was a perfect place to think of them. Rest in peace.

We started our walk along the pier to the lighthouse.

The iron walkway overhead was a means for the lighthouse keeper to reach the lighthouse in stormy weather, when the waves often came above the walkway we were on. Sooner him than me!!!!!

Bryan with the harbor light behind him, which is the other indicator to guide boats into the harbor channel.

and his picture of me from his standpoint.

Fisherman perched on the rocks fishing!!!

and my picture of Bryan getting ready to take the picture above.

Looking back to shore

We could see this tower in the distance and found out it was an observation tower in Washington Park Zoo. This is what the zoo website says about it. "The observation tower sits on top of a sand dune east of the Zoo and overlooks Lake Michigan. This tower was the creation of a steel railroad tower faced with limestone and the roof is topped with a spherical ornament reported to be a compression chamber from the city's first fire engine."

We started the walk back, there were a few more people around but really not that many.

View of the harbor through the dunes/walkway

We then went to the Old Michigan City Lighthouse, Indiana. It has been lovingly restored,it looks wonderful inside and out. The ladies there were very informative and helpful and we had a lovely tour.

The memorial stone below tells about the S S Eastland, an excursion ship that was chartered on July 24th, 1915 by Western Electric Company of Chicago. There were 2,501 of their employees and their families on board, headed for Michigan City for a picnic. 844 of them died. There are many reasons that are thought to have contributed, or caused this to happen, please read this story HERE. It is very sad and I hadn't heard of it before.

The anchor chain, in the picture below, has 844 individual links. Each link represents one of the 844 victims of the disaster. It is 265 feet long, which is the equivalent of the length of the S.S. Eastland.

It is incomprehensible to me how so many died while this ship was still boarding, and it was still in port. Design faults and the addition of extra lifeboats after the Titanic disaster seem to have contributed.

This memorial was very well thought out and an amazing recognition of the deceased who were heading to the park here for a picnic.

This display board was made to commemorate the 100th anniversary of this disaster.

and a picture of the disaster

Here are more pictures from the exhibits inside the old lighthouse.

In this picture the guide took out one of the lens and had me hold it up to my eyes and asked Bryan if he could see 4 eyes instead of 2. He said yes, but the picture doesn't reflect that. So, who knows!!! Ha!!Ha!!

I liked this picture that was on display.

An old stove

The guide played this for us after she had pumped it up!!

The stairwell

There were a lot of exhibits that didn't relate to the lighthouse or this area but were historically interesting.

This is purported to be a piece of the flag bunting that was on Lincoln's box at the Ford Theater the night he was assassinated. It is said to have caught in John Wilkes boot spur as he was escaping. This LINK is about John Wilkes Booth, the assassination and the story behind this bunting.

I learnt from this that Ulysses S Grant had been invited to the theater that night but declined at his wife's insistence. So, it's possible his life could have been shortened by 20 years if not for his wife.

Th next part was going up into the lightroom and then further up to the light.