771 miles
Did a short road trip to check out the dunes over in Michigan
coming from MN I booked passage on the last true coal fired steam driven car ferries still in operation. the SS Badger is a working historical landmark. If your interested it's pretty cool and although the ship has been updated over the years it's still coal fired and runs on a steam engine. it was a great experience and I'm glad I booked passage.
History : S.S Badger
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and this is the other ship they use for parts to keep the SS Badger running, can you imagine explaining to your wife you needed a parts ship? don't worry babe we can part that other ship out really quick and get rid of it!
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here is a link to the location of silver lake offroad
Google Maps
one special note: the regulations for flags are very specific and I figured I would get nicked for an official dunes flag. In MI your flag must be mounted on the front of the vehicle and in front of the front tires. your flag must be 9"x12" rectangular and must also be 10' off the ground.
the 2 shops of course have quick and easy flag setups. because yea I forgot to go read all the details hidden someplace about the flag rules.
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overall it was super fun to drive around and try to get stuck. the sandrails and trophy trucks are pretty cool and make short work of everything. a ton of jeeps were stuck trying to climb the biggest dunes. we tried a couple of times and always got stuck right at the top. meh. still fun.
My Rig ran perfect, rear locker made a huge difference in the sand, the external trans cooler setup kept the trans temps down in the 180's most of the time. the new AC setup kept us nice and cool and the electric fan ran perfect and kept the ECT right in 195-200.
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