Wind and Waves
When
driving on the Lake Superior Circle Tour last summer, Al and I passed by a road
sign for the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin. We hadn’t planned
enough days in our trip to include a visit to the islands, but talked about the
possibility of doing that another time.
Al,
a great planner of adventures, began researching it for this summer. The time
seemed right early in August to take a five-day trip, beginning with a passage
across Lake Michigan from Muskegon to
Milwaukee by ferry.
The
two-and-a-half-hour ferry boat ride was enjoyable and served to be a practical
way to avoid driving through Chicago! After spending Thursday night in
Milwaukee, we drove through serene farm country to Ashland, Wisconsin along
Lake Superior.
It
was cool and windy with a gray, threatening sky when we arrived in Ashland. We
were hoping to have a clear day for Saturday’s boat cruise that would take us
around the Apostle Islands. Thankfully, there was some sunshine by the time we boarded
the boat; and the captain reported that the waves had calmed down enough so
that he could take us on the entire tour to the outermost one, Devil’s Island.
While guiding the boat, the captain kept a
running commentary on the history of the area. He didn’t know why they had been
named the “Apostle” Islands, because there were twenty-one in all!
Many
of these small islands were used as posts for logging and fishing camps. In the
mid-1800’s, several lighthouses were constructed to guide ships as they traveled
through the area by night. Deer, bears and other wildlife are the main
inhabitants today.
The water became choppy as we passed sea caves
carved into sandstone cliffs by the wind and the waves. During the winter,
people walk over the ice to see the beautiful ice stalactites and ice
stalagmites inside the caves!
After
fulfilling the desire to see the Apostle Islands, we left Ashland on Sunday
morning and drove all day across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to the town of
Newberry, the gateway to the Tahquamenon Falls and Whitefish Point.
Monday’s
stops included looking for beach agates at Whitefish Point, touring a working
lighthouse established in 1861 and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. It was
surprising to learn that some of the past wrecks happened when the heavy barges
laden with commodities such as iron ore, copper, coal and grain went too fast
and crashed into each other!
However,
many ships including the famous Edmund Fitzgerald were swamped during horrific
storms that occur on the Great Lakes. Years later, the Edmund Fitzgerald’s copper
bell was recovered from the wreckage and put on display at the museum along
with the tragic stories of the 29 crew members who went down with the
barge.
From
Whitefish Point, we drove to both the Lower and Upper Tahquamenon Falls, dubbed
“Root Beer Falls,” from the unique brownish tinge of the water caused by the
leaching of tannin from the trees along the riverbank.
We still had an eighty-mile drive
south to Mackinaw City, where Al had arranged to stay in a hotel before taking
the last leg of the journey home on Tuesday. It turned out to be a very long
day…more to come next week!
The people who lived along the shores
and those who traveled over the waters of the Great Lakes faced many difficult
challenges from harsh, unpredictable weather conditions. In the same way, those
of Jesus’ disciples who were formerly fishermen were familiar with powerful storms
on the Sea of Galilee.
“A furious squall came up, and the
waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern
sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said, ‘Teacher, don’t you
care if we drown?’
He got up, rebuked the wind and said
to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely
calm.” (Mark
4:37-39)
Jesus’ words to the wind and the
waves speak to the storms that engulf us throughout our lives… “Quiet! Be
still!” In Him there is peace.
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