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16

We left Mackinac Island Tuesday afternoon headed for Chicago and spent that night on the long run up Lake Michigan. We were often out of sight of land with nothing but water in every direction. We passed one lighthouse far out in the lake out of sight of land. There were many lighthouses along the route, some standing startkly on a submerged rock far out in the lake. And everywhere there was shipping on the move, mostly big freighters, tankers and dredges of all colors, moving ponderously along pushing a big bow wave ahead of them. I enjoyed watching the helmsman high up on the bridge constantly moving the wheel to keep her right on course even though the weather was very quiet. As I guess I've said, we had virtually perfect weather the entire trip. Only on our last night, was there evn the threat of anything. It was moving down Lake Erie and the wind sprang up almost instantaneously, blew fiercely for about five minutes, and as quickly died away. During our cruise, the country was sweltering under one of the worst heat waves in history but on the water, we always enjoyed a breeze and were always comfortable. Only when we hit port, did we suffer. The next day in Chicago we discovered what heat could really be. It was 105° in the shade and almost unbearable. We had several hours there so we braved the heat anyhow and went into town for lunch at Marshall Field's among other things. I remember our lunching with the children in a dining room that was on one of the upper floors and surrounding the big central court than ran up through the building from first floor to roof. I don't think they had air-conditioning but it seems to me that it was a pleasant surprise to find it quite comfortable in there--I suppose if it had been 90 it would have felt good compared to the 105 outside. But I don't think we spent much time in town and were glad to get back to the ship where, along the lakefront, at least there was a little breeze. But we were even happier to embark and get out onto the lake where the relief was heavenly. As we looked back at the city, a haze hung close to the water, the skyscrapers rising above it and seeming to hang in the air.

After leaving Chicago Wednesday afternoon, the sightseeing aspects of the cruise were essentially over and the main objective of Captain Anderson was to get the SOUTH AMERICAN to Buffalo by Saturday morning early to get ready for the next load of cruisers. We stopped in Sarnia early Friday morning for fuel and I'm sure we made quick stops at Detroit and Cleveland, although maybe not the latter, but otherwise pushed right through for Buffalo. So the activities became on-board things including the always welcome sunning and admiring the scenery although the latter was pretty much a repetition of what we'd seen outbound. Consequently I'll devote the rest of this story to the shipboard life largely including some of the passengers and crew and, of course, the conclusion of the Dorothy Baptiste story.