Oil city and steel galore - Day 2 & 3 Complete!

Yesterday we left the Wetzsteins house in Miller Beach. It was great to have some nice company, good food, and a comfy real bed for one last night. We packed up the boat and waved goodbye on glassy waters. We were off to tackle more northwest Indiana industry. This stetch of the trip is probably one of the hardest to get past, physically and mentally. (I know, I know it's only the beginning of the trip!) But in all seriousness, Mary and I are most excited about the more secluded and serene portions of the lake - and this area is definitely not one of them. The industry is not too pretty to look at, there are not many places to stop at all, and all of the pollution is quite depressing. There were piles of garbage and rusty steel pipes strewn along the "shoreline" made of huge boulders and steel sheeting. We paddled the majority of the way and then were able to pull up the sail as the wind picked up. The casinos came into sight and we decided that the waves were picking up a little too much to attempt to get around Arcelormittal Steel so we took Makeba into East Chicago Marina. When we arrived we pulled up to a wall and tied off to go find Nick who we had talked to about docking. He greeted us with a smile, a shower key, and some cold beers - what more could we ask for! There was a tiller repair to do so we pulled out our trusty g-flex epoxy and fixed her right up. In the evening my brother Erik came and met up with us. Unfortunately there aren't many camping options around this part of the lake, so we ended up going inland to camp and Erik treated us to a delicious pizza - yum! We love our macro bars, but that pizza was worth it! Day 3 just finished up! (it already feels like we've been out longer than that!) We passed the giant Arcelormittal Steel today. Why couldn't they just have kept a nice little channel to cross through? This relatively square section of industry juts out 6 miles into Lake Michigan. Combine this with the fact that we were getting a strong southwest wind this made for an interesting day. Lots of great stories including out sprinting a freighter and an underwater rock cave diving mission. These stories will come later today - we're off to paddle day 4! Bring it on Chicago.