LUDINGTON, Mich. — The Budweiser Clydesdales just wrapped up a week of appearances and events in Northern Michigan. Their visit to Michigan coincided with the Love Ludington Weekend, an annual festival in Ludington from June 9th through 11th.
This year's festivities also included celebrating the city's 150th anniversary. The eight-horse Clydesdale hitch paraded through downtown Ludington for ceremonial beer deliveries to customers and also stuck around after for public viewing and photos.
Their visit to Michigan ended as they boarded the SS Badger during its 70th season of making the journey back and forth between Michigan and Wisconsin. The Badger's Director of Marketing and Sales, Shelby Soberalskai explained that the horses travel via semi-truck.
"For lack of better terms, it's very comparable to a lot of the loads that we already carry," Soberalskai explained. "Their crew actually backs the trucks on board with our crew assisting them."
The Clydesdales team consists of ten horses, while eight of them will be hitched at a time. The ten horses are transported using three separate semi-trucks.
Soberalskai said the Badger is the only ferry that can carry a large load like that across the lake. She also described the process of backing the trucks onto the ship, saying it included making sure all passengers were accounted for and in the end only took around ten minutes since the Budweiser team has a "well-oiled operation" that she said worked very well with theirs.
Soberalskai also said that this is the second time the Clydesdales have sailed aboard the Badger.
"It was a special treat for our crew and our passengers that they sailed with us in 2012. And so it was awesome to have them sail with us again, that we hope they'll sail with us again in the future," she said.
The SS Badger makes the journey across the lake about 450 times each year as the last coal-fired passenger steamship in operation in the United States. The ship offers amenities such as bingo, movies, television, an arcade, two separate food service areas, two bars, and outside decks for lounging or walking. To book your own "trot" across the lake, visit ssbadger.com.
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