I had an unwelcome surprise when I got to the Badger. The web site explained that people with motorcycles had to “bring two tie-downs per bike”. Fair enough: I bought a set and lugged them halfway around Lake Michigan for the Badger crew to use. The surprise was that the passengers are expected to secure the bike in the hold themselves. Um… why would they assume I know how to do this?

I’ve never even put my scooter on a truck, let alone knowing how to secure it on a car ferry (which I’ve never been on in my life). Sure, the principle seems obvious, but that’s a long way from being able to do it. (Kind of like… riding a motorcycle?) I searched with my iPhone for an online “how to”, and tried my best to improvise. Unsuccessfully. Fortunately a crewperson took pity on me and showed me that my tie-downs had been threaded wrong in the package, fixed them for me, and showed me how to tighten them (that part I could’ve figured out). But it was frustrating and embarrassing, and could have been avoided if they’d said what they meant: I needed to find someone ahead of time to show me how to do this. Instead they implied that all we had to do was “bring” the accessories needed to do what I thought was their job: transport us and our vehicles safely across the Lake.