Twenty-first Lighthouse Expedition

June 16 & 17, 1995
Cheboygan
First Day Issue of Great Lakes Lighthouse Postage Stamps

June 16, 1995, Friday

2:40 pm

Left home. We stopped at Manufactures Market Place in West Branch. Traffic not bad for a Friday.

6:55 pm

Arrived at the Star Gate Motel in Indian River. We ate dinner at Vivios – Italian/American Restaurant. Goooooood Pizza.

8:20 pm

Drove into Cheboygan and had a Dairy Queen.

9:40 pm

Arrived back at the Star Gate for the night.

June 17, 1995, Saturday

7:30 am

We left the Star Gate Motel in Indian River.

8:00 am

Arrived at the boat dock in Cheboygan. We were just checking to see where the dock was to take our trip later in the day and found out they had added an 8:00 am. trip because of all the inquiries. Lots of people will be in the area today because of the stamp celebration.

8:15 am

The boat left the dock. We saw 4 lighthouses on the boat trip. Fourteen Foot Shoal, Cheboygan Crib and Poe Reef. (all of which we had seen before from shore on our first trip in 1987.), and then Spectacle Reef Light – the one chosen on Lake Huron for the postage stamp. We had not seen this light before. The captain slowed down so we could get pictures of each light. One of the women on the trip said her father had been a keeper at Poe Reef Light.

10:15 am

Arrived back at the dock. We went to the Ice Arena for the Stamp and Lighthouse displays. We bought several cachets – first day issue covers with the First Day Issue cancellations. We also got T-shirts, mugs, stamps and a special poster by John Wagner, the aerial photographer whose GREAT book we bought last year. The poster is the aerial views of the 5 lights chosen for the stamps, along with First Day Issue cancelled stamps and signed by John Wagner. It was great to meet him and tell him in person how much we enjoy his book. Our poster is #22 of 999.

12:30 pm

We went to the art fair in town and had lunch at a KFC. We drove to a roadside park on M-23 north of Cheboygan for about an hour and enjoyed the beach. The weather was beautiful – 83 and sunny. We went back to town and did a little shopping. We drove to the Coast Guard Station for the ceremony.

4:00 pm

The First Day Issue Ceremony began. We each received a program with a set of cancelled stamps! We enjoyed the fanfare along with lots of other people. Many dignetaries were there. It was interesting to learn how subjects are chosen for commerative stamps. The Great Lakes Lighthouses were chosen after the first set of lighthouse stamps did not include any Great Lakes lighthouses and many protested. It was even better this way – we got a set all our own.

5:00 pm

The ceremony was not quite over but we had a long drive home.

7:00 pm

Stopped at a Burger King in West Branch and took our dinner with us in the car.

8:20 pm

Stopped at the Manufactures Marketplace in Birch Run.

9:20 pm

Arrived home.

Trip Totals: 4 Lighthouses (1 new), 550 miles, 2 days.

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Lighthouses: A Photographic Journey
Conceived and Developed by David S. Carter
Photographs by Donald W. Carter
Text by Diana K. Carter, Donald W. Carter & David S. Carter

Copyright © 1995, 1996 David S. Carter, Donald W. Carter, & Diana K. Carter. All rights reserved. Reproduction by any means, physical or electronic, in part or in full, without the express permission of the authors, is strictly prohibited.