A new high-speed, high-tech ferry has just started a crossing Lake Michigan, from Milwaukee to Muskegon, a 76 nautical miles journey in about two and a half hours. The ferry is an affordable alternative to flying to Muskegon and is faster and more relaxing than the six-hour 286-mile drive through Chicago traffic and around the southern end of Lake Michigan. The Lake Express has a capacity of 250 passengers and 46 vehicles. Officials from the new Lake Express car-passenger ferry say thousands of tickets were pre-sold. Local attractions include Muskegon’s Pere Marquette Beach and Michigan’s Adventure amusement park, which is just north of town.

I want to thank all the members who helped me in my research for a novel I was writing set on the liner Queen Elizabeth in the 1960s. ‘ Cherry Ice’ has recently been published by Penguin and it carries the following message in the Acknowledgements: – ‘Thanks are also due to the worldwide membership of the Globetrotters Club – very helpful via the Web in my search for the precise amount of the British Sterling travel allowance circa 1964, when no amount of studious research could provide me with a definitive answer. Not even Her Majesty’s Treasury nor Customs and Excise could provide the solution – in fact the latter came up with five different possibilities in a hilarious letter I shall always keep to make me smile in times of angst.’ – from Jill Laurimore