Lunch in a Foreign Country

Sault St. Marie
Elk's Lodge 

Yesterday was spent going to the Soo Locks Visitor Center with Don and Sharon Del Rosario.  We watched a couple of movies explaining the locks and some history of Sault St. Marie.

Our tour guides Sharon and Don Del Rosario.

I was amazed to learn that Sault St. Marie, French for St. Marys Falls, was the third oldest city in America.  St. Augustine and Santa Fe were older.  

They had a replica of the locks to show you how they work.

This was a large picture of the locks.

One 1000 foot Laker is equal to 2308 large trucks of 26 tons of  cargo each.  Can you imagine how many more trucks would be on the highway if it weren't for all the cargo these Lakers carry?  The brochure said that transportation costs savings by using the water route saves the nation 450 million dollars.  

The very first lock was built in the late 1700's on the Canadian side but was destroyed in the War of 1812.  The first American company built a toll lock in 1853.  The US Army Corps of Engineers was given jurisdiction in 1881 and does not charge a toll.  

They posted the next time a large freighter was due to go through the locks  but it wasn't until 5 pm.  We decided to go back and relax and then return to watch the ship go through.  

As we were relaxing and watching the view out our window we saw the sky get dark and all the geese jumped in the water and huddled together.  The next thing we knew the rain was pounding on the 5er.  We could see whitecaps in the water.  I don't ever remember being in such heavy rain.  It didn't last long but we decided not to venture out.  

This morning around 5 am we had another big storm come through but by the time we were ready to leave the sun came out.

Don drove by the locks visitor center and I was going to run in and check when the next big ship was going through.  As I jumped out of the car, I realized there was one in the locks. Don parked the car and we all went to the observation platform to watch.    

Here's the ship as it comes into the lock.

I didn't get the information on this ship but I don't believe it was 1000 feet.  You can see the bridge to Canada in the background.  This ship is going downstream.

You can see this ship being lowered in the lock.

Besides the great timing to find a ship in the lock, we got a double dipper.  This tour ship was going upstream and was in the other lock.

Here's the tour boat being lifting up and ready to leave the lock.  

Our chauffeur,  Don, driving over the bridge to Canada.

Now we are in Canada.  I was surprised that we had to show our passports entering Canada.

In case you don't recognize it, this is art.

I guess it just isn't my kind of art.

We made a stop in the visitor center for a restaurant listing.

Don came out laughing because they had signs over the urinal advertising bags for sale at $1.13.  There was also a sign in the ladies room advertising their bags for sale. There were some comments made I won't mention here. 

We decided on Chinese for lunch.  There was no one else in the restaurant when we arrived.  There may have been a reason no one was there. 

Our trip back to the US was uneventful except for the usual problem Bill has with his passport.  Ever since we renewed his Bill's won't go through the machine.  

Here's our site at the Elks and from Canada we could see our 5er but I didn't get a picture.  

Bill polished the truck and I think this bird was waiting until he finished to poop on it. 

Tomorrow we are traveling less than a 100 miles to St. Ignace, Michigan. 

Turtle Safely......