Sault Saint Marie
Back on the road headed for Sault (Soo) Saint Marie about 50 miles away.
We lucked out and got one of the four slots at the Elks Club. We really got the best site, an unobstructed view of the St Mary's River with Canada on the other side.
Right next door was the boat tours for the locks.
The first day we decided to head for the International Bridge and Canada
This is the end of I-75
The border, I did leave my guns back at the RV.
Going into Canada.
We went to a Walmart in Canada to buy some Canadian cough syrup, Buckley's, it really works.
and back in the USA.
It took about 20 minutes to get through the Canadian customs and about 50 minutes for the US customs.
finally back
One of the ships that just finished going through the locks as viewed from our RV.
A day time view of 2 ships passing, one leaving the locks and one going to them.
These ships are up to a little over 1,000 feet long and up to 93 feet wide.
One of the longer ships
The tour boat
Even a USCG cutter
and our favorite was the night scenes.
Our tour boat coming to pick us up.
Leaving on the tour, we had a good view of our RV
We went down river for a buffet, this took about 45 minutes
when we returned to go through the locks, this is what our RV looked like. Fogged in.
Then to the locks. Note the red light on the right side, do not enter.
The locks are operated by the US Army Corp of Engineering and are completely free to all users.
Now green so we head in.
It was kind of cold on deck but very interesting.
The water level has to be raised 21 feet before opening the gates.
coming up
By the way, it is all done by gravity, no pumps.
And about there
And the gates open
The US has 2 locks, one for small boats and 1 that will hold ships up to about 1100 feet long and 100 feet wide.
While we were in the smaller locks a 700 foot ship was in the larger going the other way.
Another large ship was waiting to enter the locks as soon as the other one left.
The International Bridge is in the background.
We go under the bridge.
After crusing around a bit, we headed back via the smallest of the 3 locks. This one in on the Canadian side and operated by the Canadian government.
Pleasure boats, wave riders, kayaks, canoes etc all use this set and it is free also.
water starting to go down
Gates open and we head home.
Shortly after leaving the locks, we got back into the fog. We went back into the cabin so no more pictures.
Near the locks there is a small museum of shipwrecks on the lakes.
Not much there but we did find this replica of a diver interesting. It is the most lifelike I have ever seen.
The US Army maintains a great park and museum on the grounds surrounding the locks.
The locks are designed to handle 1,000 foot long and 100 feet wide ships.
It takes 22 million gallons of water to lift a ship.
A ship leaving Duluth, MN has to travel 2,342 miles to reach the open sea.
Click on this picture to read about each of the Great Lakes.
One fifth of all the fresh water in the world in in these lakes.
Lake Superior holds the most water of any fresh water lake in the world. It is the second largest but the deepest.
A 700 foot long ship entering the locks in the middle of the picture.
Water level going down
down
gates open.
large ships passing in front of our RV site.
We never got tired of watching them
We never got tired of watching them
We had 2 otters that lived at the end of our little spit of land. They would come out in the evening.
We found a couple of great places to eat.
The Lock View had Cajan Fried Whitefish
and Clyde's Drive-in. We tried something new here, an "olive burger". A burger covered with chopped up green olives. Very tasty
As sometimes things happen, we had a problem and had to head back south.
Back over the bridge
one night at a Walmart and 2 days getting repairs.
The next blog will be back in the Upper Peninsula.
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