Thursday, August 27, 2009

The Soo Locks

We drove to the Soo Locks this morning, hoping to see the famous locks in operation. After spending a few minutes in the Visitor Center (run by the Corps of Engineers), we heard the announcement that the tug Undaunted was entering the locks with the barge Pere Marquette, so we went out and climbed the viewing platform to watch.

The massive ship, heading downstream, moved with deliberation into the nearest lock and was secured by heavy ropes against the side nearest us. Then the water level was dropped 21 feet, and the doors opened for it to exit into the North Channel of Lake Huron. As the barge passed us, we were surprised to see that it had a special notch in the back which surrounded its tug on three sides.

Little tug, big barge Tourists going through the locks

After lunch we packed up to leave and drove across the international bridge, from Sault Ste Marie, MI, to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada. Yes, we had to pull out the passports again and swap US dollars for Canadian Loonies.

We drove east on the TransCanada Highway 17, but this portion took us through much different countryside than we had experienced in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. We saw a few small farms, but mostly we saw lots of trees and some lakes. The terrain reminded us of Michigan.

We stopped for the night in Iron Bridge, only 75 miles from Sault Ste Marie, but we had started out at 2:30 p.m. and we wanted to stop before dinner. When we checked in at Viking Tent and Trailer Park, we bought some home picked green beans and cucumbers from the owner. Earlier in the day we had bagged some wild blueberries.

Ken set out the Qube, so we were able to watch the evening news. The coverage of Ted Kennedy’s death has been very touching for me, partly I guess because the deaths of his brothers were such traumatic and meaningful events in my youth. His devotion to making decent health care available to all Americans is touching too.

Today the weather cooperated with us. The sun shone most of the day, with only a few showers this evening, but we’re expecting cold rainy weather for the next

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