Arriving Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (7/28/2015)

I thought today was going to be a pretty easy, short day, but it turned out to be one of those days that just doesn't quit.  I walked down to say hi to Mazie this morning, and we ran into the "pie guy" from yesterday.  Lo and behold, he was staying in our campground.  He asked how the pie was, otherwise we would not have recognized him.  But he recognized us, go figure!

We were on the road by 9:20, and only had 72 miles to go.  Didn't see anything extraordinary on our drive into Sault Ste. Marie, and arrived at our campground about 11:00.  We had to move to a different campsite because the voltage was too low and kept kicking off the electricity, which shut everything down, including the A/C, because of our surge protector.  And it was hot here today, high 90s, so we definitely needed the A/C.  But we finally got situated ok, with a view of St. Mary's River, where the ships go between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.

We had a "to do" list for this town, so off we went, stopping for lunch, then on to Walmart to:  get Joe's glasses fixed (one of the nose pieces came off), and pick up a few groceries, keeping in mind that we will be crossing the border probably tomorrow so we didn't buy any fruit.  Well, first problem, Joe forgot his glasses.  Good thing we had put Walmart in the GPS because he would be coming back. I asked one of the clerks about what food we couldn't take across the border, and he said eggs and poultry was what they were not allowing into Canada because of the avian flu, so I gave one of the clerks my package of frozen chicken and checked out.  I have about 15 eggs in my refrigerator, so I guess I will be boiling eggs tonight.

We went back to camp, and I went up to do laundry while Joe went back to Walmart with his glasses, which they fixed for $1.98.  He drove around town, checking out viewing places for the locks here.  While he was gone, I called Canadian Customs to find out what we were not allowed to bring across.  Well, they were right about the eggs and poultry, but we could bring fruit in.  So when Joe got back from Walmart, Mazie and I got back in the car with him and off we went again, to a farmer's market we had seen on the way to Walmart.  They didn't have much, so we ended up back at Walmart (Joe for the 3rd time).  As we were leaving this time, we saw an Amish family arrive in their horse and buggy.

On the way home this time, I noticed a Verizon store and I mentioned it but he didn't hear me.  I'll get back to that later.  So we dropped Mazie off at the campground, then we went for a drive along the St. Mary's river, to see if we could see any ships.  We did see one ship pass the campground, but it had already come through the locks, heading east or south, who knows which direction anything is anymore? 

There is an infestation of may flies here, they about drive us crazy.  And it is very warm and humid, although it is supposed to rain tomorrow.  On our River drive, we saw a tugboat, and watched a ferry loaded with cars going to to Sugar Island.

Then Joe wanted to show me where we could view the ships passing through the locks.  As we got near there, he mentioned that we needed a Verizon store.  I told him I had seen one, and mentioned it, but he hadn't heard me.  It was down by Walmart.  So off we went again, just short of Walmart this time.  We spent almost an hour there, changing our Canada plan and trying to get the military discount he is entitled to, but I had left his DD214 back at the RV, so we didn't get that accomplished.  We closed that store (7:00 p.m.), stopped across the street at McDonalds, then we headed for the viewing platform at the locks. We lucked out here.  We sat down in the viewing stands to eat, and only had to wait about 15 minutes for a ship to come through!  That was cool.  It was 655 ft. long and 77 inches wide.  The lock it passed through, the Poe Lock, is the widest one at 110 ft., but the other ones in use are only 80 feet wide so that ship had to use the Poe Lock.

You can see how much higher the letters on the side of the ship are as the lock fills.

Another really cool thing was the railroad bridge just down from the locks.  It is one of those "elevator" bridges, and we watched a train cross while the ship was in the lock.  Actually, I think the ship had to wait for the train to get off the bridge (the train had stopped for a few minutes) before they let the ship move on.  So we got to watch the bridge raise like an elevator.

 And here is the ship passing under that elevated bridge.

 We stayed there until about 8:30, then walked in the Visitor Center and learned that we can call a number and get an estimate for when the ships will be coming through.  Too bad we didn't know that earlier.

The Four Lock Channels

 Then we walked across the street into some of the downtown gift shops.  We got back to the RV about 9:15, still wound up from our busy day.  We can see the river out the front window of the RV, so as I am trying to get the Verizon form filled out on the computer, I see lights moving out on the river and thought it was a ship, so I put my shoes back on and ran down to the river's edge to see.  It was just a tugboat and a barge, but the lights are so pretty across the river that I finally decided I had to take some pictures.  So I ran back to the RV, put the battery and picture chip back in the camera, and came back down to take some pictures.

Then about 15 minutes later, I saw lights moving again, and this time it was a ship, so back down to the river for more pictures.

I spent about an hour on the Verizon website but I think I finally got my form submitted.  We remembered the eggs about 11:30.  I decided to let them wait until morning because I always have time before Joe gets up.  But he decided we should boil them tonight, so he got them started, then went to bed.  They should be done at midnight.  And I just saw another ship go by.  But I have my nightgown on now, so I stayed inside.

So the Canada Verizon plan we are now on is:  500 minutes for me, 500 outgoing texts for me, unlimited incoming texts for me, 1 gig of data -- and we are turning Joe's phone off until we get back to the U.S., which will probably be 3-4 weeks.  We put it all on my phone, so if anyone needs to reach us, call or text me.  I won't be able to post my blog with this limited amount of data, so blogging will be sketchy for the duration, I'll have to depend on WiFi, and that is not very dependable at the campgrounds -- some of them have it but it's not strong enough to carry the load or something in the evenings.  Usually I can get on early in the mornings, but not always; but it apparently has too many people during the evening and we don't ever seem to be able to get it to connect. 

Well, it's 12:05 a.m.  The eggs are done.  It is time to call it a day!