Monday, August 15th - Another Gorgeous Day in the UP

Last nights low was 55 and todays high was a mostly sunny 79. With the light breeze the temperature was just right for sitting out by the river reading and boat watching.

I dug out (Actually Kathy dug it out) my old Nikon Cool Pix digital camera to see if it still worked OK, and to see how it compared to the camera in my phone. It doesn't have as high a claimed resolution as my phone does, but it has both an optical (zoom lens) an a digital zoom.

Yesterday I mentioned giving up on taking photos of the planes across the river taking off. Took the series below with the Nikon, at different zoom levels.

No zoom, but cropped photo. Note the light colored building in the middle of the photo.

Partially  zoomed, and cropped.

Fully zoomed.

I was a little slow with this one. I had put the camera away and been reading when I heard the planes engine winding up. By the time I got the camera out it was already in the air.

We had fish for lunch at Lockview Restaurant. We had eaten there when we were here a few weeks ago. It was better then. The fish was adequate today, just not great. I'd much rather have had a 2 piece fish & fries from Long John Silvers, for half the price, than what I had today.

After lunch Kathy window shopped a few of the stores up and down the street and I went to the Lock Visitors Center.

There is a closed circuit camera feeding a screen that is inside the Visitor's Center. The ground is all the same elevation. The water level in both of the locks was up near the level of Lake Superior. The two tourist boats were in the 800' long MacArthur Lock. The freighter is in the 1,200' long Poe Lock.

I took a photo of an aerial photo that was on the wall of the Center. The 800' long by 80' wide by 29.5' deep MacArthur Lock is on the left. The 1,200' long by 110' wide by 32' deep Poe lock is the 2nd one from the left. The 1,350' long by 80' wide by 23' deep Davis Lock is next. It was opened in 1914 and closed in 2018. It is to shallow for much of today's traffic. Next is the 1,350' by 80' wide by 23' deep Sabin Lock was opened in 1919 and closed in 1989, again because it is to shallow for much of today's traffic. Contractors are currently in the process of deepening the channel leading to the Davis and Sabin Locks. They will be demolished and replaced with a new Poe size lock. The new lock is scheduled to be operational by 2030.

 

It takes a freighter about 9 hours to travel the 63 mile long St. Marys river, to get from Lake Superior to Lake Huron.

A ship going from Duluth, MN to the Atlantic travels 2, 342 miles through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence seaway.

The entire Visitors area is fenced with a 7' high fence. On the way back to the car I noticed these cables just inside the fence. The black fence is capable stopping a person from entering the grounds, but not a big vehicle. My guess is that the cables were installed to stop a truck full of explosives from getting to the locks and damaging them. 75 million tons or cargo pass through the locks each year. A lot of that is iron ore that feeds the US steel industry.

Back boat watching from the campground we got to see 4 at one time. The one on the left must have just come out of the Poe Lock, it was to long to fit in the MacArthur Lock. The one on the right was headed upstream to the Locks.

This one must have just come out  of the MacArthur Lock. 

This ship below is a State of Michigan training vessel. it was headed upstream but docked short of the locks.

I still didn't get the coach aluminum wheels polished but did manage to get them washed today. Maybe I will get them polished manana.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.