Yesterday and today we travelled from the Houghton City RV Park to Soo Locks Campground in Sault Ste Marie, 265 miles. Both the weather and the traffic were good, plus Michigan state highways and US highways are generally in very good condition. The overnight low our last night in Houghton was 45 degrees.
On the way to Houghton we noticed a station in Baraga with some of the best fuel prices we have seen in Michigan. Yesterday when we filled up fuel was $3.39/gallon. The other times we bought fuel since leaving Missouri the fuel was $3.80-3.90/gallon. I think the station was on the L'Anse Indian Reservation, maybe that's why fuel was less expensive.
Below is a photo of a typical log hauler up here. They are loaded with 8' long logs stacked perpendicular to the direction of travel. Lots of axles.
Then it was on down the road to Tioga Creek Roadside Park, still in Baraga County, where we stopped for lunch. Kathy has purchased a dozen ears of sweet corn from a roadside stand the previous day. I husked four ears and we had sweet corn and some of the smoked whitefish we bought in Hancock.
We walked around the park a little and Kathy pointed out a path to the "Falls". It looked to rough for her but she talked me into walking down the path to the Falls.
This was the beginning of the path.
Then it turned into an obstacle course. Around the root balls of fallen trees.
There is actually a path off to the left.
Through wash out gullies.
And finally the "Falls"
Is that a beaver dam upstream of the Falls?
Later, when we were once again close to Lake Superior, we pulled off at another Roadside Park to enjoy the beauty. I think we were near Au Train.
Parked along the Scenic Overlook road.
Kathy enjoying the beauty.
Looking up and down the beach. There were a few people out on the beach. Kathy walked down and did some wading.
Then it was on to a Rest Area near Seney, MI where we pent the night. The overnight low was 42 degrees. We didn't put the slides out and I slept on one of the couches so that I didn't have to crawl back and forth across the bed. I woke up about 3AM and thought, "It is really cold in here." I turned on one of our gas furnaces and just snuggled a little deeper under the blanket. When I got up I realized that I had left a window and a vent open overnight. The furnace runs a lot when you leave a window and vent open.
We only had another 90 miles to get to Soo Locks Campground so we took our time getting around this morning. When we got close to Sault Ste Marie we were still to early to check in so we stopped at a Rest Area south of Sault Ste Marie and relaxed for awhile.
About 4:00PM we were finally set up at Soo Locks. It is a lot more crowded here that it appears.
While we were sitting outside we saw the Ojibwe, the small white boat, going to to a freighter headed downstream. It was unusual because she has always come along side them almost as soon as the come out of the locks. By the time they get this far from the locks she has normally pulled away from the freighter and is heading back to where she docks, next door.
Then we saw the Edgar Speer, one of the 1,000' Lakers, headed toward the locks. The Ojibwe was going to meet her. This was the first time we have ever seen her meet a ship going to the locks.
She normally sets an object or a pallet of objects on the freighters deck. As I watched it became apparent that she didn't have enough boom to land something on the deck. That's when I noticed the door open in the side of the Edgar Speer.
I couldn't see well enough to see if she was putting something through the door, or taking something out of the door.
The door has to be close to the water line when the freighter is full of ore. Maybe one of the reasons that the Ojibwe services freighters on their way downstream is because they set much lower in the water.
Today is Kathy's birthday, she turned 77.
God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.
No comments:
Post a Comment