On Tuesday we went out geocaching with Paul and Barbara. They had never been caching and wanted to see what it was all about. They got very into it and have expressed an interest in becoming cachers. We found seven caches together and Paul found three of them on his own. One of the caches we found was our #100! This is a milestone for cachers. After our caching we had a nice dinner together.
Wednesday morning one of the caps in my mouth came loose. This is a pinned crown that seems to come loose at least once per year. I drove into Escanaba and found a dentist's office that was able to get me right in. The doctor took an Xray, glued the cap back on and I was out in less than an hour. Other than going back to the casino for dinner and a little gaming (unsuccessful), we didn't do much.
Thursday we packed up and headed East along the upper shores of Lake Michigan to St. Ignace. Paul and Barbara headed West - we will meet up again with them at the Full-timers rally in Hinckley, Minnesota. St. Ignace is the little town on the North side of the Straits of Mackinac. The Straits seperate Lake Michigan on the West side of Michigan from Lake Huron on the East side of Michigan. They also separate lower Michigan from the Upper Peninsula. The five mile long Mackinac Bridge connects the two Michigan's. Until the bridge was built in 1957 the only way to get to the U.P. was through Wisconsin like we came, or by ferry from Michigan. We settled into a nice little RV park on a hill overlooking Lake Huron.
Friday morning we got out early and headed over to Mackinac Island. This island is in Lake Huron, a couple miles off shore from St. Ignace. The island is only about six square miles in size
and the only way there is by ferry from either St. Ignace or Mackinaw City, on the South end of the bridge. The interesting thing is that no motorized vehicles are allowed on the island. There is a state highway that runs around the perimeter of the island, but no cars or trucks. All transportation is by walking, horseback, horse and buggy, or bicycle. Many of the homes on the island are mansions that date back to the late 1800's or early 1900's. It is a very pretty and interesting place to visit. We spent most of the day there, going through some of the many shops and just walking around the island. We also did some geocaching there, finding 5 caches on the island.On Saturday we decided to drive across the bridge to the lower part of Michigan and visit Mackinaw City. The drive across the bridge was pretty cool, the bridge is four lanes, but only the
two outside lanes are paved with asphalt, the two inside lanes are open grid work. The center of the bridge is 200 feet above the water and the bridge is five miles long. It is a toll bridge, but the toll is only $3 each way. While in Mackinaw City we did some shopping and some geocaching. We found five more caches down in lower Michigan. That night we had dinner back in St. Ignace on the North side of the bridge at a little restaurant in downtown called the Marina Pub. The food was very good and I would recommend it to anyone staying in the area.On Sunday we packed up for the arduous 55 mile trip north on I-75 to Sault St. Marie. This town is in the area where the St. Mary's River connects Lake Superior to the West to Lake Huron to the East. Our original plan was to stay at the Elks Lodge where they had four water/electric sites right on the river. When we got to the lodge there was one open site, but the grass was about 18 inches tall so we decided to go to the RV park about a half mile down the road. The RV park was also on the river, only six dollars more than the lodge and we were able to park on pavement. We had a great view, facing the river, and were able to watch the big ships go up and down the St. Mary's River. The center of the river is the dividing line between the U.S. and Canada so we were looking into Canada from our site.
After we got settled into the park we went to do some sightseeing in Sault St. Marie. We went
downtown and poked around in the shops for a little while, then went across the street to the Corps of Engineers park where the Soo Locks were. Unlike the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are the same height, the surface of Lake Superior is 21 feet, on average, higher than that of Lake Huron. The only way to get ships between the two lakes was to construct large locks to raise and lower the ships, depending on the direction they were traveling. The visitors center had a very interesting history of the locks at this site, the first of which was built in the early 1800's. Right now there are four large locks on the American side of the river and two on the Canadian side. Most of the large shipping traffic goes through the American side since those are the largest locks, over a thousand feet long and two hundred feet
wide. While we were there a large freighter came into the locks from Lake Huron (the lower lake) and we watched as they brought the ship into the lock, pumped up the water raising the ship 21 feet or so, then letting it out onto Lake Superior. It was very interesting to see how this process worked and to find out that there are some 60 million tons of shipping through the locks each year. That's a lot of ships!On Monday we got up early to go to Canada for the day. There is a large bridge over the river that connects the two countries. It only took us about 5 minutes to go through the Canadian entry point, although they did ask a lot of questions. We spend several hours driving around
looking at the sites in Sault St. Marie, Ontario, Canada, then did some geocaching. (Yes, there are caches all over the world) We found six caches in Canada. We then went by the Canadian Elks Lodge in Sault St. Marie, Ontario. We introduced ourselves and showed our American BPOE cards and were welcomed into the club. We had a couple of drinks and chatted with several of the guys in the bar. I was amused to note that Canadians (at least this bunch) really did say "hey" a lot! We got our first Canadian Elks Lodge pin for our banner. After we left the lodge we stopped at the duty free store located just before you got onto the bridge back to the USA. We found that booze was very cheap compared to the prices we had seen elsewhere in the Midwest USA. We bought two 1.75 Ltr. bottles of Absolute for $29.95 each - they sold for over $42 in the stores in Michigan and Wisconsin. The gal at the store told us that we would have to pay duty on the bottles when we went back to the States, but that it was only about $4 a bottle which still made it a bargain. I put the bottles on the back seat in plain view and we headed across the bridge. When we got to the entry post we gave the Immigration Officer our passports and he asked a couple of questions, including what we were doing in Canada. We told him we had gone over for some sightseeing and to do some geocaching. He asked what that was and we had a five minute conversation about what geocaching was. He handed our passports back and told us to go ahead. He never asked if we brought anything back.Tuesday afternoon we decided to do a little geocaching around the Sault St. Marie, Michigan area and found another six caches. Afterwards we went by the Elks Lodge where we were originally going to stay. It was a very pretty lodge with a great view of the river, but not especially friendly. We chatted with some folks at the bar, but they were visiting Elks also, staying in the RV park.
Wednesday, the 25th of June, we left Sault St. Marie and headed West to Ishpeming, Michigan. this is a small town just West of Marquette, Michigan on the shore of Lake Superior. The next day, Thursday, we drove into Marquette so Jackie could go to the urgent care facility. She seems to have a real bad cold or allergies and was feeling pretty lousy. The docs gave her some prescriptions and we drove around Marquette for a while, waiting for the Elks Lodge to open. We then stopped there and visited for a couple of drinks. The Marquette Lodge was very nice and very friendly. From there we drove about six miles West to the town of Nagaunee and stopped at the Elks Lodge there. Also a nice friendly lodge. When we left there we finally stopped at the Ishpeming Lodge, which was only about two miles from the RV park we were staying at. All three lodges had about 500 members or so and were very friendly. All three also had lodge pins available so we were able to add to our banner.
On Friday we packed up and headed West out of Michigan and back into Wisconsin, stopping at the little town of Saxon. Saxon is about 21 miles East of Ashland, which is a moderately large town. However, Saxon is in the middle of nowhere. We pulled into the RV park and found that it was an RV park, gas station and bar, all rolled into one. You registered for the park and bought your gas inside the bar. However, the park turned out to be OK, back in a little meadow surrounded by woods. Big sites with full hookups and pretty inexpensive. Unfortunately, there was NO phone service, NO wifi, and NO T-mobile Internet. Since we were only there two nights it was no big deal, but it was different to be completely out of touch for the first time in many months. That afternoon we drove into Ashland to see if we could find a laundry to wash clothes, but didn't find anything satisfactory. We drove by the Elks Lodge, which was a very large building with a golf course, however, Jackie was still feeling puny so we didn't go in. We thought we might go back the next day, but on Saturday Jackie was still not feeling well, so we stayed in for the day.
On Sunday we headed out of the North Woods and crossed into the great state of Minnesota at Duluth. Duluth, and its Wisconsin twin Superior, sit on the shore of Lake Superior at its far
Western end. From there we headed south on I-35 towards the town of Hinkley, Minnesota and our first rally of the 2008 summer series. With that we will end the saga of Yooperland and pick up next time with our rally adventures. We will be going to five rallies over most of July, all of them within a hundred miles or so of Minneapolis/St. Paul.We will catch you all up on the happenings after the rally tour. Until then, stay safe, have fun and enjoy your life. We are enjoying ours!
