Sault Ste Marie, MI

We left WaWa on Friday, 7/12, and drove South to the US.  However, we did make one final trip thru town to get coffee and some snacks.  The coffee/donut place we saw earlier in the week was actually closed!!  Tim Horton's coffee shop did not allow trailers in their parking lot, and,  I would not have tried as it was too narrow.  And, there were No Parking signs all along the road.

So, we said, we will drive until we find a place - well - 100 miles later we came to the first gas station, coffee shop, etc.  And with the best apple fritters.

Anyway, to get to the US, we followed the mountainous road around Lake Superior.

And we saw these signs every couple of miles.

Another sign near where we got coffee and apple fritters.

Here is the bridge over St. Mary River into the US.

And, of course, the border crossing.  No issues here for us.

We found our CG which is right on the St. Mary river where all the ships go from/to Lake Superior.
We hardly got setup when the first ship came by.

And then number 2.

And we almost missed number 3.

The next day it started all over again.

This one was actually coming from Lake Superior.  The ones before were all headed in the opposite direction.

And, then we had ships passing in the night (actually daytime!!).

We took a tour of the locks.

Here we are coming up on the lock.

We are tied to the side once we get in the lock with this rope and one up at the front of the boat.

This one just came out of the lock.

While we are in the lock, you can see a ship coming our way.

The locks begin to close.

Closed and water being forced into the lock.  Note swirls.

Lock is filled with water.

And ship is nearing the lock next to us.

We have left the lock now.

On the Canadian side is a huge plant that makes cable.

We are now headed back thru the lock, but this is the Canadian lock.  Very small.

This tugboat is headed for our lock as well.

Now that the water has been let out, this is what he looks like.

Our captain as we wait for the water to fill the lock.

This is actually the falls between the US and Canadian locks where the water flows from Lake Superior into St. Mary's River.

And this, although not fully in the picture is a power plant that is 1/4 mile long.  It has been in operation since 1902.

The tower provides a view of some 22 miles, but we did not go up it.

This ship will pass right by our tour boat.

Sunday morning we found this little Lutheran Church and went to the service.  It seemed very welcoming but we did have some issues which I won't discuss here.

After church we drove down the main drag and found a coffee shop - actually coffee and cinnamon apple crepes.  Very good.

Then on to this place.

I guess we didn't get a picture, but we were on a viewing stand watching the boats in the locks.

Here is the tour boat in the lock and a ship in the next lock over.

The locks closed and the boat dropped 21 feet.

We watched the ship as well.

Here it is after the water was let out of the lock so that it could continue down the river.

A couple of Adirondack chairs.

And a museum of sorts explaining the lock system.

When we got back to our campground, here comes the ship we saw going thru the locks.

The National Guard near our campground was testing their watercraft.

Interesting to watch how their boats are removed from the truck and put into the water.

This stop was extremely interesting and we hope to come back again some day.