It wasn’t a long drive to Sault Saint Marie this is the Michigan side. Headed to Aune Osborn RV Camp Ground.

The next morning we headed over to the Canadian side. When Pat, Shari’s husband found out we were headed here he told us his first job in 1960 and he was there for 6 years on the Canadian side beside the bridge. However the bridge was being built back then.

We googled bike shops and went to one called Velorution. They didn’t have maps of the trail they suggested we take a photo of the big one they had. Wow was that hard to follow. We eventually found a beautiful part of the trail and made our way back to the shop.

Jens owns the shop and was really pumped about it. In fact he put a pump track in beside it.

That evening we dined at a little resturant along the river. While we were eating Jim looked up and saw this ship coming right beside the road. We were actually across the street from one of the locks they have to come through. Later back at our campsite we saw the same ship pass. It is interesting people in the campsite spend the day watching the ships go by. A lot of them call to see how many and when they should be along. On our info sheet from the campsite they have the types of ships and what the signals are when the blow their horns.

At the house you can see the river behind the trailer. A busy morning of hiking and swiming called for a nap.

This afternoon we went on a tour of the Soo Locks. The building above is the Edison Hydropower Plant. Building started in September 1898 finished June 1902. It houses 74 generators under one roof. It is 1,340 feet long. Made of sandstone, the pillars along it’s wall look like lighthouses. One of the oldest plants and still works. The  top floor is empty. For it’s time they they envisioned shops  there. However fear of the electrostatic waves nothing ever came of shops. They only used it once for a large dinner.

Any non U.S. or Canadian ship traveling through the locks are escorted by Tug Boats. The big concrete structure lifts ships out of the water. Every 6 years the hulls of ships are to be inspected.

This our campground from the water.

This is the big lock the ships go through. Fill ‘er  Up!

On the Canadian side there are locks for smaller boats.

 

This house and several along the river are made of sandstone brick. Really very pretty.

Ah yes another sunset. Two for the price of one. Amazing what patience can get you.

Up early Jim is taking Doogie for a morning run.

Taking the ferry over to Sugar Island it’s just about 10 minutes to get there.Not much goes on there only residents. While riding we saw several business that didn’t make it.

Let’s see the vehicle had “Emergency Unit” written on it. The saw blade was huge! The pier had seen better days and best all a gravel road we get to ride on, Yippee!

OMG. I thought it was Dumledore! He was a sarcastic old fellow,funny but sarcastic. There was a reenactment happening on there town square. These people actually camped 3 days recreating the period between 1668-1840.

Today we are going back to Mackinac Island. We land and are ready to take off when a bike patrol guy rode up and told us we could not ride our bikes because they were electric assist. He said the island had not come to a decision on them . He said we could ride them as long as we didn’t use the battery. Okey Dokey.

The carriage house had beautiful carriages. The first harness was from the Vanderbilts and the second was from Anheuser-Busch.

We finished our ride with a great lunch. Back to the main drag to shop around. Jim was locking up the bikes when out of nowhere the bike patrol guy shows up with another patrol fellow and says to Jim, ” I saw what you did.” Jim ask what? He said he saw him turn the bike off. Jim said he couldn’t have because it wasn’t on. Well at one point the other patrol said he could impound our bikes. We told them we would go ahead and leave. He said we would know next time we came. I said not to worry that won’t happen again. Bye Makinac!

Tomorrow we head into Canada and won’t be back in the U.S. till mid September. Jim has been collecting stickers for the inside of the storage door. We hadn’t gotten one for Sault Saint Marie. Into town we finally found one. When we returned to the trailer a cruise ship was traveling by. First one we’ve seen. They go up river to the Indian casinos.

Our last night here we are packed up and ready to travel. Into Canada, Eh?!