We Oughta Be in Ottawa - And We Are

Today is another Two-Fer blog post, for today and yesterday.  Two pretty easy days of travel on the Trans-Canada Highway.  We learned this highway goes from Newfoundland to Vancouver, British Columbia. Yesterday was from Serpent River to Mattawa, Ontario.  We did not have the foresight to get a map for the RV that included Canadian provinces, so Neil drew Ontario on the side.  It won't last long as it is water soluble ink.

Ontario is The Red Blob Above the Great Lakes

Serpent River to Mattawa, Ontario

While Highway 17 may be the transcontinental highway, it is only two lanes until you are close to large cities. More importantly, we miss rest areas every 60-80 miles. Finding places to pull over for lunch or stretching our legs is more challenging. We are thankful for excellent cell reception and Google Maps so we can find places to pull off, get gas and find our campgrounds easily.

The Only Moose We Have Seen This Trip

We are getting closer and closer to Quebec and the evidence of French in the signs is increasing.  We decided that the English signs take up less space that the French.  No surprise, really.

It is also apparent that we are in "Tim Horton's territory".  Tim was a famous Canadian hockey player who opened a bunch of donut shops years ago.  The stores have increased to be in every town over 500 in size. They sell sandwiches in addition to donuts and coffee.  We have seen them in just about every town we have driven through. Neil has sampled both the sandwiches and cinnamon rolls.

Donuts Anyone?

The highways have been OK, but probably not as good as most of the US highways we have traveled.  The Trans Canada Highway has a 90 kph speed limit, which at 56 mph is just about our cruising speed.  We noticed that Canadian drivers are no better at following the speed limit than Americans.  Fortunately, there are enough passing lanes that we are not keeping drivers from speeding too much.

Mattawa to Ottawa a Ontario Map

Our route today was east and a bit south, to the Hither Hills Campground just south of Ottawa.  We will be here for three nights and plan to spend a couple of days downtown in museums, cathedrals, and other attractions.  Maybe our next blog posting with have more "culture"--but maybe not.

Thanks for listening,

Neil and Pamela

St. Ignace to Serpent River Ontario - Oh Canada!

Today was a short driving day, which is always good.  We left Lakeside RV Park in late morning and stopped to fuel up before we got on I-75 north to Sault St. Marie.  Little did we know that the hardest part of the drive would be getting on the freeway in St. Ignace because of all the south-bound traffic backed up to get on the I-75 to get over the Mackinaw Bridge.  It was all of the LP Trolls heading south over the bridge!  We were able to get over to the north bound lane and it was smooth sailing for the fifty miles to the border.

Our Route Today
Manitoulin Island on Lake Huron is the world largest island in a fresh water lake

Canadian Soo Locks from Soo Bridge

We were all prepared for Canadian customs with an accounting of how much cash and alcohol we had, last time we traveled out side USA, and it was one of the easiest crossings we have ever had.  They asked where we lived and if we had any firearms. When we said no, they said have a good trip.  So the wine we gave away because it exceeded our allotment to take into Canada, could have stayed with us, but who knew? Hope family in South Dakota is enjoying it.

Trans Canada Hwy 17 East...And Further East

So we crossed the Sault St. Marie bridge to the Canadian side, and then east on the Hiawatha Highway 17 east across Ontario.  We drove alongside Lake Huron with glimpses of it throughout the day. By late afternoon, we arrived in Serpent River Campground (sorry, Vicki and Linda, but it is a great campground on the river and no serpents anywhere) and settled in around 1530. 

Our Serpent River Campground

First Canadian Celebration

We had a glass of one of the two bottles of wine we saved with smoked salmon and Parmesan crisps to celebrate our successful entry into Canada.  We took a walk around the campground to the river followed by Neil cooling off with a dip in the pool.  We then barbecued some bison steaks for dinner with cornbread and a salad while watching Netflix.  Found a great series set in the prairies of Canada around 1910 called "When Calls the Heart" based on the books by Janet Oke. Pamela has read the books and while the TV production is based near Vancouver, BC, they have done a accurate portrayal of prairie life in a small coal town with focus on miners, a Canadian Mountie and a small town school teacher. We head east towards beyond Sudbury tomorrow. 

Thanks for tuning in,

Neil and Pamela

A Quiet Day in St. Ignace

We had a quiet day here in St. Ignace with only a short drive into town and visiting some attractions here.  It seems like today was much less busy in St. Ignace (Igg-Nuss).  We have been getting ready to pack up and move tomorrow, so we are re-stowing gear and getting the Forester ready to tow, including getting it washed.

Museum of Ojibwa Culture

St. Ignace was an Ojibwa settlement for many years with the natives moving with the seasons along the water to take advantage of the fishing in spring and summer and the big game, such as moose and elk in the winter. After watching a video on all that went into building a traditional birch bark canoe for transportation, we are glad that we are traveling in a comfortable RV. The museum is on the site of the first Jesuit mission, founded by Father Jacques Marquette, who was both a missionary and explorer. he died exploring on the Mississippi and the natives brought home his bones to bury here.

Statue in memory of Marquette

Father Marquette overlooking the harbor

After touring the museum, we had a nice lunch trying the smoked whitefish chowder. We have sampled the whitefish in several ways now, and while good, prefer salmon, which has more flavor. We enjoyed walking the boardwalk out to a lighthouse, overlooking the boat harbor. Learned that the off-shore mooring piers were used to dock tankers carrying jet fuel for the air force base that used to be on the Upper Peninsula. Lovely day in the mid-70's to walk around town a bit.  

St. Ignace Boat Harbor

We picked up enough quarters to rinse off the Forester in a car wash and headed back to the RV park to do a final load of clothes.  We have enjoyed our stay here, discovering more about history, geography and industry. Tomorrow, we look forward to new adventures when we head into Canada.  We have decided that we don't want to wait until winter arrives, so cold they hold the Pond Hockey Championships where the boat harbor is and the Great Lakes here freeze over hard enough that you can snowmobile over to Mackinac Island.

Best wishes to all, 

Neil and Pamela

Trolls and Fudgies - Oh My!

We continue to learn about the unique spelling and colloquialisms for people and things in this part of Michigan.  For example, it doesn't matter how it is spelled, you say "Mac In Naw".  Yesterday, we spent the day on Mackinac (pronounced Mac In Naw) Island.  We chose the older of the ferry companies, Sheplers, who picked us up at our campground, so we did not have to hunt for a place in the full parking lot.  We wound up taking the 1030 ferry because the 1000 ferry was full.  Twice in the morning and evening the ferry swings west under the massive Mackinaw bridge so you can view it from the water, before the breezy 15 minute trip to the island.

Ferry Captain Shepler on Our Way to Mackinac Island

As many know, Mackinac Island allows no motorized vehicles (except for fire and ambulance), so there are bicycles everywhere (easily thousands--more than residents of the island) that line the streets kind of like the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.  It is a lot quieter than Sturgis, however! 

Double Horse Carriage Tour of Island

We took the horse drawn tour around the southern part of the island, through forest state park and historic Fort Mackinac. Rather amazing to realize this island was named our second national park by President Theodore Roosevelt and within 20 years the residents petitioned the state to change the status to a state park. They wanted more control and be able to develop the southern part of the island. They did leave much of the land natural with both hiking, horse and bike trails, though we were warned to stay on the trails due to poison ivy. We toured the historic fort, which changed hands from British to American several times until the war of 1812 and the fur trade was over. There are about 100 hardy souls who live here year-round. The ferries stop in November and though there is a small airport on the island, the residents wait for the lake to freeze solid to snowmobile in winter to St. Ignace (Ig-nus), marking the path with small Christmas trees. That was the point we both knew we are NOT brave enough to try that or spend the winter there!

The east half of the Grand Hotel

A highlight of day was tour through the Grand Hotel, where we enjoyed a light lunch, followed by tea shopping for Pamela, then up to the fifth floor for a drink in the Cupola Bar looking out over the Lake Huron to our south. After touring the massive parlor, rocking on chairs on the longest porch in the western hemisphere (over 650 yards long) and viewing the outdoor swimming pool built for Esther Williams--who said it was too cold when she filmed a movie here with Jimmy Durante), we stopped for ice cream at Sadie's Ice Cream Parlor. Course, Pamela did just a wee bit of shopping too.

One half of the massive hotel lobby -- four times the length of the Empress in Victoria

 It was a pleasant day of walking and riding horse drawn transports, but our watches told us why our feet were so tired, so we caught a late afternoon ferry then ride back to the campground around 1800.

We found out on the tour that tourists to the island are called "Fudgies" because of all the fudge that they buy at the dozen or so fudge shops, including Neil. There are about 300 horses on the island in summer, including taxis, drays that pick up garbage and deliver food and goods and in general do everything that cars and trucks do elsewhere. Most of the horses depart in October to winter at a couple of farms. Imagine bringing in enough hay every week to feed 300 horses!  Much cheaper to ship horses to the hay.

We also learned that the people who live on the Lower Peninsula are called Trolls, because they live "below the bridge".  We took a trip across the Mighty Mac bridge today to the LP to have Neil's hand looked at, visit a Home Depot, and see some sights in Mackinac City.  Neil's hand is doing OK, but we will keep the stitches in for another week or so.

Mackinac Bridge from south at old Mackinac Point Lighthouse

It was interesting to drive across the five mile bridge and see it from the south side of the straits, We appreciated seeing the historic lighthouse on southern side.  People sere swimming on the beach as we walked along the shores. Then, we lingered to watch one of the big ore freighters travel under the bridge from Lake Michigan and head east into Lake Huron.

Mackinac Bridge with Freighter Under It

A Couple of Friendly Labs at the Gas Station

Michigan Camping and Boating Combination

We heard from cousins in South Dakota about the double towing limit allowed and found that is true here as well. We have seen not only the combination above, but a pickup pulling a trailer with a boat attached behind. And, we thought we took up a lot of room in a parking lot! We also added Michigan (UP and LP) to our RV map tonight.  Tomorrow, we will spend learning more of historic and modern Ojibwa culture in St. Ignace and cleaning RV before leaving on Sunday.

Neil with the five parts added for Michigan-lakes and both halves of state

Neil now is a little more assured that he won't have tire issues, since he now has all of the tire implements needed to deal with them. And, we thank you for the prayers, that we do not have a flat!

Neil's Half Inch Drive RV Tire Tool Kit

The UP part of Michigan is fascinating and while we have only touched the surface of all there is to see and do, it will be time to move on Sunday, when we go north to cross into Canada at Sault Ste. Marie. That too will be new territory for us, across the land of Hiawatha and thousand lakes. 

Best wishes from Neil and Pamela

Exploring the Fifty First State -- Yooper Land

At least that is what some of the Yoopers in the UP of Michigan wish it were, and it is vast areas of forest and bog with tiny hamlets scattered along the incredibly straight roads! In our two days of travels we are still getting oriented geographically, as the sun does not set across what looks like an ocean out our RV front window, which faces south. It sets to our right, west of course. We are camped at St. Ignace, where the Michigan and Huron lakes come together.  This post is another Two-Fer; for yesterday and today's travels in Yooper country. 

Yesterday, we drove up to the Soo, as Sault St. Marie is called and this year it is celebrating 350 years as a community.  Sault means place of rapids, which was what the Chippewa portaged around, the French built fur trading posts beside and the Canadian and Americans finally built four locks across so massive ships can move from Lake Superior to Lake Huron. We visited the 20 story Tower of History to get a look at the Saint Mary's River and the locks at the Soo.  Pamela was thrilled to find a gluten free crepe place, and she delighted in a Nutella and strawberry HUGE crepe. We walked across the street to learn more at the Sault St. Marie Locks Corp of Engineers Visitor Center including, history of the river, how the locks work and why a wider and longer lock is needed.

Tower was built by the Catholic church to in memory of early missionaries

Soo Locks Observation Platform

Tug and barge in lock waiting for water to drop about 12 feet

It was a good visitor center and one of the main attractions is the observation platform so people can watch the ship traffic of over 3,000 ships a year that go through the locks.  We watched as the tug Zeus took a barge of petroleum products through and watched the approach of a large Polish ship enter on its way to a Canadian port on Lake Superior.  It is a long, straight 50 mile drive up to the Soo from St. Ignace--it is nice to have the Forester to make these trips in.  Unfortunately, it was 50 miles back as well.

Today, we decided to drive up north again to Whitefish Point on Lake Superior to visit the Great Lakes Shipwrecks Historical Society Museum and lighthouse. Off this point is the location of many ship wrecks, including the most famous.

Whitefish Point Light and Fog Horn

That famous ship is a song by Gordon Lightfoot song running through our heads today, after viewing the poignant movie on "The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald" in 1975. He wrote the song shortly after the tanker sank. Twenty years after she sank in November, the Canadian navy took many of the family members out to sea to watch as divers cut loose the ship's bell and brought it to the surface. A diver then took down a replica brass bell with every man's name engraved on it for a memorial. The original bell was cleaned and is at the entrance to the Whitefish museum. 

We also saw a unique light house lens. This large flat lens could project light 28 miles out to sea, across Lake Superior for the early ships in the from the mid-1800's through mid- 1900's. 

We did finally find the ice cream Neil had been looking for, at a beautiful state park, called Tahquamenon, which has lower and much higher upper falls. The upper falls are the second largest volume of water east of the Mississippi. Can you guess the largest? They are on the border between the US and Canada, east of us. The walk to the the Upper Falls was well worth it. We learned the major species of trees in the forest (this one for Katherine, who asked) -- Eastern Pine, Beech, and Sugar Maple. The Beech have a beetle infestation imported from Europe into Nova Scotia that is spreading into the native trees. This explains why we have seen so many large trucks carrying short logs for firewood. 

Tomorrow, we will sail away to Mackinac (Mac-in-ah) Island, the summer home of the Governor, where no motorized vehicles are allowed. Looking forward to not driving, horse carriage ride and lunch at the Grand Hotel.  Best wishes to all,

Neil and Pamela

Faribault, Wisconsin to Lakeshore RV in Upper Michigan

Faribault WI to Lakeshore MI in Two Days

Tonight's post is for two days, since we got into Faribault, WI a bit late and had very poor cell service in the Tilleda Falls Campground in eastern Wisconsin.  As you can see from the map, there are lots of yellow construction zones along the 566 miles before arriving in northern Michigan.   It has been two long days to get here, but we are now going to settle in for nearly a week in one place and see a variety of historic and architectural sites and lighthouses on the UP (Upper Peninsula) where locals are known as Yuppers (pronounced Yoo-pers). 

Our Tilleda Falls Campsite on the "Lake" (Pond)

Boy Fishing Below Tilleda Falls

Last night we had one whole side of the campground to ourselves, with a private beach area on the lake. Course, the lake looked a little too scummy for us to go swimming, but it did not stop the kids from jumping in to paddle around and try climbing onto the water bouncy house. What an incredible little gem of an RV Park, and for the first night since leaving Rapid City, no sound of motorcycles!

Tilleda Lake and our private beach behind RV

We have been blessed on this trip with no issues along the road, major detours beyond sharing half a freeway while new bridges and pavement is laid, illness or things going wrong on RV.  In two weeks we can only think of one thing we are missing, day backpacks for tours to places such as Mackinac Island. Tonight, we are really happy to be far enough north (all of 45 degrees North) with lake cooling effect, so the day temperatures will top out in the high 70's and we might see rain showers by Wednesday.

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We Are At the Blue Dot

We drove through the Hiawatha NF (Neil wants to know what happened to Lowawatha) alongside west side of Lake Michigan for 150 miles and now are at the confluence of lakes Michigan and Huron.  We will drive south over the Mackinac Bridge to visit Sleeping Bear Dunes and Traverse City, take a ferry to historic Mackinac Island where no motor vehicles are allowed (including our new electric bikes, unless you get permission from the police department--Neil tried) and go north to touch the third big lake, Superior and Sault St. Marie with the locks big enough for the tankers, visit  Ojibwa and ship museums, lighthouses and other attractions while we are here.  Ice cream, fudge and other things might be consumed. If you have ideas to share in this area, do let us know.

Hiawatha National Forest Near Saint Ignace

Yesterday evening, we did take the time for an adult beverage (as we have to drink our supplies before going into Canada), to BBQ a steak and add Wisconsin and Minnesota to the RV map.  We will add Michigan while we are here in Saint Ignace. Yes, we know there is a hole of North Dakota, which will wait for another trip.

Minnesota is Added

And So Does Wisconsin

We will be sharing photos and information from our stay here in this middle of three Great Lakes, before we head north into Canada and on the Hiawatha Highway (Hwy 17) into Ontario.  All your comments are welcome, either on this blog (if you can figure it out) or via email to one of us.   We have traveled about 2,300 miles so far.  We have seen some interesting highway signs along the way, including these:

Amish in area with horse and buggy

Well, we are truly in the East now as we crossed the Mississippi River  yesterday and entered the Eastern time zone today. We hope all is well with you. Stay cool!

Neil and Pamela