Thursday, September 20, 2012

We arrived in Sault St. Marie and this is one of the first views. We went on this museum ship and really enjoyed it. It does not look like it was built in 1917 and was decommissioned in 1969. During that 52 years of service it hauled iron ore and coal on the great lakes. It has an interesting history.

The bridge is interstate 75 crossing the St. Mary's river into Canada. We watched long backups of cars coming into the U.S. We talked to people that live in the U.S. and work in Canada, they say that customs and immigration coming into the U.S. is a real pain in the ass.

Found a brew pub, aren't we lucky.

This was their Oktoberfest brew.

This was an Army Corps of Engineers barge coming thru the locks. They are constantly working on the locks or dredging,

This one was fitted with a large crane.

This one had lots of room.

This one will be cozy in the largest lock they have. It is a 1000 footer.

This was a ocean going ship  (salty as they call them) that had just delivered wind turbine equipment to Duluth Mn.

The locks drop the boats 23 Ft. from Lake Superior into lake Huron 

There are anywhere from 15 to 20 boats a day passing thru the Soo Locks. This is in the St. Mary's river approaching the locks.

This was interesting. This was a supply boat along side of an Iron ore boat. They lift pallets of supplies onto the ore carrier and neither boat stops. The small boat maintains an even speed along side of the ship. This picture was taken from the patio of the American Legion at the Soo. Nice Legion with some really friendly people.

This boat was headed up lake, you can see it is riding high in the water, it is empty. When they are headed down and fully loaded you can sure tell. Only about 12 of what you see here is out of the water.

These boats were so close you could almost reach out and touch them. This one was in particularly spiffy shape.

The lighthouse on Whitefish bay. The Edmond Fitzgerald sank only abut 17 miles from here.

Replica of the Edmond Fitzgerald in the museum at Whitefish Point lighthouse. There was a shipwreck museum there. We enjoyed the day. It was about an hour drive alongside of Whitefish Bay to the Lighthouse and Museum.

This was the engine room inside of the Museum Ship, Valley Camp in Sault St. Marie Mi. A steamship built in 1917. It was a real eye opener for me. We were able to see everything on the ship, There were no restricted areas.

Wheel house on the Valley Camp. Wonder if Michael recognizes any of this.

Valley Camp engine room. This is nice, wonder how hot it was to work there. The stoker room and coal bins are only steps away.

A sunset at our campgrounds in Sault St. Marie.

This was a display of some of the divers epuipment that was used to explore the various shipwrecks that are located just off   Whitefish point Mi.

Leaving the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, crossing the Mackinac Bridge.

This was a spectacular fete to build this bridge. I have crossed it in a snowstorm in the winter. Something that I can say will never happen again. Guaranteed!

Sorry the pictures are out of order. This is the deck of the Valley Camp museum ship. Those are hatch doors where the iron ore is loaded.

The inside lanes on the Mackinac Bridge is iron grate, someplace for the rain and snow to go. You can imagine how slippery that iron grate gets in the winter.

Here we are parked in Elkhart In. We had a windshield replaced. The shop had hookups for our motor home at their shop. That is a junkyard in the background, the used cranes until midnight to put scrap metal into a shredder. You can imagine the noise, and even better only 2 blocks away was a rail yard that switched trains all night. It was good to leave here. The good thing is that the service shop was great.


Holy Crap!!!!!!!!!! did we get into a rainstorm near Logansport Indiana. We were lucky to only have to drive a few miles before we were able to find a place to pull over.

I've driven a lot of miles in my life, but can't remember rain like this ever.

After the rainstorm, on a road along side of the Wabash river in Indiana.

We are back in Texas. This is the Houston skyline. We head home to Mexico tomorrow morning, Sept. 21 and expect to be home Saturday afternoon.

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