July 24, 2012

We left Tahquamenon Falls State Park this morning and drove to Sault Ste. Marie, MI.  We drove the scenic road that took us by our friend Buck’s property.  We were going to camp at his place but we had no cell service there.  I needed to be able to find out about mom’s leg today and we decided to drive on to Sault Ste. Marie.  We did go by his land and looked at it.  On the way to Sault Ste. Marie we stopped off at the Iroquois Point Lighthouse and climbed to the top.

We got a site at the city campground and then found a geocache next to it in the city park.  We drove to downtown and visited the Soo Locks.  There was a tour boat going in as we got there and we watched it.  There is a 21 foot difference between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.  The locks bypass the river rapids and allow ships to travel between the lakes.

We had a beer at the VFW across the street from the locks and then went a couple of blocks down for a beer at Soo Brewing.  At 3:45 pm the Paul R. Tregurtha was scheduled to go through the locks.  This ship, which transports coal and iron ore, is the largest on the Great Lakes – 1,014 ft. x 105 ft.  We went back to the locks to watch it go through.  Also coming through was another ship from Germany carrying grain -- it was  453 ft.x 105 ft. While we were taking pictures of the ship from Germany, one of the men on board was taking pictures of all the people taking pictures of them.

We went to Walgreens to fill a prescription and then went to Walmart because we were nearly out of groceries.  While I was cooking dinner the Stewart J. Cort came by our campground at 6:18 pm after going through the locks at 5:45.