Sonya's Blog - Day 37 - Driving to Sault Ste Marie
Sonya’s Blog - Day 37 - July 29th - Driving to Sault Ste. Marie
I got up at 6:40, 20 minutes before my alarm. I thought that was pretty good and I was quite awake so I knew I wouldn’t go back to sleep anytime soon. I went outside with Kizmet and started putting the chairs away to get a head start on packing up. Blake heard me get up and he got up right away as well and came out to help pack up. I went inside and started cleaning up and doing the leftover dishes. I also wanted to hard boil some eggs and get a breakfast together that we could eat on the road. Blake finished up outside and came inside to help finish up and got the kids up. We got everything done and hooked on the truck and left the campground by 8:20 AM, a record for us. After such a late night I thought we would be lucky to be out by 9:30. Our advantage is that Blake looked at a clock or device that did not have the right time and he thought he had slept in and it was 10 AM already so he was panicking a bit. When we got into the truck and the clock said 8:20, he was quite confused. We established that it was indeed 8:20 and he apologized to the kids for getting them up so early. It gave us an early start though, which means we should get to Sault Ste. Marie around supper time so I think it is for the best.
Look at how Kizzy settled into Natasha’s seat:
Here is Isaac’s set up:
We are driving up the coast of Michigan Lake for the whole drive. It is very pretty for the most part and we have had some good views of the lake and harbours. Such a big lake, sometimes you cannot see the other side.
We stopped for lunch at a rest stop, we were hoping to get somewhere along the lake, but had missed our opportunities and we needed to stop for pee breaks. We had some Bratwurst that we cooked up on the BBQ, never sure if they will let you bring meat across the border. Sometimes they ask and sometimes they won’t. It was a quick stop, we were in and out of there in 45 minutes. We all had a nice walk around and lunch and Kizzy got a good walk. 10 minutes up the road there was a lovely spot on the beach, ah well. We drove for a few more hours and decided that we were going to stop along the water and dip our toes in. We found a National Forest turn-off that fit our RV and, shock of the century, we were allowed to have Kizmet there. We went down to the beach, there were quite a few people there with their boogie boards. We went down the beach again so we wouldn’t disturb anyone with our dog. The water was very warm and there was much frolicking. Kizmet, being that she is such a brave dog, was scared of the waves. They were quite large and it was pretty awesome. Here is a picture:
We had about an hour left to go at this point, but we had to take a bit of a detour to get to this beach. We were on some back roads and had to take this lovely detour that went past a smaller lake. We got back on the interstate, found somewhere to fill up before we crossed the border and then headed for Canada. What a cool set up in Sault Ste Marie, here is the bridge:
On the US side is the US border crossing and Canada’s is on the Canadian Side and in between is the SOO Locks, her is a pic:
Soo Locks:
We did have to pay a fee to cross the bridge, but oh well. It took us longer to get through the line-up than to clear customs. He asked us a few questions and then welcomed us back! Oh, Canada!!!
We got a lock on our campground and had 10 minutes left on the road, the campground is right in Sault Ste. Marie. We found it with no problems, but then they could not find our reservation. It turns out we didn’t have one, it must not have been put through properly when we were reserving on line, or we got distracted. They managed to find us a site for the night, so it was all good. They have a lovely Nature Trail that goes to the Root River and I took Kizmet for a nice stroll along that. Blake and the kids went to the pool, but it had already cooled down a lot and it was chilly. We are just going to take it easy and go to bed early as we have an early day tomorrow and an even longer drive ahead of us. Owen Sound here we come!
Sonya