The Soo Locks

We decided to stay another day and drive the short drive to Sault St Marie. There we thought we would just kind of play it by ear, oh and buy some fudge if there were any shops around. As Renita drove we talked about the locks and she said she had never seen a ship lock through.
So we got to the Soo locks and passed through security. Inside was a small museum with displays and of course the usual film describing the history of the locks and their importance to the US and Canada. It surprised me that a whole division of troops had been placed there to guard the locks during World War II.

After watching the Corp of Engineers film, a real film epic as only the US Government can make,
We headed out to view the locks . A ship wasn't due to lock through until 1:30 pm so we left the locks and walked along the street, full of shops that sold fudge.
Buying some at the first store we returned outside only to see the ship had arrived early and was already being lowered. We returned to the truck, passed through security and joined the crowd, ok probably ten others, as the ship finished its lowering and then left the lock heading down to Lake Huron.

Now when I was younger, I had seen lots of ships locking through the locks on the Mississippi River and my cousin and I had even locked through once ourselves, in a small rented boat, so it wasn't that exciting to me but it was still neat and new information to stick in ones brain and so we watched as two other small barges and tugs passed downstream.

We shopped some more and we actually found a shop filled with stuff made by a local family of artists. It contrasted nicely with all the other stores filled with the usual junk form China. Renita was so impressed that she even bought some wire wrapped necklaces and pendants and as we make them ourselves, well the quality was that good. Surprised at the low prices we talked with one of the artists who said that they had to be low to be competitive with the other stores, and that there were a lot of customers that didn't have much money. It was obvious that she knew their market.

We ate lunch in the truck as it was really cold, before finishing our shopping, well I mainly munched on fudge. The drive back to St Ignace was short and of course tree lined .  Others places beckoned but not today. We do hope to return this way someday as we head to into eastern Canada and down through Maine Clear skies.