Page 71 - USA ROAD TRIP SUMMER of 2000

BACK TO THE USA - PARADISE, MI

Thursday - This was a day of two firsts: our first boat ride through
a lock and our first visit to Michigan.

We had tickets for a boat ride/tour of the Soo Locks leaving at

10:00 AM. We “forgot” to set the alarm and overslept. In 12
minutes flat, we were dressed, packed and in the car in plenty of

time to make the boat.

And how glad we were to do so. It was a most interesting event.

The St. Mary’s River divides the USA and Canada at this point of
the border. Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario is on one side and Sault Ste.

Marie, Michigan is on the other. The river is the connecting

waterway between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. We saw several
massive ore ships coming up the river while eating dinner the

night before and while on our little tour boat. Right there in town,
the river is no wider than the St. John’s at the Gator Bowl so those

huge ships almost filled the horizon.

They took us down river to see some uninteresting shoreline
buildings. Then we turned up river and entered the locks on the

American side. We rose 21 feet in 12 minutes. There is no feeling

of motion and no noise involved with the inrush of those
thousands of gallons of water.

Next, we went further upriver to the steel mill on the Canadian

side. We went down a channel and got very close to a large ship
unloading coal to be used to fire the furnaces, some massive

machinery hung from towering overhead cranes loading sand
onto elevated remotely controlled hopper cars, the furnace stacks

which cook the ore and sand, and a ship loading the finished

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