What’s an extra hundred miles or so?  We were on the road by 8, because we woke up at 6:30.  The sun wakes us up.   Anyway Roger had the Soo Locks on his wish list, but hadn’t actually planned going there.  Well since we got up so early and it was less than 100 miles to get up to where Lake Superior is met by the St. Marys River, we went to Soo Locks.  The St. Marys River is between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, locks had been built by Canadians in the mid to late 1800s.  The Canadian company was sold to a US company and the first modern Soo Lock was built in 1914.  Eventually the Army Corps of Engineers took control of lock construction due to the national economic value of the locks.  There are now 4 locks and the US Army Corps of Engineers is planning on enlarging one of the locks in the near future to accommodate huge freighters.  The locks are required because the 63 mile St Marys River has a 21 foot differential from the two Great Lakes with a falls at the juncture, which now supplies the hydro-electric power to run the lock pumps and doors.  It is estimated that the Soo Locks water route reduces transportation costs yielding a savings of over $750M/year.
 

As we drove west on the Upper Peninsula (UP), it got cloudier and grey.  We stopped at Tahquamenon Falls State Park and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore for a couple of strolls; we probably walked 2.5 miles today.  Tahquamenon Falls was nice, but both Roger and I are confused about some falls facts, claiming it is the second largest falls east of the Mississippi.  (Of course we’ll be checking out our understanding of the facts with Internet resources.)

The drive from Tahquamenon Falls to PR NL is supposed to be the most picturesque drive in the UP.  It might be pretty in the flowering Spring or in the leaf changing Fall, but in mid-June it is rather like driving on any country road with lots of green trees on both sides of the road.  It would have been nice to see a moose or something unusual, but no such luck.

Along the way we saw unleaded gas for $3.66 and diesel for $3.61.  Roger said I had to blog about this. 

We got rained on, which was good to wash all the splattered bugs off.  However it didn’t make the scenic drive along Lake Superior very scenic.  Roger was happy about getting the bugs washed off, because the bugs on County HI48 were extremely suicidal.

We’re spending the night in Ishpeming MI.  Tomorrow we’ll be driving a little over 300 miles to the Olson’s in St Croix Falls WI.  Sarah and I went to elementary school together and have reconnected through Facebook.