Lake Superior Circle Tour, Part 1

We left the house at about 7:15 a.m. on Friday morning, riding the Gold Wing, headed for a rendezvous with three other Gold Wing couples at a restaurant in Cedar Springs. Arrived, had breakfast, and then just escaped the beginning of rain. Cloudy for a while then clouds went away and it was a nice sunny day. We crossed the Mackinac Bridge around noon, and hit the international bridge about an hour or so later. Had to wait a bit for Canadian customs, then showed the passports, and our registration (since we couldn't remember our m/c plate number) and answered a few questions regarding when we were last in Canada, etc. Then off we went - about a mile away to the hotel where we had reservations in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. It was only 2:30 p.m., pretty early to stop, but when you're with a group, go with the flow. Actually glad we did stop as it was raining within a few hours.

Steve soon fell asleep in the room so I decided to check for nearby caches. Yep, there was one within a tenth of a mile, and an earthcache two tenths. Went for the close one first, it was a fake electrical plate on a lamp post. Easy when you've seen them before. Then the earthcache, which was about the rapids on the St. Mary's River (where the Soo Locks are.) Then stopped at the little mall next to the hotel, got some munchies at Steve's request. Choc. chip cookies, and a kinder egg for me. Haven't had one since Germany. Plus some Lime/Salt microwave popcorn. Too bad we didn't have a microwave in the room. Should have for the price we paid...anyway, it was raining by the time I left the mall. Came back to the room, everyone was meeting for supper in the restaurant downstairs. Good dinners were had by all. Steve had a dinner with four different kinds of shrimp. Since it was an Italian restaurant primarily, I had pinwheel pasta, which was filled with meat and cheese, one big roll, with alfredo and a light tomato sauce. Went back to the room, I worked on the computer and Steve watched TV. About 9 I decided to go down to the hot tub, Steve decided not. Only spent about 15 minutes, when I came back Steve was already asleep.

Today - woke up, got going - heading up the Trans-Canada Highway 17. Stopped about an hour up the road for breakfast in this little restaurant. Good food, friendly waitress. We had just passed an overturned semi on the road, guess he had pulled over to talk on his cell phone and the side of the road was just too soft to support the truck. Would hate to explain that to his boss!

We made several stops for pictures along this very nice stretch bordering Lake Superior. There weren't any caches near the first stop, but the second did have a cache there. Unfortunately, with 7 muggles, 6 of whom don't even know that I geocache, it was hard to be doubly discreet and I couldn't find it. Oh well.

We also stopped to see the Agawa pictographs. Had to walk down this fairly steep, rocky trail, then at the bottom, if you wanted to see the pictographs, you had to cross this section of rock that actually had chains installed to help you walk across. Also there were ropes installed in case you slipped and fell into the water. Somebody actually did just before we arrived. He didn't seem too upset about it, though. Steve went across, as did Jason, one of the other wingers. I tried but it was just too slippery, I didn't feel secure enough. Steve did get pix though. One is at the upper left side of this post.

Went on and arrived in Wawa, Ontario late this afternoon. Wawa is known for its giant goose statue as you head into town. (middle pix at the top) We picked up some necessities in town, then went out to our cottages just south of town. We are sharing with another couple tonight - it has a deck, kitchenette, bath, living room, and two bedrooms. We had a nice dinner in the adjoining restaurant. It specializes in Polish food. None of the Polish specialities sounded good to me, so I had a bison burger. Then sat around on the deck and talked, all 8 of us. I also had wifi here tonight (obviously - I'm using it to blog!) and also got to FB chat with Judy, my sister. Now quiet as Steve and the Mrs. of the other couple have gone to bed. The other Mr. is reading, and I'm on the computer, soon to take a shower.

Tomorrow morning after breakfast we part ways. Everyone else is headed back towards home, and we are headed west toward Thunder Bay. There will be many beautiful sights ahead, we are told. Looking forward to them. And also to being by ourselves. Group travel is interesting, but the rest of these people have more expensive tastes than we do. Hope to at least have wifi later in the trip though!