Into Canada
Last night's motel was very pleasant, but there was no phone at all in the room!
We were cruelly let down in our search for a donut shop in St. Ignace, and our search took us over the enormous Mackinac Bridge (pronounced "Mackinaw" for some reason), where we stumbled into a place called "Pancake Chef" where you got an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet for $6.95. Oops.
Having paid our $1.50 toll for the bridge, we paid it again to get back. Then we powered up the Interstate (which apparently has US-2 underneath it) to Sault St. Marie (pronounced "Soo St. Marie" for some reason). We wanted to see the enormous locks, but our car parking space was right next to a mini-golf course, so what can you do?
After that, we did have a look at the locks, and they were like big canal locks.
Sault St. Marie is where our route enters Canada, and we tried to make the bridge crossing with enough pomp and circumstance to honour the occasion.
We had to park up at immigration, and queue up to get our passports stamped. There were much friendlier than US immigration (although working at Chicago O'Hare might have a negative affect on one's demeanor), and we were given some little paper Canadian flags and some pin badges.
We didn't hang around in the Canadian side of Sault St. Marie; we looked in on the Tourist Information office, then head off down Canadian Highway 17. We stopped at the roadside near Echo Bay (echo bay, echo bay) to look at the Big Nickel, famous monument noted in the guide book.
... but this turned out to be a FAKE Big Nickel, for a start it was made of plastic, for another it was a Canadian Dollar. The real Big Nickel is in Sudbury, and we plan to see it tomorrow.
Why did nobody ever tell us that Canada is a bargain country? Everything we've had a chance to look at so far (petrol and dining) is priced as if US$1 = CA$1, but the exchange rate is more like US$1 = CA$2.5. We'll investigate the prices of other things tomorrow, but if things are the same as for food and petrol, we may need to buy another suitcase.
We stopped for the night in Blind River, where our beautiful lakeside motel cost us CA$62. Evidence gathers for the bargain country theory. Shortly after settling in, we both tried to reach the end of the boulder harbour wall, I by clambering, Debbie by wading. I won, Debbie gave up about 60% of the way, up to her chest in water and fully clothed.
We ate a short way down the road, again for silly money. We might have to stay in this country longer than planned...