Closing the loop

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

SAULT STE. MARIE, ONT. — We have come full circle. Tonight we are staying at the same KOA campground we visited in early June, just before entering the States on our journey west. The same flowerbed decorates the entrance, but in the place of new blooms and freshly planted annuals are late summer flowers and dried grasses. Autumn leaves are scattered beside vacant campsites, and there is a chill in the evening breeze. Summer is almost over!
It was a long trip today — too long, says Val, who is resting with his feet up after being at the wheel for more than 600 kilometers. However, if we hadn’t pushed it, we would have been hard pressed to find a campground, as there are very few in northern Michigan, either listed in our directories or simply turning up by the roadside as we passed. Besides, the lure of home territory was strong. We are on the homeward stretch.
It was quite overcast when we left Lake DuBay this morning. We had plotted a zigzag kind of journey to get to Sault Ste. Marie the quickest way we could figure, so I tried to keep my navigator’s eyes on the laptop to ensure we didn’t make any wrong turns. In spite of this, we did! We were both enjoying the view of Lake Michigan and the lovely homes along the shore, and then I looked down and the GPS path was suddenly off route! So we found a place to turn around and get back on track.
No interstates today, except for a four-mile stretch just before the Canadian border, so we had to take what we got. Most of the roads were quite good, but every now and then we would come to a section of highway that was paved in slabs of concrete. Very durable, you might argue, but over time, between each slab a tiny gap begins to form, until your vehicle is going ka-dunk, ka-dunk, ka-dunk over every crack in a most annoying fashion! Not only that, but the heirloom Corelle is going ka-chink, ka-chink, ka-chink in the cupboards as the trailer bounces over the same gaps.
In addition, interstate highways are normally four lanes, so any construction being done only means a narrowing of lanes to one each way for certain intervals. When the construction is happening on a two-lane highway, you get detours. The fun one today was through a town called Marinette. It was at this junction that we were to switch from Highway 41 to 35, and the very corner we needed to turn was onto a road that was closed for construction! The detour sign that preceded that corner indicated a detour for Highway 41 but made no mention of the 35. There was an interlude of consternation until that hurdle was overcome.
Our travels today took us through lovely farm country. I love the sight of fields full of ripening grain and farmsteads with big, weathered barns, a couple of silos and a cozy house on a plot of land edged in shady trees. We saw apple trees ready to burst with red juicy orbs on every branch, and even one that had delivered its abundance onto the grass beneath it. Many of the large trees we passed had already registered the shortening days, and were holding back the sap that keeps the leaves green. Shades of yellow, orange and scarlet were already visible on the branches in splashes of bright colour.
The clouds lifted after a while, and the temperature rose a bit, but only to 70 degrees — a welcome break from the scorchers we had the last few days. There must have been a nasty storm along part of our route, because we passed a whole section where the forest had been devastated. Dozens of trees were broken off at 10 or 15 feet above the ground, and limbs were scattered everywhere. A number of logging machines were salvaging the lumber, at least. Later, we passed an area where a sign had been posted saying "wind damage" with the month and year. There were quite a few fallen trees, but these were obviously felled several years ago. We went by too fast for me to read the date.
By supper time, we were finally crossing the bridge into Canada, high above the city of Sault Ste. Marie. We looked down on the huge barges and ships going through the locks, and on the Algoma steel factory, which looked quite forboding with its black chimneys smoking against a darkly clouded sky. Home in Canada once again! It’s a good feeling.
We may not get a chance to post our blog for the next couple of days, since we will probably be camping at provincial parks which are not wired for the Internet, but in due course I will bring this long narrative to a close. I would love to know who has followed this blog. I have heard from some of you, which has been an added bonus! I am grateful to those who sent their encouragement, because the discipline of setting down each day’s activities for their sake has meant that we now have a complete account of events that I am sure we might have forgotten otherwise!