Last week,  I left the story with us aboard the Nokomis ready to begin our tour of the Soo Locks at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan.  There had been ice on the car that morning, it had been raining and gusty winds were the order of the day.  The good news was forecasters were calling for clearing skies.

A hopeful sign appeared in the sky

Shortly after 10 AM our journey started.  A voice on the speaker system told us about the various facilities located along the water front as we went by.  An hour later we were approaching the Canadian side.  Freighter traffic going through the [larger] American side meant we’d go up on the other side.

A light signals ships regarding lock status.

We only had to wait a short while before the lower gates began to open.  The red signal light meant we could not yet enter.  Soon, it turned to green and our vessel entered the lock.

Hiawatha goes through the lock with Nokomis

Our captain pulled the ship to the upper end of the lock.  Another ship from the same company pulled in behind us and the lower gates began to close.  After some time we could tell that our ship was rising.  At first rather slowly and eventually a bit faster.

Water filing the lock would lift the two ships about 21 feet.  No pumps are used.  Valves are opened to let water from the upper side fill the lock.  In the reverse process, other valves are used to release water to the lower side as ships are lowered.

It’s a very interesting process.  A diagram of how this worked was posted on an interior bulkhead of our ship.

View from topside as we prepare to leave the Canadian lock

It takes several minutes to move over a million gallons of water.  Nevertheless, the process moves along quite efficiently.  The tour was informative and fun.  Soon we would sail out on the upper side of the lock to see what was up there.

Some steel-making ingredients

We went around a Canadian steel plant.  It is immediately obvious that this is a large-scale operation.  At least it seems that way to me.  Our tour guide told of the materials and their handling as we made our way around the company harbor.

As I took the photo above, I realized the camera battery was nearly flat.  A couple of useless thoughts were going through my mind.  “Why didn’t I recharge the battery last night at Aunt Ceal’s?”  And, “Why didn’t I buy a spare battery, like my son and daughter-in-law suggested?”  As I said, useless thoughts.

A half hour later, our tour ended back at the dock where it had begun.  From the steel plant, Nokomis crossed back over to the American side where we went through the McArthur Lock on our way to the dock.

In the parking lot, I discovered that the car battery was dead.  I had left the headlights on when I parked the car.  Several tour company employees came to my rescue and with borrowed jumper cables, one of them gave me the jump to get the car started.  An hour and a quarter later, we entered a restaurant in Paradise, Michigan.  (Yes, we can now say we’ve been to paradise together.  We’ve also been to Hell, Michigan, but that’s another story.)  We were able to recharge the camera battery–at least enough to last the rest of that day.