We stopped off in Sault Ste Marie to visit some of Dave's distant relatives. Millie (85 years young, still driving, living in a two storey house and standing on a chair to reach things off the shelves!!), her daughter Sue and son-in-law Dan and their daughter Steph.
Sue & Dan kindly put us up and they were great hosts. We had an actioned packed five days organised for us. Our activities included:
- visit to the locks separating the Great Lakes of Superior & Huron
- a day trip to Lake Superior National Park (it rained)
- Mountain biking with Dan "the Madman" (D. fell off)
- visit to their cottage by the lake
- Canoeing
- visit to the cinema with Steph (Jurrasic Park III)
- day trip to Mackinac island - across the border in USA (so we've now visited two countries)
- a BBQ at Sue's brother's Nick & Gaelle
- we also spent a morning with Millie catching up on family history and landed the SHOCK OF THE TRIP - Dave's great, great grandmother was from Glasgow!!
plus, Dan is a great mountain bike enthusiast with his own basement bike workshop. So he trued our wheels for us, replaced oil on our chains with a wax substitute (a whole lot less messy), fixed Dave's brakes, Caroline's saddle and a few other minor adjustments.
Dan also uploaded the digital photos in the gallery.
All in all we had a super time in 'The Soo'. Thanks to all especially Sue & Dan.
============================
"THE SOO" TO THE ROCKIES ( + renting a car in Canada!!)
As part of our Round the World ticket, we had purchased a flight from Winnipeg to Calgary, but because of time and distance constraints, we had to get to Winnipeg from Sault Ste Marie by means faster than our bikes as it is c.1000 miles.
We had planned on renting a car but hadn't counted on the vagaries of car hire Canadian style! Sault Ste Marie to Winnipeg, one way, was a 'no -no' for most hire companies and the one we did get to quote said $2000 (about GBP 1000)!!! including a $1200 'drop-off' fee. We decided to take the Greyhound instead. The journey was 19 hours in total so we stopped off in Thunder Bay and each had a haircut - Dave by a non-English speaking Italian who was handy with the scissors and the 'cut-throat' razor!. Caroline survived hers despite it being done by a woman 'who doesn't know my hair!!!'