Wandering Where We’ll Be

It seems strange.  We are on the last leg of this part of the trip.  Next week, we will be at the family camping weekend and we won’t have to set up the tent or take stuff out of the back of the truck (at least after the family camping weekend).  Jake wont be in back of us looking over our shoulder.  We won’t be living out of the truck anymore.  It’s odd how I now equate home with the truck, not a building.  I also equate home with our tent.  Well, it’s not over yet.

From Montreal, we drove to Sault Saint Marie.  It is a fairly boring drive; many ups and downs and a lot of the same old sights to see.  It is different than driving in Minnesota.  Minnesota is fairly flat and you can see “far away”.  If there is any interesting buildings or sights, you are likely to see them.  This drive was hilly with some rock outcroppings next to the road.  At times, you could see pretty far, other times it was like driving in a green walled tunnel with only more road to look at.  As a side note on this drive, we did see a “new” sign we haven’t seen before.  The road was turning into a one laner from a two laner and the sign said “squeeze right”.  It was like a “merge” sign.  We laughed about it and still occasionally bring it up if we see a “merge” sign.

Sault Saint Marie border crossing was looming.  We were a tad nervous because we had Jake.  We had heard stories regarding pets coming back into the U.S. — bad stories of being turned away because of improper papers regarding doggy shots (I could have used a “shot” at that moment).  So I had the vaccination papers ready.  We also didn’t know what to expect at the border for security.  Last time we had crossed back into the U.S. from Canada or Mexico, it was before 9/11/2001.  We get to the guy after waiting a little in a car line.  He says “did you get the dog in Canada?” No.  “Have any alcoholic beverages or….(can’t remember because I was nervous and you can’t look nervous or they will think you are a terrorist or something.  I just wanted to get back without any problems)?”  No.  “Okay, go ahead”.  That was it?  That was easy.  He didn’t even look at dog papers or passports (or he may have looked at passports but I blanked it out in a nervous tizzy). 

We made it back to the U.S.
We then stopped at the locks to watch a big barge go through.  It took awhile for it to make it into the lock because if it went too fast, it would “barge” right through it.  Once it was in there, it was fun to see it “sink” to the other level of the east side of the lock.  We then stopped for some fudge before going further.  The last time we were here, we got some fudge at the same place (across the street and to the left if looking away from the locks) and we put it into a container and then put it in a cooler.  The container had a leak so the fudge turned into sugar water.  This time, we made sure that wouldn’t happen.

We drove to Pictured Rocks National Park.  On the way there, they were having road construction.  It was a little confusing trying to decide which way to go to get to the campsite.  We figured it out and on the way; we saw not only forests but big areas of old stumps.  We later found out that these stumps were over 100 years old.  The area was logged way back when and then there was a fire.  They (meaning whoever/whatever type of scientist, ecologist, etc) haven’t yet figured out why the forest hasn’t reclaimed the area yet but it is slowly working on it.  One possible reason given was the bio-organisms in the soil normally there after a forest is chopped down, got burned up in the fire so the natural cycle involving them has been taken away.  Who knows?  I know I haven’t got the whole story written down here but I tried.  We stayed at a nice, uncrowded, open and natural Michigan State Forest campground.  We were next to a lake.  It was beautiful.  We decided to stay for 2 nights.  The next day, we went into Pictured Rocks.  We did a 10-mile hike.  The day started very sunny and we found out when we got there, Jake couldn’t go on the trail.  He would have to stay in the truck.  We parked in the shade.  The initial part of the hike brought us through a nice and “airy” forest.  We saw a water fall.  We then kept hiking and passed a really neat rock structure with a White pine on it called “Chapel Rock”.  Very cool.  It was the kind of rock structure thing you would see in a fish tank only way bigger and real.  Also, as is our luck in most places (Crater lake-previous trip, White Mountains, New Hampshire to name a few examples) it got foggy.  The sun was gone.  At least we wouldn’t have to worry about Jake being too hot.  Chapel Rock was on the shoreline of Lake Superior.  We went along the beach for a small while.  Then we continued on.  The trail went up high along the “cliffs” of Pictured Rocks.  It was very cool to see these.  The water has carved out “caves” or what looks like caves from up high.  Big arches of what could be sandstone colored rocks.  The forests we were walking through changed into close dense forest and the trail narrowed considerably.  It got even foggier.  We could hear the waves crashing on the lake and gulls calling but we couldn’t see them.  Some areas of the foggy forest were surreal, dreamlike as we walked through them.  Eventually we started nearing the end and the day started to clear.  We saw another falls (Mosquito falls- aptly named).  When we reached the truck it was sunny again.  It was a great hike even if the views were fogged out.  Tim wants to go back when it is sunny.  I agree.  The next day, we went to the lighthouse at Pictured Rocks.  There are some remains of some sunken ships that have washed ashore — mostly just wood frames of the bottoms of the ships.  Very cool to look at but of course I wanted to see masts half sticking out of the water in the “classic” view of a sunken ship as shown in the movies.  Still all around neato.  The light house was fun to hike to since it was a short hike out and back.  I recommend going along the beach when you go.  The trail is rather plain but nice. 

We then drove on to our next campsite, Twin Bear County Campground just south of Iron River, Wisconsin.  This was our last campsite before family camping weekend – a somewhat sad event.  So we went out for a drink at Judy’s Bar.  It was a fun little dive and a guy there talked about Al Capone.  He had a different view than what we have been taught about the big, tough gangster who kills people with a bat occasionally.  He said people loved him because he took care of them and looked out for their jobs (not illegal ones).  If they needed something, he made sure they got it.  Also, the towns he controlled had an extremely low crime rate (probably if a crook crossed him, it would be all over).  It was a different side of Capone I had never heard.  The nice side.

Next morning, we headed to Minnesota.  We stopped at Duluth to pick up some groceries.  Then we arrived at “home” for a little while at family camping weekend lake lot, owned by Tim’s parents, ‘til we go back to Shakopee, MN.

Write more another time,

Dan

Je mappellez Dan. Ce va? Comment allez vous?  (who knows if I did this right but it is supposed to mean “My name is Dan.  And you?  How are you?)  This very much sums up our trip through Quebec.  English was definitely a second language here.  People greeted you in French.  The menus were in French.  The street signs were in French.  French, French, French….it was really cool!  As one person said while we were here, it is more exotic. 

Let me begin by telling you we started to understand what we were getting into when we were just outside of Quebec in Edmunston, New Brunswick.  We camped just outside of this city.  We went into town to a place a lot like a “Denny’s”, an average restaurant with average décor and food.  The wait staff spoke broken English.  The other diners were speaking in fluent French.  It was fun.

We went on to Quebec City.  What a fabulous place!!!  High town is an old walled city with a fort on one side.  It was like walking into the 1700’s.  We visited an old church while we were there as well as walked around.  It is a very hilly place so there was a lot of up and down walking.  Steep streets, tall stair cases, old moody bars, 200+ year old houses, fantastic restaurants… and almost at the top of it all (at the top of a hill), Chateau Frontinac are just some of the fantastic sights we saw.  This was definitely a great stop on our trip.  Outside of High town is “low town”, a regular city as we know it with skyscrapers, parks, etc.  We walked this area for a while as well as part of the next day.  We ate at a couple of places the first day as well as a drink or two at a local gay bar.  The next day we would eventually have lunch at a local “German” sports bar.   But before I continue on, I’ve got to tell you what we did that morning.  We were going to go on a hike at Mont Saint-Anne.  That didn’t pan out because we couldn’t find the entrance to the place and because it began to rain a bit.  But before we went looking for this park entrance, we stopped at the Basilica of Saint Anne.  It was beautiful.  Gothic, gold, ornate…Wow!  Best church yet, although we would see “better” later in Montreal.  Anyway, after our morning adventure, and after eating at said “German” sports bar, we went to the Bibliotech.  This means “library” in French.  Librarie in French means “bookstore”. Go figure.  We needed access to the internet and after a frustrating search for wifi; we just decided to go to a library we saw the previous day.  It was once a church.  It was very neat on the inside.

We continued on our journey and went to Montreal.  We particularly wanted to go to “the Village”.  This is the “gay area” of town.  Wow.  Queer friendly to say the least.  5 story bars, the top floor is on the roof.  Very nice, professional people at the restaurants and such we went to.  One waiter after talking with us in English for a while went and got us all the gay magazines for all the happenings in the city since the weekend we visited there was “Quebec Day”.  This is a big deal for all those in Quebec because some still want to be their own country, not part of “Canada”.  Their blue and white flag with 4 fleur de lis (did I spell that right?) was hanging everywhere in the city.  A Drag Queen at the local drag club called the Mabo was really nice.  She was the MC at this drag lounge and there were a lot of people there on a big holiday.  After speaking a lot in French, she took time out to ask if there were any Anglophones (English-only speakers) in the room.  Only 3 of us raised our hands in the whole crowd.  She asked where we were from and then made us feel welcome.  Later, during the show, she took time out to explain in English about the drink situation/specials happening in the bar…for only 2 people out of over a hundred on a big French speaking holiday!  She was really nice…in a drag queen snappy way.  We stopped at several bars earlier that night and one or two afterwards.  A small jazz place where piano and bass with a singer were playing was one place.  Another place almost right out of Queer as Folk called “Parking”.  It looked a lot like the bar they always go to.  Another place, 5 floors high with a pool/jacuzzi on the roof was jammed with people.  Several other bars we visited were stop, go in, see, and leave types.  The “Village” was huge.  We walked around a lot that evening.  Jake walked with us during the day but as soon as it was evening and there was shade, in the truck he would go for a rest (for us as well as him.  He requires a lot of energy to watch as we walk through a city).

This is where a downturn happened after we returned to our campsite/RV park.
I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this since it still upsets Tim and me.

When we returned to our campsite at about 2 am, there was a teenage party going on near us which was barely under control for noise level.  The camping place said noise was prohibited between 11pm and 7 am.  These kids were somewhat loud.  We decided to not say anything.  We were almost asleep when one of the kids laughingly tripped over one of the strings of our tent.  What was he doing near our tent?  Who knows?  We woke up completely but figured it was an accident.  A few minutes later, they passed near our tent again.  Playfully one of the kids slightly trips again on the rope.  THEN SOMEONE BOUNCES OFF OUR TENT.  This was not a “trip” since it was delayed after the playful hit on our rope.  The tent tarp was ripped at the stitching about a foot and a half where the rope was attached.  Later Tim would sew this back together so we could still use the tent.  But the “bounce” did something else.  It bent our tent poles.  We still have yet to replace these poles so the tent is still goofy shaped now, not a “dome”.  We talked to the kids who spoke French and couldn’t communicate effectively with them and they laughed at us as well as made comments about our dog (I know barely enough French to understand that).  We got the owner of the Camping Park out to help us.  I’m not going to get into all that happened.  Let’s just say, we were going to stay 2 nights but left after one sleepless night after getting our money back and a promise out of the owner to pay our tent fix bill since he didn’t uphold his own quiet rules.  The kids were HIGHLY (I can’t stress that enough) disrespectful…and the owner (who knew the kids because they were his daughter’s friends) indulged them.  We were not happy.

Other than that, our stay at Montreal was awesome.  The next day we went to the Oratory of St Joseph.  It is the second largest Cathedral outside of Rome.  It was Huge!!  It was amazing!!  There was an entire big room lit with candles as a remembrance prayer area.  The votives they were in were colored red, green or white depending on the design and placement they were in.  The main Cathedral area reminded me of our own Cathedral in St. Paul, Minnesota.  It is a very big place.  We also went to “the Mont” as the people from Montreal call it.  It is a park on the top of a hill overlooking the city.  It was very crowded but it is big enough that there are many areas you can go to feel “alone” if wanted.  Jake loved it since all he’s had lately has been streets and truck.  We later had dinner at a place called the A to Z Cafe.  It was a very chic place to look at as we ate tasty tapas.  We walked the Village some more and then went back to our “new” campsite at the KOA.  We slept like contented happy lazy babies since I only had about 3 hours of sleep from the morning to afternoon and Tim had no sleep at all.

Our Trip continues in the next blog.

Sneak Preview: Sault St. Marie, Pictured Rocks National Park.

Dan

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