Day 27, August 26
We left Houghton fairly early and headed back for Sault Ste.
Marie. The trip was quite uneventful and
we arrived around 1:00. We returned the
car and headed for the marina. We began
taking down sails and preparing the boat for dropping the mast. The launch ramp that we could use to pull the
boat out of the water is about a mile down the St. Mary’s River from the marina
so I took the boat down while Janine took the truck.
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| Freighter in Sault Ste Marie |
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| Pulling Boat from the Water |
The set up at the ramp went fairly smoothly until we tried
to move the boat all the way up on the trailer.
I realized that I had lost the pin that we use to attach the cable to
the bow of the boat and I had to use a screw driver as a substitute pin. We were having a really difficult time
getting the boat all the way up on the trailer and finally the 3/16 steel winch
cable broke. I used vice grips to hold
the cable so that I could get the boat far enough on the trailer to attach the
safety chain. When I finally got it up
and got the chain attached, I released the pressure on the winch and the hook
at the end of the safety chain straightened out and let go of the boat. We decided that we could at least get the
boat packaged for the trip the way it was.
We pulled the boat up into the lot and started taking down the
mast. At the same time, it decided it
needed to rain and for the next three hours, we worked in the rain. In the ole days when we were young, we could
do that job in a bit over 2 hours. However, this time it took us about 5 hours
and we weren’t done. We still had to
replace the winch cable and fix the safety chain. We changed out of our drenched clothing in
the truck and began trying to find a Lowe’s or Menards to get the cable. Neither of these are in Sault Ste.
Marie. We tried Wall-Mart and ran across
a former employee of TSC farm supply store who told us that, although they are
closed tonight, they have what we
need.
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| Entering Canadian Soo Locks |
We decided we were in no shape to spend the night in the
boat on the trailer so we sought out a Comfort Inn, with a Applebee’s next door
and called it a night. Another long day.
Day 28, August 27
I didn’t sleep well.
So many things didn’t go as planned in our extraction of the boat from
the water, that I spent a significant portion of the night rolling the individual
problems through my mind. When the
morning finally arrive, I made a trip to the Tractor Supply Company store in
the lot next to our motel and they had everything I needed to repair my broken
winch cable and safety chain. I
increased the size of the cable to ¼ inch and I bought stainless steel cable
that would not rust. Back at the boat,
In 20 minutes I had the winch fixed and the safety chain ready to reattach the
boat but first, we still needed to move the boat further up onto the trailer.
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| Boat Packaged and Ready for Ohio |
We returned to the launch ramp and backed the trailer back
into the water. Prior to backing up, I noticed that the centerboard was sitting
hard on the roller of the trailer. It
dawned on me that I had probably not raised the board completely up thus making
it really hard to drag the boat all the way up on the trailer. Once the board was raised up, I was able to
move the boat the final 6 inches needed to hook the safety chain and head for
home.
I put the truck in 4 wheel drive and pulled out off of the
ramp and we headed for I-75 and Ohio. At about 10 miles out of Sault Ste Marie
traveling about 70 mph, I noticed that I had left the truck in 4 wheel
drive. I turned it off and headed
south. Twenty miles or so on down the
road, we began to get a bit nervous about our fuel level. The gauge was nearing the empty stripe and
fuel stops were few and far between. At
one point I pulled off on an exit ramp hoping to see a station but none was
available. At the same time, a large
tanker truck pulled out in front of us and we were amazed by the odor of old
gasoline that he was giving off. Finally
about 6 miles further down the road, we pulled off at the St. Ignace exit and
into a BP station. As we stopped, I
realized that that odor of old gasoline was still with us. I raised the hood and the driver’s side of
the engine and inner fender were covered with what I assumed was gasoline.
To make a long story short, I took it to a garage in St Ignace
and we found that my driving at highway speed had overheated the front
differential and had blown a significant amount of oil out through the vent and
all over the engine. The mechanic added
a quart of differential oil, charged us $50.00 and sent us on our way.
We had spent about 2 ½ hours in the repair process and it
appeared that Ann Arbor, Michigan would be a logical stopping point for the
night. Our good friends, Judy and Dwight
Saunders are there and we met them for an enjoyable dinner at a local steak
house. After dinner, we found a Comfort
Inn and again, crashed for the night.
Day 29, August 28
We were back on the road heading for Somerset at around 8:00
and for once, had a totally uneventful trip all the way. We got home at about 1:30 and found 2 totally
ecstatic dogs providing a very warm welcome.
I need to add a brief story of a happening that occurred as we drove from
Sault Ste Marie to Houghton. A bit of
History: In the late 1940s, my Uncle Jim
Holekamp, a forester, took a job near the town of Champion Michigan. He moved his wife and two young children, my
cousins Jay and Fran, to a small primitive cabin on the shores of Lake Michigamme.
According to my Aunt Phyllis, who recently
celebrated her 92nd birthday, it was quite a grueling existence and,
in fact, when my grandfather went to visit them, he insisted that my Uncle Jim
take his young family out of that environment and back to Marquette and
civilization.
Prior to their move, our family, who lived in Missouri at
that time, drove to visit them. I was a
pre-schooler but have vague memories of the neat north woods and the wonderful
lake on which we camped while there. A
few years later, probably when I was 8 or 9, or family again returned to
Champion and Lake Michigamme along with our next door neighbors and dear
friends, the Williams. We took two cars,
our family of 4 in one car and the Williams family of 6 in the other. I have more memories of that trip. One memory involved a walk to Champion along
a dirt road that ran from the lake to town.
Young Paul Williams, 2 years younger than I were dispatched to walk to
town to get something important like a pack of chewing gum. (To this day, Paul and I insist that the trip
was designed to get us of our parent’s hair for a significant amount of
time.) I remember the walk and vividly
remember that when we arrived in the town, the sidewalks were imprinted with “Don’t
Spit On The Sidewalk.” Paul doesn’t remember that impressive fact! I told him that I remembered that we spit on
every imprint that we saw! |
| Sidewalk in Champion |
Now, as we heading for Houghton on our trip to get our
truck, we passed through the town of Champion and we pulled off into the nicely
developed state park that now encompasses the camp grounds in which we stayed
years ago. I clearly remember the sights
of the area where we camped.
While in the park, I called my dear neighbor, Mrs. Roach
(whom I call “Mom Williams”) who recently turned 90 years old and told her that
I was sitting in the campground on Lake Michigamme and for the next 20 minutes
we shared fond memories of the trips that we took so many years ago. As you can imagine, it was quite an emotional
experience for the both of us. She
insisted that I call her son, Paul, and carry forward the conversation. I did indeed call Paul and we laughed and compared
notes, mainly about the walk to town.
I later went back to the ranger station and asked if the back
road to Champion still existed and she said yes and it is still gravel. Janine and I drove the road, measured the
distance (1.6 miles one way) and searched the old sidewalks of the town for the
imprinted signs. We didn’t see any, but
I stopped and asked a young fellow if he had seen any of the signs and he said,
“No, not on the street sidewalks, however, there was one on the sidewalk that
leads to the old high school. We stopped
in front of the old building and, sure enough, about ½ way up the walk we found
one.
We had a really great trip and have hundreds of pictures that I which I could have shared on this blog. We would love to show them to you sometime in the future. Let us know
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