Wrecked and Denied Entry

 

Finally on the last day in Sault Ste. Marie, we drove back around the point away to Whitefish Point, closest point in the Upper Peninsula to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Above is the actual bell from the wreck which now sports a replica with the names of the 29 victims etched into it and lowered down to the lake floor. The actual EF bell is located at the highly advertised Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The museum was actually a cluster of buildings on the point, half of which belong to the Coast Guard and aren't available to the general public. There is a tiny building that lists a dozen or so shipwrecks along with brief descriptions of how they occurred, some of the items retrieved from the wrecks and some with pictures of the wrecks. It was definitely neat but a really small exhibit especially with dozens of tourists crowding in around you from all sides to fit in such a small place.

Besides the actual diminutive museum, there is a gift shop, a movie theater showing a 15 minute clip on the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck complete with Gordon Lightfoot soundtrack and a few other buildings showing typical rooms period to a time not really specified. There was also the above memorial to the Edmund Fitzgerald and a pier where you could walk out and see a vast part of Lake Superior where it narrows down dramatically and partly the reason for so many wrecks in the vicinity. Despite signs telling people not too, there were dozens of people beyond the pier walking along the beach looking for souvenirs to take home.

Back from Whitefish Point, we decided that since our motel was literally 100 yards from Canada, we should go into Canada for supper and poke out Ontario's version of Sault Ste. Marie. So we drove across the bridge and up to the Canadian customs checkpoint where there were perhaps a dozen cars lined up at two manned posts. We chose the shorter of the two lines and quickly realized our mistake. Each vehicle in our line seemed to take around 4 to 5 minutes for the customs agent to clear while the other line took less than 30 seconds each vehicle. 50 minutes later when we finally made it up to the customs agent after 12 vehicles in front of us had passed through, the opposing line had cleared around 100 vehicles. 

I had anticipated a curt customs agent who would grill us on the minute details of our trip into Canada of which we had none other than we wanted some poutine with our supper. Instead, it was a super nice guy who loved to chat and tell stories. Just when we thought we were home free, he asked us for our "Arkan" which I have spelled phonetically because I had no idea what he was asking for and had to have him repeat it a few times. Finally he explained that we needed to fill out an "Arrive Canada" form which we had not. It essentially asked us about our Covid shots and boosters which we had brought in the form of cards that were required sporadically around the U.S. during the height of Covid but all but ignored now. However, our cards were unacceptable and short of going back to the motel, filling the form out online (which required photographing our cards!) and driving back to the border checkpoint now backed up all the way across the bridge, we weren't going to get in. We instead got our passports handed back to us, were directed through a gate and told to skedaddle back to where we had come from. We didn't, at least not immediately. We instead stopped at the duty free shop to purchase some overpriced food and beverages for the road before leaving Canadian soil and heading back across the river. Of course with no stamps in our passports, I wondered what the U.S. custom agent would say when we drove up within a matter of about 30 seconds of waiting. He just acted like this happens all the time, told us the food was better over here anyway and welcomed us "home". We ate a delicious supper at the Lockview Grill right by our motel and indeed, it had poutine along with my fresh walleye that I ordered. 

The plan for the following day had been to head south across the long bridge connecting the two peninsulas of Michigan and along the east side of Lake Michigan, spending the night in Chicago so that we could hit the Filipino store and nearby restaurant on our way home. But we soon realized that due to the Filipino store and restaurant being on the north side of Chicago, it was actually the long way home all for seeing a bridge, so we opted to retrace our steps a bit by driving back through the upper peninsula and Wisconsin. We did drive on the south side up against the shores of Lake Michigan so it wasn't actually our same route. We got to Chicago in time for clogged freeways of rush hour, hit the restaurant up followed by stocking up on staples we can only find there, before spending the evening and making our way home the following morning when traffic was minimal.