Today we opened our eyes to find that Sault Ste Marie had disappeared! The fog was some of the thickest we have ever seen.
We started out with the regular hotel breakfast / coffee / tea. Once the fog had lifted enough we set out to explore the city before our planned boat tour of the Soo lock system.
One of the first things we noticed was the ’Tower of History’. Upon closer inspection we found we could pay to access this fantastic viewing platform. At a height of 21 floors / 61M its no CN Tower but for a small town it was great. You can see the view live from the webcam on the top of the tower
The tower was built originally built in 1968 by the Catholic Church as the Shrine of the Missionaries. While the tower was completed the rest of the planned shrine was not and eventually the church stopped funding. The tower was gifted to a town non-profit and is now the ’Tower of History’.
After our trip up the tower we continued onto the visitor centre where we could get a bit closer to the locks. One thing we found interesting was the number of very serious spectators the locks attract. I guess it’s the nautical equivalent of plane spotters. We found people with marine radios, ship trackers, books etc it’s clear they spend a LOT of time here. There is also a recorded phone message which is updated multiple times a day with expected ship arrivals at the locks.
12:30 was our departure time for our river and lock cruse. We boarded our solid ferry style boat and set off down river, away from the locks. The tour provided an interesting commentary. The locks operate on a first call in, first served kind of basis and you must be underway before you can radio in. This meant with the covid restrictions preventing the use of the canadian locks a long wait of about an hour before we could get into the lock to go up.
The locks are operated by gravity with the only power used to operate the valves, gates (big doors) and barrier arms.
The last to images below show the gates just closing (empty lock) then the full an increase in height of 21 feet or 6.4 meters!
To go from the bottom to top or top to bottom takes about 15-20 mins which given the millions of gallons of water moved is pretty impressive.
It took a while for us to grasp the ’Why’. Not just for the Locks but why are there great big freighter ships on the lakes. Turns out one freighter ship = 3000 semi truck and trailers. Thats a pretty good reason! Also we found that there is a network of locks and waterways meaning large ships can get all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to as far inland places like Chicago, Detroit and Duluth!
The Soo locks are completely free to use regardless of vessel size on both the USA and Canadian side. In the summer its not uncommon for jet skis and kayaks to use the locks!
Due to delays in accessing locks our tour didn’t finish until after 3:30pm so we returned to the hotel to spend the afternoon relaxing. Or so we had planned…..
Long story short, but Chris managed to accidentally poison himself! At first we were not at all concerned but a precautionary check with the USA poisons team advised that we should go to an emergency department immediately and if we are unable to do so within 15 mins call 911!
Neither of those options sounded great. We were very fearful of the US health system despite having travel insurance. As Danielle was not comfortable driving in the USA we figured we shouldn’t just wait it out. A quick google found that we were a few minutes away from the ”War Memorial Hospital”.
The hospital was fantastic, the staff were understanding and reassuring. Within 10 minutes Chris was seen by a triage nurse and then admitted to an ED room. a few hours of monitoring / supervision and a visit from a very friendly doctor and we were back on our way with no serious side effects. The doctor was very interested in New Zealand and we spent a lot of time talking about his planned travel!
We called our insurer to let them know. The hospital wrote down our insurance certificate details and that was all! Chris was expecting to be chained to the bed until they extracted 10k for just looking at him! (In the USA the average ED visit runs around 1-2k USD according to google) I am sure we will eventually get a bill that travel insurance will cover, but it was great to see that the hospital was not at all concerned. It was all about making sure Chris was ok.
What was interesting is this upper peninsula is quite remote by US standards. The town here has a population of about 13,000. Kerikeri and its immediate surrounds has a population of 16,000 plus. Both regions are called Northland, both are often passed over for investment.
The local hospital here was a 50 bed hospital with a 24/7 ED and while doctors were thin on the ground (where are they not) it was very well staffed. It was much larger than Kaitaia / Bay of islands but smaller than Whangarei hospital.
We know the US health system leaves a lot to be desired and we are very thankful that we live in NZ where you don’t have to worry about being chained to a bed and made to pay! Chris’s experience was extremely positive, but if you’re traveling to the USA we would still recommend you don’t add it to your itinerary!
By the time Chris was discharged the restaurant we had planned to visit was shut so it was pizza for dinner taken back to the hotel.
Today we start the trip back to Toronto / Hamilton via a night in Sudbury.
Chris & Dan
Glad your hospital experience was OK. My mantra especially going anywhere but Oz is if you cannot afford insurance you cannot afford to travel. I have seen the item of butterfly screws for a pair of crutches priced on the bill