Day 121-Reaching our house in Sault Ste. Marie

Day 121 Monday, September 6, 2010 Distance 61.53 km. Time 2 hr. 59 min. Total so far 8329.32 km. Dave and I were up when it was still dark. Everyone else at Cecil’s house in Bruce Mines was still sleeping. We went downstairs and checked the weather on the computer because it was raining at the present moment. Dave said the rain should slow down in a couple of hours. Cecil woke up and made me eggs and toast and tea for breakfast. Cynthia got up next from the couch. She had given up her bed for us. Thank you. Cecil took out the cat treat bag and all the animals came eagerly looking for a handout. Julia woke up last and her hip was still sore today. She is an excellent painter and I took photos of some of her paintings. She is also knitting thrumb mitts like we bought for Dave on his birthday in Prince Edward Island. She gets her wool from a local sheep farmer. She has also purchased some beautiful wool blankets. Cecil has also made her some looms to do knitting on. I asked if I could come back for a lesson some time. Finally the rain slowed down and we started to pack the bicycles and said our goodbyes just before 10 am. Thank you Cecil and Julia for putting us up and feeding us and providing wonderful company. Good luck Cynthia with your new job and may you enjoy your return to Sault Ste. Marie. HOORAY! The wind was less today but it was on our BACK so riding was easy. The traffic wasn't bad because it was early in the morning on Labour Day. I’m sure it would increase greatly by afternoon. We passed several horse and buggy signs and when we passed through Desbarats, we saw a Mennonite family pulling up to the intersection where they stopped to water the horses. Our first snack stop was just past the cut off to St. Joseph’s Island. Here the highway divides into two and all the traffic goes one way. SWEET! Everyone moved way over to the other lane for us. It is all farm land along here and big flat areas on either side of Pumpkin Point hill. After the Bar River flats , we turned off the main Hwy onto Hwy. 17 B which used to be the main Hwy. It led us into Echo Bay. At the gas station, we looked up the address of Bob and Helen who we see on Sundays at worship meeting. We surprised them although they have followed the blog faithfully and knew we were approaching this area. We brought our lunch in, admired their wall of family photos and sat down at the table. They provided dessert of blueberries and peaches. Bob and Helen have picked and sold blueberries for many years. They go up to Wawa and he has special equipment that he has made that he uses to scoop up many berries at a time and then they use various blowers to get rid of the leaves and debris and they put them in baskets and sell them. Very professional! Maybe my son-in-law, Andy, should make one for Caroline who LOVES to pick berries of all kinds and make jam. Helen also had a bushel of peaches from Traverse City area that she is going to process into jars. I enjoyed the fruit but was NOT envious of all the work. After we left their house, we stopped at the giant Looney statue at the outskirts of the town for a photo and then crossed the bridge from Lake George to the Echo River and entered the Garden River First Nation where a sign reminds drivers that they better not speed or they will be prosecuted. Many community members have been killed by speeders in the past. This road is so quiet now because most of the traffic takes the bypass. Along here it is more scenic as you get glimpses of the north channel of the St. Mary’s river and you pass by Pine Island. One prominent slogan that has been on the railway bridge that goes over the Garden River says “This is Indian Land.” At that spot, it started to drizzle a little so we sped up. Finally we could see the outskirts of Sault Ste. Marie. We passed the lights where the bypass comes back to the Hwy., crossed the railroad track and took Frontenac Street through the Batchewana First Nation Rankin Reserve up to Manitou Park. A couple of turns brought us to Anna Street and near the end we came to our house. THANK YOU, LORD, for our safe return after 121 days.