Near the Soo

Wednesday October 17...10:15pm

Sure enough, we had a great night sleep at the casino. It was fairly warm too...still 10 degrees inside when we woke up. Didn't even have to put the furnace on. Grabbed a quick coffee and a bite to eat and made our way to a nearby town where
we accessed the internet, to find that we had a response from a global freeloader host www.globalfreeloaders.com who was going to let us park Sherman at their place for the night. Julie and Pat own a piece of property just east of Sault Ste. Marie, and we thought that would make an ideal destination for the end of the day.

It was kind of a drizzly day, but it never really rained very much. So before lunch we stopped on a side road to take Whiskey for a little walk, and got about 10 steps only to see this much bigger dog bounding at full speed towards us. I quickly reached down and picked up Whiskey (she is a suck when it comes to bigger dogs) because you're never quite sure if this wet mangy looking animal is happy to see you or not. Turned out he was just a big puppy, and very happy about everything. But we couldn't get rid of him long enough for Whiskey to even go pee, so we headed back to the RV and turned around. Soon got to a park in some little town where we made lunch and let Whiskey do her thing.

A few years ago we had camped at Chutes Provincial Park in the village of Massey, and we knew they had a nice hiking trail near the falls. So we stopped in there even though the park is closed for the season. It's so nice wandering around the parks when there's absolutely nobody else around. Got to the falls and took a few pictures and then realized that if we were going to make it to our host parking spot for the night that we had better get a move on. But I saw there was someone still in the park office and thought I'd ask about emptying the holding tanks while we were there. I realized the park was closed, but thought it was only a matter of them letting me inside the gate and it wouldn't have been any trouble. But no, the girl in charge had no sense of humour, and wouldn't let me do it. Oh well...it never hurts to ask, right?!

Chutes Provincial Park

The waterfalls at Chutes Provincial Park

Chutes Provincial Park

Made it to the turnoff from Highway 17 near Bruce Mines where we were to head off the main road for about 10 minutes to get to where Julie and Pat live with their 5 children. She mentioned the road was a little bumpy, so we weren't sure Sherman would take it, but fortunately it turned out to be fine. Julie is a music teacher and Pat plays bagpipes and fiddle in a band. Their youngest daughter Aine (pronounced Awnya) is not yet 5 and can already play tunes on the fiddle. They have a great outlook on life, and it seems that they don't let too much bother them.

Ruth and Aine at the chicken coop

Julie and Pat's place near Bruce Mines 

Aine and Maggie the dog 

Hoping it's not too foggy for our drive north from Sault Ste Marie, but we'll check the forecast in the morning and decide how long we'll hang around town. I hear there's good free camping near the locks in the Soo, so maybe we'll stay close by tomorrow night. We'll see.

Total Nights sleeping in the RV... 4...

October Fuel $ 147.41

October Grocery $ 59.94

October Overnight Costs $ 0