Crossing into Canada

We departed the Mackinac Island area at 11:30 and arrived in Sault Ste Marie, MI area at 12:30.  The Meijer Gas Service Center is pretty new and easily can accommodate large RVs with a tow.  We refueled the RV and the Jeep before crossing the border. The crossing was within 2 miles of the refuel stop and an easy drive.  We paid a toll of $15 on the American side to cross the bridges into Canada.  After the bridges we lined up behind 10 cars at the customs booth.  

We were there approximately 15 minutes.  The standard questions took about a minute and we were passed through. We followed the signs through the Canadian side of Sault Ste Marie for route 17 North/West.  There were a few rough roads in town.  The first hour or so of our trip had large areas that were under construction.  The 17 highway is two lane with three lane passing areas spaced about 20kms apart.  What a beautiful ride around Lake Superior, with numerous lake views on our left and hilly forest on our right.  About two hours on the road, we had our first Moose sightings (a bull moose on the right standing in a small pond followed by a female standing by the the woods.  Unfortunately we were not fast enough with the with a camera. 

We spent the night at a closed ski resort parking lot on the eastern edge of Marathon, OT.  It was here were we met an adventurous young man, Andre. He is riding his bicycle across Canada and then back again. What motivated him to start this epic journey? The 18 year old said he will never be this free again, so this spring/sumer was the time to take on this challenge. He showed us his bike and how he managed to carry all his gear, he had to limit what he carries so he mostly eats high energy food which is nut based - he carried a big bag of this energy food.  He misses eating fresh fruit and vegetables each day. We we curious about his adventure and he was just as curious about how it is traveling in a 'huge luxury RV' (his words). We invited him in to check it out. I asked if he ran into any trouble, he said everyone has been so nice - he has had no trouble at all. Since we just crossed the boarder we didn't have any veggies but we made sure he took a few bananas. We really meeting and talking with Andre, a dynamic and adventurous young man. It was a wonderful first evening in Canada.