So long Canada.  We will miss your splendor and your lovely people! But it sure felt good crossing back into the USA where things were familiar like gallons, not liters and miles, not kilometer, and where things cost less even taking into consideration of the favorable exchange rate.

We checked into Drummond Island.  It was raining when we came into our slip.  The dockhand helped us tie up and explained the captain may get off the boat only to adjust lines and I was not allowed to get off until Customs  checked us in. She said she would tell them we were here and they would be right over.  After two hours of waiting I finally called because it was just about time for docktails with the many loopers in the marina.  Oops they forgot us.  I told them we had been there two hours and the gal on the phone just about flipped.  Someone will be there immediately.  I don’t think they usually let people linger that long. I suspect it will not look good on the paperwork that we had been hanging out unsupervised for two hours.  The customs agent was there in minutes and he barely asked us anything.  I think they knew they screwed up and just wanted our paperwork done.  We then could get off the boat, check in at the marina. On our way back Tranquility  and Lower Place were setting up docktails.  We got drinks and a snack and had about 8 of us on the back of Tranquility’s boat.   Robin McVey was wondering what took so long for us to get through customs.  She asked if it took them that long to calculate the blueberry tariff for all the blueberries in our freezer. Funny gal. We also heard the true story from another couple who happened to be in the customs office when they found out we had pulled into port …. the head customs agent told her worker not to go out in the rain, because he could slip and get hurt.  She instructed him to wait a while.  That is how we got forgotten. We met new loopers and enjoyed the company of those we already knew.

The next morning many of the Loopers left early, of which most were heading for Mackinaw Island.  We have been to Mackinaw several times so we elected to skip this stop.  We got a later start because we needed fuel first.  We then proceeded on and anchored at St. Ignace.  The next morning we were up early and decided to poke our nose into the waters exposed to the west wind to see if it was going to be bad.  We got around the corner and saw the Mighty Mac (Nickname for the Mackinaw Bridge) but she eluded us that day because it was already blowing pretty hard.

We went back to another anchorage closer than the previous one only to be rocked constantly by the Ferry boats, so we pulled up anchor again and anchored back where we were. That turned out okay because it was calm and quiet with the Hiawatha National Forest just off our bow. Of  course, we went exploring. We got some exercise and enjoyed the wilderness. We worked on some minor cleaning of the boat later. We went to bed early in anticipation for an early start in the morning.

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

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