A pleasant enough day on the road

I successfully traveled the rest of the way from Brookings to the Soo today. And in spite of the omnipresent grey skies and and periods of rain, it's been a pretty nice, fun day.

After enjoying the complimentary continental breakfast at the hotel last night, I hit the road about a quarter after 8 Central Time. I picked up Highway 41 North, which took me through Green Bay and beyond until it changed to Highway 35. As it has so many times before, Highway 35 took me through Escanaba, a town that's becoming increasingly familiar to me. Then again, many of the towns on this route to the Soo are becoming more and more familiar to me. And the trip seems to go a little faster each time now that I'm getting to know the area.

I really didn't make that many stops between Wautoma and the Soo today. About the only stops I made were to use the washroom and pick up drinks. The last time I stopped for fuel was at a BP station nearly Brimley. The station is about eight miles from I-75, which then carried me all the way to the border. Actually, there was one stop that I'd almost forgotten about; I briefly stopped at the boardwalk in Manistique to take some photos of Lake Michigan. The lake wasn't really frozen near the place where I stopped, but it was frozen at other locations.

Before crossing the International Bridge over the St. Marys River, I stopped by the duty free shop to change some money. And I realized today how much weaker the American dollar has become in relation to the Canadian dollar. I handed the clerk $233 and received $218 and change in return. There was a time even in the recent past when the American dollar was a good deal stronger than its Canadian counterpart. But that's not the case anymore.

It was already starting to get dark as I crossed the expanse of the bridge and proceeded to guard station at the border. There were two lines of cars, both of which moved quickly. I was in line about two minutes. And I was pleased when I arrived at the guard post. The guard asked me a few questions, took a look at my passport, and waved me on through. As one could expect, I was pleased with how quickly I was able to cross the border.

Though my stomach was starting to grumble loudly (all I had eaten since breakfast was two apples), I decided to get a hotel room first. I first thought to spend the night at the Days Inn, my old standby. But I decided to do something different this time, so I secured a room at the Travelodge just up the street. The climate controls in the first room didn't work, so the manager moved me to another room. And in so doing it seems he gave me an upgrade. The first room had two queen beds and a small bathroom. The second room, which I assume will be the same cost, has a single queen bed but has a larger bathroom with a hot tub. So I'm pretty happy about how things worked out in that respect. It's also nice that my car is parked under cover, especially since it started snowing not long after I arrived.

I hung out in the room for a few minutes to relax and then hit the streets to run some errands. My first stop was Wal-Mart; while there, I picked up some deodorant (I had forgotten to pack some) and some anti-gas medication. I've felt a lot better with regard to the stomach maladies I've had for about 10 days now. But I still have some difficulties with gas. The medication seems to have helped.

When I was done at Wal-Mart, I drove around to a few different places to figure out where I wanted to eat. My first thought was pizza, but I ended up eating at Casino Sault Ste. Marie instead. I had breakfast for supper; then again, breakfast is the usual meal I have at the casino.

Today seems to be my lucky day. Apart from being safe on the road, having no problems at the border, and getting a nice hotel room, I was also lucky at the casino. I didn't put more than $30 total of my own money into a variety of the machines, but I was up about $60 by the time I left. And I had fun in the process. I was even able to play the Deal or No Deal game I've wanted to play for ages now. In the past, the game has always been under repair. But tonight the games were in perfect working order and weren't being used by others. I'm not going to question my good fortune in gaming tonight; I'm happy with how things worked out. It's nice to make some money for a change. And I hope I'll make some money tomorrow when Dolly and I gamble at the casino together. If I don't make money, that will be OK, too.

I ended up spending about an hour and a half in the casino after I ate. And once that was done I ran to a convenience store to pick up some bottles of caffeine-free Diet Pepsi. Diet Mt. Dew isn't available up here, and I didn't bring any with me. So I've settled for the Diet Pepsi, in which I'm indulging as I write this.

It's almost time to call it another day. It was nice to be able to take a soak in the hot tub a little while ago, and it will be nice to visit with Dolly online again here in a bit. And it will be even nicer to see her smiling face again. Technically the beginning of my vacation was yesterday, but I think it's safe to say that tomorrow is going to be the start of another awesome vacation.