The Soo

Quick update here from Sault Ste Marie, MI. Yesterday, we completed our ride across the tip of Lake Huron on the Trans- Canada Highway. We hadn't gotten too far out of North Bay before we ran into some serious rain. While we were pulled off into the gravel suiting up (and right after the couple who did so at the hotel went zooming by) I wrenched my back and all the pretty stars came out. For a moment, I thought I wasn't going to be able to move at all, but we were 5 feet off a highway in the pouring rain. Paralysis was not an option.
I somehow made it work, and when we got to Sudbury, we stopped at the HD dealer and my sweetie rubbed me down with some form of magical poultice. It got me through the day amazingly well.
A short ride across town brought us to the nickel mine and the tallest smokestack you've ever seen. It's as tall as the Empire State Building (seriously-look it up.) The ride over was dry and the sun was peeking out, so we unsuited, and in the 10 minutes it took to do that, the pictured cloud rolled in and the wind picked up. We were thinking we were about to meet Dorothy.
It somehow never produced a drop of rain, and in 10 more minutes, it was gone. We continued west, and ended up at customs warm and dry around 4:00.
On the US side, we stopped to see the locks linking Superior and Huron and figure out where we want to end up for the night. In the visitors center, the board showed an upbound freighter scheduled to transit at 6:15. This excited me more than you'd probably think is normal, but it solved the remaining question, and so here we are in a Comfort Inn 3 miles down the road. This morning looks the same as yesterday: gloomy out the window and green blobs on the radar. My back is tight and sore, but functional. Off we go...