…not a female sheep? Fuck off!
CritterCon 2025 (#18)
Trip Day Five
In which we see more than yesterday, visit our second Giant Jesus, buy pinecones, witness a near canoeicide, and return to US soil.
With about 950 miles to travel today, I had Sweetie (AKA, The Bus) locate whatever interesting stops she could find, then start us on our way at 7:00 am. We were just sitting down to breakfast at 7:15 when we were told that we had reached our first stop, the Museum of Fisherman’s Art.
It seems that fishermen out on Lake Superior had some long boring stretches of time, so they carved wood, shaped wire, braided rope, whatever, to make art. The museum was full of stuff gathered over the decades. There were also quite a few paintings done by old fishermen at dockside. We spent about half an hour looking around. And yes, we bought t-shirts, postcards and bumper stickers.
Our next stop was in Nipigon, which Mary and I kept calling Nipplegone. Here, for 50 cents a head for adults and a dime for little kids, we visited a larger and better run roadside zoo than you normally find. The big start here was Edna the Moose, who had been orphaned very young and raised by humans. She was exceptionally tame and the kids just loved her. There were also 4 otters, a black bear, squirrels, birds, a couple of deer, and a fox. All of these animals had either been raised by humans or had sustained injuries that precluded release into the wild. After talking to them, we found that they enjoyed their lives and liked being part of the zoo.
To make writing this go faster, I’ll just post places and what we saw or did.
Hemlo: We checked out the Hemlo Honey Bee, a van sized fiberglass bee used to advertise a honey farm. Actually pretty lifelike looking. Bought some honey.
Wawa: We saw the Giant Jesus of The North. He was carved out of a single boulder about 20 feet tall. Looked better from a distance than close up. Carved buy a guy who told Jesus he’d carve it if his son came home safe from WWI. It took him until 1947 to finish it.
Also in Wawa, we stopped at a little store and bought about 20 decorated pine cones because what the hell, why not. Pretty sure we made the lady selling them very happy.
Sault Ste. Marie: Just to show that we Yanks and the only North Americans who do nutty and dangerous shit, we watched as some goofy Canadian attempted to launch and pilot a jet powered canoe. It had two small jet engines and for the first maybe 4 seconds, he was going like hell in a straight line into open water. Then the left engine sputtered, he started spinning, and then headed back toward our shore. People scattered as he got closer, then he was up the shore and crashing into the rear wall of a bait shop. Incredibly, he had only minor injuries. We did get some pix of it all.
Mackinaw City, Michigan: It being about 5:30, we decided to eat at a local place and had the fish fry. Very filling and tasty, as were the pies we had for dessert.
Alpena: We are spending the night in this small town. After a couple of hours of playing and running amok, all the kids are asleep. So are about half the adults. Spike, Avis, and I are enjoying some of Jeeve’s excellent milkshakes (booze free for them, Scotch & chocolate ice cream for me) and chatting.
Tomorrow, we drive about 860 miles to the con. More reportage then.
Destination Sign When We Started: At The Hop
Destination Sign When We Stopped: Chicago
QM Radio Station: KLIK Halfling Style Country & Western
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