Upper Peninsula Michigan and Auction Win Outcomes

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I was up in Wisconsin and the UP (upper peninsula) in Michigan. It was a lot of driving after launching/landing in Appleton WI. I got an item off the bucket list by driving across the "Mighty Mac". Altough it was built in the late '50s. It is still the longest suspension span in the Northern hemisphere. It is a crazy long bridge with a crazy long suspension span. It was good to see the bridge in context of the seemingly endless forests of Northern Wisconsin and Michigan. The culture in the two haves of Michigan are noticibly different as you might expect. Great time meeting with folks both in WI and MI. The tractor I won in auction, seems to have paid off. This time I beat the odds. It was a really good deal. I have the "no-key, non-running, may have hydraulic problems, unknown hours" -auction win, running well with minimal cost and time. I have some more tweaks, maintenance and minor fixes but the major risks are gone.
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Ice Cube was interesting. It was about a mile walk over to the Ice Cube Lab. I walked off the trail straight across the sastrugi right towards the geographic pole which was fun. I went to bed early on my Saturday night and got up early on my Sunday morning. Today is theoretically my day off. I am currently in the shop and I just downloaded some schematics so I can get some equipment repaired. Later today I will be going out to the RF building. Since there are no flights (except for a single twin otter for expiditioners) scheduled for today that reduces the risks of serious comms problems. We have a satelite tech who gets to worry about the satellites.

These pics are me with a DOM http://www.icecube.wisc.edu/info/how/dom.php and an extreme close up of the pole at the pole. I wandered around in the tunnels last night. It is a spooky place. Access is good. Nothing is locked at pole. Not even your room is locked. Not that a lot of our stuff at McMurdo is locked, but even compared to McMurdo there is nothing locked here.

I am supposed to head back to McMurdo tomorrow. I believe I am leaving the shop in better shape than I found it a week ago. I am soo much better after having a week to adjust to the incredible dryness and altitude change. I can still get winded running up two flights of stairs but I am now sleeping well and feel normal.

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