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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Today I will getting a tour of the Ice-cube project. Ice cube is a huge array to hopefully detect neutrinos. You say so what if we detect neutrinos? ... let me give you a potential outcome. If we can create and modulate a neutrino effectively it will make all of our satellite communications obsolete. We will be able to send a signal through anything we want, including the earth. Of course the physicists will be able to use neutrino detection as means to help figure out the begining of time and space. But the radio thing is a neat idea too. http://icecube.wisc.edu/

Last night I got on 20 meters and worked my new friend at Patriot Hills Antarctica. He is the radio guy for an expedition company. He gave me the heads up of adventurers headed our way. We have a few more treking over ice to get to pole. Most do just the last hundred miles. Some do over 600 miles. His company flies folks in from Argentina on Russian jets that land on a blue ice runway at Patriot Hills. It does cost them a little money of course.

This is the dining room in between meals at the New South Pole station.

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