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Showing posts from March 6, 2011

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.
From my long time friend in Japan, Hey Chuck, We're OK. Stuck at home, but we have power, heat, food and some water so we're fine for a day or two. Had to walk about 25 miles until I could find a taxi - my legs and feet are on fire. Other than that, and the memory of wondering if our office building and others would still be standing at the end of teh day (they are, the quality of construction is fucking remarkable), we're FINE. Just resting for now, though we live basically right next to the ocean so we're watching the tsunami updates incase we have to get out of here. NOST
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The weather was too bad to get in the air in the Atlanta area for VFR. I am going up Wednesday evening. I am not doing much traveling this month. It is a bit weird. Saturday I had breakfast with a Flight Instructor for Delta, saw a presentation from an expert Cave Diver, then an Aviation safety seminar and then to look at the "Liberty Belle B-17". These war birds are impressive thinking that there were half a dozen kids crammed into these things trying to kill the enemy. A lot of bravery was needed that's for sure. I have a hard enough time without someone shooting at me. I will be going for a ride in the yellow open-cockpit plane in a couple of weeks.