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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Poland, Lithuania and a trip my Grandfather couldn't make to Kaliningrad since it was part of the USSR.

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We are back from a complex trip in Western and Eastern Europe. In ten days it included the following countries: Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Finland, and The Netherlands. Angie was in Moscow and we met in Poland.

On the weekend, we drove across the Lithuania/Russia border. We weren't sure about the realities of crossing the border and we had several different contingency plans. We ended up executing a form of our plan C. We had to spend extra time getting processed since the guards had likely never seen a US passport and Visa. Actually it took two tries. We were refused exit at a backwoods Poland-Russia border. Needless to say it was quite interesting. All the guards at all sites were pleasant and helpful. Only one guard of the 6 sites spoke any English.

It was all a trip through part of the Prussian empire in my thinking. Looking at the very nice architecture from the Prussians in disrepair was very evident. We saw a number of structures that were destroyed in WWII, never torn down, never repaired. Eastern Europe is a fascinating place. We visited the site of the first shots of WWII in Gdansk. We also visited the Immanuel Kant Museum in Kaliningrad (Konigsberg). I found my Grandfather's book on display and signed the guestbook as such. He is the only one to have translated one of Kant's books into English.


Auto diesel in Poland was 4.79 złoty per cubic decimeter and in Russia 36 rubles per liter. So, in Poland diesel was $5.00 USD per gallon and in Russia it was $2.62 USD per gallon.

As normal, it was too fast and I got lots of work done in Germany and Finland. Fun, satisfying, expanding and tiring.





"Never Again War"



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