Wednesday Open Thread - June 24, 2015
I have been a vagabond for the last two weeks, some of which were spent on a wonderful vacation up in the land of our own dk, Michigan. To get there from North Carolina, we drove to Florida and then I went to my mother's in the central part of the state. We flew out of Tampa, which still has to be one of the most customer friendly airports in the US.
We were with a tour group since this vacation was my 92 year old mother's dream, which was to spend a one week vacation with her two daughters. Amazingly, it went very well, considering we three women spent one week traveling and sharing one room together. And we did it with carry on luggage too. Out of the seven nights, I slept four on a roll away cot for which I volunteered, and surprisingly slept very well.
I saw incredible beauty and was very surprised by Michigan, a state I had never seen before. And I wish I could have spent more time there. While I understand that I probably saw the best of Michigan, it was still far different than I expected. And the people there were so welcoming and nice. As a Southerner, I understand all too well what it is like to deal with others' preconceived notions. As a tourist, I was educated as to why we should not have these set perceptions, but should be open to what our commonality is.
Perhaps I may write more in a later post. For today, I want to know what is on your minds.
Comments
Glad you had a good time and made it back home safe and sound.
Michigan is a great place to vacation, not so sure about living here. Cost of living is very affordable including beach front property - as long as you avoid the NW shore where prices and egos are sky high and the roads and towns are jammed full of tourists and traffic. The upper peninsula is a whole different place from the lower. They want to secede (maybe they're lost Texans?) because they say they have nothing in common with the lower. In many ways, they are right.
What's on my mind is that I need to get to work. Have a good day and welcome back.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Good Morning dk!
The weather in Michigan was in the upper 60's and low 70's, so it was very enjoyable the entire time. Then we went back to reality. We flew out of Detroit and back to Tampa to be greeted by temperatures soaring near 100 degrees. One day later I drove back to Tallahassee where it was not much cooler. Yesterday, we returned back to western NC to a "heat wave" with temps far more balmy, in the mid eighties. It served to remind me why I prefer this area to the sweltering heat of Florida at this time of year.
Now to get rid of this cold I picked up while on vacation. 
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Morning y'all...
you've got that right about the Upper Peninsula dk, I've got a brother in the iron Mountain area and they certainly are a different breed there. It's beautiful up there with a lot of wilderness, it's not a pleasant place in the winter though. They are fiercely independent and you're right about them wanting to secede, they've been talking about that for decades. i think much of it has to do with taxes and having a large portion of them going to the large cities in the Lower Peninsula, you hear the same thing here in Illinois where downstaters are always complaining about Chicago getting the lionshare of the revenues.
Rain day today and from the looks of the radar map it's going to be an all day affair.
that
the Upper Peninsula is part of Michigan is kinda weird, when you think about it. It isn't physically linked to the rest of Michigan—the only land mass to which it is connected is Wisconsin. There wasn't even a bridge connecting it with lower Michigan until 1957. Apparently, when Michigan became a state, it didn't even want the Upper Peninsula, but was eventually forced to take it, in a "compromise" in which Michigan was also forced to relinquish the "Toledo strip" to Ohio. Lower Michiganers were all grumbly about this, considering themselves The Losers, as the Upper Peninsula was then officially designated "a sterile region . . . destined by soil and climate to remain forever a wilderness." Of course a few years later they stumbled upon the copper and iron in the Peninusla, which brought in more mineral wealth than the California Gold Rush, and then they were Happy they were made to take the UP.
I have never been there, but have long had a fondness for it, based on my long-ago reading of the novel Anatomy of a Murder, which is set there. The author—a UP lawyer cum judge and fly-fisherman, who as a child learned to speak Ojibwe before English—devotes almost as many words to long, discursive passages about UT life and people, as to the actual plot.
Hi gulfgal98, thanks for the OT
today there isn't much on my mind other than it seems to be not so hot and humid out there and I will go outside to do some garden work.
Have a good day all.
Some advice? I would appreciate it!
As you know your country much better than I do, can you give me an advice, please?
Jesus, what an adventure I guess I have to do it once in my life. Otherwise I regret it.
If you would have to drive to either Oakland, CA via Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada in the current weather or if you would have to drive to Seattle, WA via Dakotas and Montana, which route would you choose. I am driving from Maryland. I am scared of heat and getting stuck somewhere in deserts and some such or being flooded by torrential rains.
Which one is the safer route? There are some advantages for me for taking the Oakland port for car shipment instead of Seattle, but I am a little more scared to drive through Utah and Nevada because of the heat. Are my fears justified? Have you driven through there? And if I drive, which stops would you make, as I have never really seen the National Parks and I might as well make that a fun trip and take more time to cross from East to West and see the parks. I guess I have to learn what to do when a buffalo or a bear approaches my car somewhere in the parks, right?
Thank You.
if
you'd prefer to exit at Oakland, I80 will take you there, and though it runs through "dry" portions of Utah and Nevada, it's a major interstate route, with steady traffic, and so if you break down or something you're not going to perish out there—someone will be along shortly.
I've driven across those states, in late summer, in cars without air conditioning, and did not die, or even suffer brain damage (I think).
The landscape can be kind of boring, and in some areas downright bizarre: I don't know if this is any longer the case, but for some years Utah was too cheap to put in public "rest areas," and so people created their own, and occasionally you'd see places along the road where furls and curls of used toilet paper gusted about in the dusty winds. : /
I guess I am just hyperventilating over all
the things that could go wrong.
Your rest area imagery is vivid and reminds me of ... taking some toilet paper with me...
Good lord, I guess I am really going to do it. Can't quite believe it myself. I rarely plan something out in detail and in advance (my life just was not made that way) and I guess by tomorrow or Friday I just grab my bags and go and take it as it comes.
Thanks hecate.
you
could try hyperventilating over all the things that could go right. ; )
I think you are brave and good; probably everybody should try crossing the US by car once in their lives, and you're doing it!
I don't think you'll have a TP problem. The maximum amount of miles between exits on I80 is I think like 35 miles. Where I encountered the odd spontaneous TP clusters was on a more southerly route, Hwy. 70, where there is a long 100-plus mile stretch between facilities. It's pretty along some of that route, though.
I80 is intended for people who want to move a long ways fast, so to really see stuff you'll want to venture off it a bit every now and then.
My brother had a good bear story. He was camping out in the open up in the mountains here, and awoke in the night to hear something snuffling, with his view of the sky obscured. He realized a bear was straddling him, sniffing his face. My brother's breath was that night about 80 proof, and the bear soon snorted in disgust, and lumbered off. So, if you're going to sleep in the open out in bear country, bring whiskey. ; )
This reminds me of the first time
I went backpacking with my now husband. He was an avid backpacker, mostly in the Carolinas. I had never hiked or backpacked before, but I was game to try. Our first night was a relatively short hike to our first stop in one of the adirondacks where registered hikers could stay. An adirondack is a three sided stone structure with a tin roof and the fourth side is a chain link fence which could be locked at night to prevent the bears from entering. They have wire mesh stretched between log supports where you can put your sleeping bag for the night. Six berths are below and six above.
We had driven all day so we were the last ones to the adirondack and all the spots were taken except two on the upper level. Most of the people there had already eaten and some were bunked, including one guy who had killed a fifth of bourbon. There was one spot next to the drunk and one next to the wall where the mice were running up and down. My then boyfriend/now husband asked me which berth I wanted. I debated in my head...rats or the drunk, rats or the drunk, and ultimately, it was a no brainer for me. I chose the drunk!
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
and
if you decide to go to or through the national parks, there are nice ranger people there who will tell you how to behave around bear or buffalo or other critters. For instance, sometimes bears need to walk on the road, but, as you can see at the very end of the video below, usually there's a ranger there to make sure any humans around don't panic or stampede. ; )
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN2NIoMvpOQ]
they are amazingly cute - AND they obey the rangers :-)
thanks hecate.
I'm in Utah and have driven to CA many times
After you leave SLC, it's butt ugly territory most of the way until you get past Reno then the drive through the Sierra is beautiful.
After Auburn the scenery isn't very pretty and if you hit rush hour, it will take you 3x longer to get to Oakland.
And there's no national parks along the way, unless you drive through southern Utah, but there out of the way.
Don't worry about rain. It's pretty much over
If you go thru Montana, I'm not sure how close you'd get to Glacier, but the best way to see it means spending at least a week there.
I suggest that you look at Google earth and see what is on the route you are taking.
I look at it a lot to see the parts of ca I miss the most, especially the ocean and Bodega Bay.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.