High Tech in the U.P.

I was reading the Sunday Detroit Free Press this morning. We do get the Free Press the same day here in the far reaches of Michigan, but that was not always the case. There was a time when Michigan’s largest morning daily arrived here the next day, apparently being transferred from one vehicle to anther along the way.

I’ve always pictured a scenario akin to Faberge eggs, where you open the egg and some smaller item is nested inside, with something small nested inside of that, and so on.

In my mind, the UP-bound stacks of newspapers start out at the printing plant, loaded into an 18-wheeler that says “U.P. or Bust” on the side. Stacks of papers are dropped off at locations all along I-75, until the remainder is transferred to a cargo van in Grayling, then to a mini-van in Escanaba. By the time the Free Press is distributed in Marquette, there’s a guy in a rusty 1985 Crown Vic with stacks of newspapers in the back seat on his way to the Copper Country.

This Sunday’s issue had an article about the increasingly sophisticated electronics available in cars. Going beyond the basic GPS direction-finding function, systems now will pinpoint the location of various types of establishments on the maps, such as restaurants, fast food, malls and WalMarts.

A friend of mine in Baltimore has one of these on his gigantor SUV and it is entrancing. In fact, I got to push the buttons during a trip we took together to Eagle Harbor last summer. And that is just about as exciting as you might imagine. Short of the map there was not much to see on the GPS screen. And, really, can you make a wrong turn when you are going to Eagle Harbor? “If you’re in Lake Superior, you’ve gone too far.”

Some advocates say this technology will disperse much faster if it is advertiser driven. Sponsorships may include some sort of preferred treatment when a driver (or, hopefully, not a driver but a passenger) requests information on, say, the nearest home improvement store.

So how, exactly, would such a navigation system work in the U.P.? I’m driving down Montezuma Avenue in Houghton and decide I need to pick up some parts for the gutter system on my house. My GPS search, sponsored by Home Depot, directs me to drive 45 miles south to the US-41-141 junction, drive 45 miles south to the junction with US-2, then drive 20 miles east to the Home Depot – in Iron Mountain. Might it not be easier just to stop at McGann’s on the way home?

I also wonder what will happen when we have all these techno-enabled vehicles driving around the Copper Country, being pointed to McDonald’s for breakfast and Applebees for dinner. Visitors will miss out on home-grown experiences as the Suomi bakery, Slim’s Café in Mohawk and Toni’s pasties in Laurium.

Meanwhile, spring has sprung here in the Keweenaw. The leaves have started to pop out, the grass is green (Jay even mowed the lawn already) and my new front yard has started to come in. New front yard? I guess I’ll have to tell you about that next week.

The Prom and The Mud

Keweenaw Tales
May 14, 2008

A weekly newsletter from Dean Woodbeck in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula (deanwoodbeck AT gmail.com)

It was the cleanest of times. It was the muddiest of times.

Saturday was prom night at Hancock High. Guys in tuxes. Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes. Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes. (I was just reading about Julie Andrews’ biography and my head transitioned to The Sound of Music.)

Anyway, prior to the prom, we spent some time discussing etiquette. It started weeks before renting the tux.

“What color is her dress?”

“I dunno.”

Repeat that conversation nightly at dinner for a week. Until one day:

“What color is her dress?”

“It is black.”

Now we’re making progress. On to rent a tux. When you’re talking about a black dress, there isn’t much choice in a tux; it has to be black. “Why?” I was asked. “Because you don’t want to show her up.” That led to another conversation about why, exactly, such things are important.

I could go on, but you get the drift. Of course, I didn’t mention some of the colors of tuxes I rented in high school, not to mention that snazzy red plaid sport coat I wanted to use for my senior picture. With the white bow tie. Nice.

Prom wasn’t so exerting that we couldn’t head out for a mountain bike ride the next day. The trail right up from our house, Maasto Hiihto, wasn’t quite dry. Not even close.

Jay hit one spot with a narrow puddle, but the depth about equaled the width. Two pedal strokes in and the water was halfway up the tires and he slowed to a stop in the middle of the water. There are advantages to being slow and following behind.

Unfortunately, my chain broke three times in three miles. We had a chain tool with us – this handy gizmo that allows you to remove a link and make the chain whole again. After three surgeries, however, the chain was no longer long enough to accommodate all of the gears or, in my case, most of the gears. I turned around for the slow ride home while Jay continued out to the best part of the trail. Meanwhile, my chain broke the fourth and final time about a half-mile from the house.

But what about that puddle Jay tried to traverse early in the ride? He figured coming at it from the other direction, with speed gained on a downhill, would provide enough momentum to make it through. As he hit the middle of the puddle, his front tire sank and he did a slow-motion tumble over his handlebars.

Letters

From Tom Fisher

Well, well...........the wandering bard has taken time to fill us in. Way to go, and please, don't be so long before you stop by again!

From Douglas Fifield

Welcome back. I have missed you and your tales.

To be truthful, I thought you and your stories were the best tie I had to the U.P. I have lived in the Twin Cities for the past twenty plus years - far from the Kewenaw and the part of my life spent there some forty years ago. Since you went on to other things, my connection to that special place was missing.

I hope to hear more from you, and from the UP.

(Never actually graduated from Tech, but was there 67-70.)

From Jean Dalrymple

Nice to hear from you. Glad things are going well for your family. Maybe you can still enjoy a long walk in your t-shirt. Just make it a long-sleeved version!

From Becky Nold

Hi Dean,

Glad to have you back! Sorry we couldn't keep you in upstate New York, but the Keweenaw is truly a special place.

I wonder about the semester system and ending earlier in the spring - what does it do for the students' memory of Tech to send them away before spring has arrived in the Keweenaw. Maybe MTU needs to institute a mandatory summer program so that everyone gets to experience at least one wonderful UP summer.

From Heidi Fosch

I missed your updates from Tech. But really, it hasn't been two years. I refuse to believe that. One year maybe, but not two!!!

From Tom Nesbitt

Great to get the Husqi Tales and read your prose again! I am looking forward to a renewed connection to da UP eh!

From John Andree

Dean:

I can't say enough how glad I was to see your newsletter Monday morning. I was thinking something dire happened to you, as the newsletters ceased shortly after starting. Glad to hear things are all relatively well. I look forward to your newsletters.

From Mark Koski

Glad to see you're back. Any tales of "Woodbecking' things in NY? I can't wait! There's really no place quite like the Keweenaw.

Dean sez: There was one encounter with a root, the ground, and a very swollen knee. More on that sometime…

From GeekDad_4WD

Dean, Long time no type at.

I noticed the blog is called "Keweenaw Tales" but the feed title has Keweenawtrails.blogspot.com. Is this a Woodbeck? Is it supposed to be Keweenawtales.blogspot.com?

Anyway, you are back where you are well loved and we are anxious for you to continue blogging.

Dean sez: Keweenaw Trails is a website that I maintain supporting the silent sports in the Keweenaw. It seemed to make sense to connect the blog to that….but maybe not?

******

You can subscribe to the email version by emailing Husqui-Tales-subscribe@googlegroups.com

Husqi Tales Resumes; A Snowy May

It is May. It is spring. And it is snowing.

That was the news on Saturday, when snow greeted Copper Country residents, plus all of the visitors in town for Michigan Tech’s commencement. I suppose it is only fitting that all of those who have footed the bills for the past four years get a taste of our most abundant natural resource.

Even for winter sports enthusiasts, snow at this time of year is depressing. This is the time for long walks in t-shirts . . . o.k., that may be optimistic for early May. But at least the temperatures should remain above freezing and the precipitation should be liquid, not frozen.

So enough about the weather, you might say, what’s going on?

Here’s an update. I returned to the Keweenaw two years ago, almost to the day, from an eight-month experience at Clarkson University in northeastern New York. You will recall that I promised I’d continue to write, just like your old high school girlfriend or your Spanish pen pal. And just like those intentions, mine fell by the wayside of adjusting to a new life in a new location.

But I did miss you. Honest.

Just like I missed the Keweenaw, which is why my tour in New York lasted less than a year. My family remained in Michigan, since 2005-06 was my daughter’s senior year of high school, so the move back was relatively easy.

Here’s how it went. I packed my stuff in the back seat of the 2005 Malibu I purchased in Potsdam, New York, from a car dealer named “Con” (and that’s the truth), pointed north to Ottawa, traversed northern Ontario, spent more than an hour sitting on the bridge at the Soo, and headed west on M-28.

Since that time, and thanks to some of the great folks I met in my 20 years at Tech, I have managed to make a living writing, editing, developing websites, and doing other communications work. I rent office space in a business incubator at Finlandia University’s Portage Campus (the old hospital in Hancock), which is 1.1 miles from my house.

I know many of you feel like you watched my kids grow up, so I’ll give you a quick update. My daughter, Laura, is home this week, having just finished her second year at Tech. She is the third generation of our family to attend Tech (both my wife and her dad graduated from Tech, as did I). My son, Jay, is just about to finish his junior year in high school and will work this summer at the Quincy Mine as a guide (hopefully providing some stories for these pages).

I got the writing bug again in March, when I spent nine days in Anchorage at the cross country skiing junior nationals. I set up a blog to communicate with other parents back home.

I plan to write regularly and distribute these via Google Groups and on that blog (www.keweenawtrails.blogspot.com), where I will also be posting photos. I’ll also provide you with news from the Keweenaw – most of it true, but undoubtedly filtered.

If you know of others who would like to receive this newsletter, just have them send an email to Husqui-Tales-subscribe@googlegroups.com.

Until next time,

Dean