Live from Marty's House...

So we're in the Upper Peninsula -- particularly, I'm using Marty's machine, at his house just outside lovely Newberry, Michigan.

We showed up late afternoon, Monday, and we're planning on heading out tomorrow early morning -- and it was only a three day trip, getting here :)

We had two stops on the way -- the first of which was planned, and we stopped by for the evening (and hung out until after lunch, the next day) to visit Denise (smileydee) who just moved in to her new apartment. We went to Steak 'n' Shake, played with her cats, walked around lovely Miami University and just sort of socialized... which was interesting... sort of a strange feeling finally meeting somebody I'd spoken with, off 'n' on, since 10th grade or thereabouts.

We meant to get from Ohio to Marty's house that next day, but Geekmobile's alternator fizzled while we were on the road, going through lovely Grand Blanc, Michigan. Gary the Excellent Mechanic and Tow-Truck operator came and pulled him off the highway, and he fixed him up the next morning. We spent the night at the nearby Knights Inn.

... and then the next day, we headed up through the rest of Michigan, up into the UP. Along the way, we stopped at The Mystery Spot (... it's super-mysterious!! Check it out, if you're ever in the UP!), and before that, we stopped for tshirts in Wolverine, which we thought was an interesting name for a town.

Newberry is possibly the prettiest place... Michigan is all full of wildflowers, and Newberry is bright green and full of trees (and you can just pick apples right off of them, but they're not quite ripe yet, but we ate some anyway) and there are berries and waterfalls and playgrounds and open fields and different fauna -- chipmunks and moose, for example. And they eat pasties here. It's pronounced with a short 'a' sound, so it doesn't rhyme with "pastry". I'm looking for a veggie pasty, but it's questionable, whether such a thing exists.

Yesterday, we headed out to visit Marty's state park (where he used to work), looked at a waterfall, tromped 'round in the woods, and went swimming in Lake Superior... and we've been playing video games (mostly Tekken 4) and watching movies (Donnie Darko and Unbreakable) and pushing big weight on Marty's sister's Bowflex. Very exciting :)

... and we're probably going to Canada today. And then we're going to drive a billion miles tomorrow. And Marty's got a big friendly black lab named Clover.

See most of you crazy kids soon :)

Ah, and Marty's now got an LJ account -- samarin. Say "hi" to (and friend) Marty, everybody! :)