7 August 2011 - Great Lakes Trip

This week I went on a research trip to the Great Lakes region.  I was collecting some GPS survey day.  If you want to see how far north I drove on this trip, find the town of L'Anse, Michigan on a map some time.

Here is my little Honda (college car) and my field research "lodging".  The areas I was in were very remote.  I put 2,500 miles on the car in just five days.

This is my field research gear.  The tall pole is an antenna for a high sensitivity GPS unit (the little yellow thing) that reads location with extremely high precision.  I carried this through the Ottawa and Superior National Forests capturing data in 120 different locations.

While I was off cruising the country side, Aunt Kathy came to visit and to go to Kirtland, OH.  I was sorry to miss her visit, but the girls were glad to have her here for a day.

The water in the Great Lakes region was beautiful every time I found some, which was often.  Minnesota isn't called The Land of 10,000 lakes for nothing.  This picture was taken as the sun was rising, just after 6:30 AM one morning.  I had camped at the edge of the lake the night before, and when I woke up, the water was so still and everything was so beautiful, I had to take a picture.  Actually, I took over 100, but I won't post them all here.  The only sounds were of nature, and it was early enough that there weren't many of those.  There really are no words to describe it, and the picture doesn't really do it justice.  The mosquitoes weren't even too bad this morning.

Here is another view.  I really liked this picture because of the way the glassy water reflected the thin clouds.

While I was tromping through the Ottawa National Forest, I came upon this little graveyard.  Evidently, around the turn of the century there had been a small settlement in this area of the forest, and a church in a town several miles away has taken it upon themselves to maintain this cemetery.  I will admit it was a little creepy, but kind of cool too.

I'm so glad I didn't grow up and go to this school in northern Michigan. (Don't forget you can click on the pic to make it big enough to read the sign if you need to.)

I was pleased on the drive up to find myself in Milwaukee when the Brewers were in town and when I had time to catch a game.  I'd never been to Miller Park before (this was my 18th Major League ballpark), so it was fun to catch a game, even if I was alone.  It's never as fun to go to a ballgame without friends, but I just made friends with the folks sitting around me.  To make my maiden voyage to see the Brewers just a little better, it didn't hurt that my ticket to the game only cost $8.00.

I returned home late Saturday night, tired but satisfied with an excellent research trip.  Now to collate my data, write up my findings, and get them published.