June 16
It was chilly again this morning. I guess the summer comes later in the Upper Peninsula.
It was hard to know how far we'd travelled. It hadn't looked all that far on the map, but sometimes maps deceive you, and I thought maybe we were really far north.
When Aric woke up, I asked him if it was polar bears I was supposed to have been looking for last night, and he asked why I would think there would be polar bears here. So then I found out that there were ninety divisions between the middle of the Earth and the top of it, and we were no further north that the 42nd or 43rd (Aric wasn't sure). He said on the way back to Kalamazoo, we'd pass the 45th Parallel, which was the halfway point between the north pole and the equator.
Aric and I gathered up some wood and built a fire, which turned out to be a real challenge, 'cause all the wood was wet and there was water in the fire pit even. After a few unsuccessful tries, he said that he knew an old Boy Scout trick that worked every time and went into the cab of Winston. I saw him tilt the seat forward and he rummaged around back there for a little bit before he pulled out a red stick that was about a foot long.
There was a spike on the bottom of it so that he could stick it in the ground, and then he cleared out all the kindling from the center of the woodpile (most of it was damp, too, which was part of the problem), and then took a plastic top off the red stick and struck the two together like a giant match, and it flared into a painfully bright red flame.
He gently set it under the woodpile and threw the kindling back on it and said that was how you started a fire in the rain.
At first, it just smouldered, but then it finally started burning nicely, and pretty soon the wood was hissing and steaming and popping, and we had a fire.
Neither of us was too motivated to hurry up and get back in Winston, so we went and gathered up a nice pile of firewood and set it around the fire, then he put the kettle on and boiled water for our breakfast.
We took our time eating, and we both had a few cups of coffee and watched the fire and watched the dull grey clouds roll overhead. I thought that the storm was breaking; it felt like maybe there might be a little bit of rain off and on in the morning, and then the clouds would break up and taper off.
He said that if this was like every time he went camping, the weather would get worse. Then he said on the bright side, we were at Mosquito Beach, but it was obviously too rainy for them.
Once we were done with breakfast, Aric raked out the fire and then soaked it with water, which was kind of sad 'cause of all the work he'd done to make it in the first place, but we both knew how dangerous it was to leave a fire unattended.
On our way out of the camping ground, he pointed to a brick building that said it was a showerhouse, and we both kind of looked at each other and he lifted his arm up and sniffed under it and asked how I felt about a hot shower before we got back on the road.
I felt like that would be a good idea; the best I'd gotten on the trip so far was getting rained on and getting washed by a wave. So he stopped the truck right by the showerhouse—he said that technically he wasn't supposed to park there but there weren't any other cars so it wouldn't matter—and I asked if we could shower together. He said that was against the rules, too, but if there were any park rangers, they'd be too busy writing a parking ticket for Winston to even check the showers, so why not.
He told me that it would be safest to use the boys' side. I didn't see how it would make a difference, but he said it did. Then he checked to make sure that no one was inside, and I followed him in.
It wasn’t as nice as the ones at the college or even the one at my apartment, but when the hot water finally came out of the showerhead it was plenty nice enough.
Aric wasn't too good at washing me, but he tried his best. He was really nervous about my wings, too, and I had to kind of lead him through it, and I don't think he ever really got comfortable with it. I could feel some spots that he hadn't gotten very well, and I probably could have asked him to get them again, but it felt like the wrong thing to say.
And then when I was clean, I tried to take the washcloth so I could wash him and he got really confused at first, and then he said that I didn't have to, but I wanted to, so he finally let me have it, and crouched down so that I could wash his back and I must have done a good job 'cause he let me do his stomach, too. Then he said that was good, he was sure that the soap running down his body had washed everything else, and I told him that since he was in the shower he ought to get washed properly.
Then after I'd gotten done cleaning the rest of him, I asked if he wanted to have some fun in the shower, and I didn't have to persuade him at all.
We backtracked out of the park, and went to where there was a scenic overlook (people seem to like places where they can park their cars and get out and walk a short distance to see things) and even thought it was overcast and Lake Superior was still grey it had a rugged beauty to it that kind of made me homesick.
He stood at the edge with me, just looking out over the water, and when I asked what he was thinking, he said that he was imagining how it must have been to be on a ship out there in a bad storm and to know that even if you made it to land here, you wouldn't be safe.
Even in the dull light, I could see the muted colors of the rocks, and I could imagine how they might look when the sun was shining and the lake was calm. There were some headlands that jutted out in the water, and they were undercut at their bases because of all the waves washing into them. I pointed it out to Aric and he said that the seas take everything, eventually.
We got back in Winston and drove along the coastline, through a town called Munising, and then we went a little bit further before he turned into another park so that we could have lunch.
He brought the whole cooler, and we made sandwiches and ate underneath a building without walls that Aric said was called a pavilion, and he said that there were smaller, round versions called Gazebos.
He offered me a beer, and had one himself, which he said was to settle the dust, and once we'd put away our lunch supplies, we walked through the park and to the bay.
There was a sign that said ships used to stop here and melt their cargoes of raw ore into pig iron, which was then taken to steel mills further down in the lakes. The whole place was gone—it had burned down when some coke (which was a special kind of firewood for the furnaces) had started a fire—but there were bits of sandstone bricks all around.
Aric picked one up and showed me how one side of it had turned into glass from the heat of the ovens, and it was the most amazing rock I'd ever seen. One side of it was a dark glass, and then there was a whitish line through it, and the other side was sandstone.
He explained how a lot of times, people would build things like this as cheaply as possible, so they probably quarried the local stone because it was easy, and when their furnaces melted from the heat, they just built new ones.
Then he took off his shoes and rolled up his pants and waded out into the water, and I followed him, and he rummaged around on the bottom until he came up with a rust-colored rock that he said was some kind of ore-bearing rock, and it had surely been dropped a hundred years ago or maybe even more, but this was what they'd been carrying on the ships that they'd melted into pig iron.
He carried it back to Winston and on our way back, he picked up one of the glass and sandstone bricks, too, and said that he was going to keep them as souvenirs.
I took a look back before we left and could almost see what it might have looked like back then—with sailing ships in the harbor and little houses scattered around a ways away from the furnaces. It would have looked a lot like Chonamare, maybe.
And maybe in a hundred years, Chonamare would look like this, with nothing left but some stones.
We stopped in Marquette, and along the docks, and Aric showed me where the ore ships used to load. It was a gigantic concrete structure with chutes for the ore to run down, and he said it was too big to be knocked down, so that they had just left it when they didn't need it any more, and took out the bridge that led up to it.
He told me how whole trains of ore could be unloaded into a ship at a time, and how the mines could keep producing ore even when the ships weren't running, so that they would have giant piles of ore waiting to be loaded, and once the ice was off the lake the ships would start coming.
He thought that in particularly bad years, some of the furnaces down the lake ran out of raw materials, and he thought that they'd probably have to be shut down if that happened.
I wanted to know why they didn't use it any more, and he said it was because the mines near here had played out, so they had to go somewhere else, like Minnesota. But there were still mines in the UP; he said that there was one not that far away, and it had orange lakes that you could see from space.
I said that I wanted to see that, and he said that I would probably regret it, but I might as well. So we went back towards the middle for a little while until we got to a town called Negaunee and he told me that I could fly up and look at it.
The airplane directors up here weren't as confused as the other ones had been, because they gave me permission pretty quickly, and so I flew off and it was kind of like the dirt mines in Kalamazoo but a thousand times bigger. And I could see off in the distance the orange lakes that Aric had mentioned, and he hadn't told me that I shouldn't get close to them, but I didn't need him to have told me. They looked evil, and I didn't want to get any closer than I already was.
I guess that it was important to get the iron ore out of the ground so that they could make things out of it, but it was very ugly to see. And when I'd landed and told Aric that, he said that there was a human saying that you didn't want to see how sausages were made.
I thought it was wisest to not ask him how sausages were made.
We stayed away from the lake for a while, until we got to a little town called L'Anse, which was right on the water, and then we followed the shoreline for a while until we cut back inland by a river, and then we came to water on our other side which was also Lake Superior, which meant that we were probably getting close to the end of the peninsula.
It was further than I thought it would be. Aric stopped at a park that was just before Copper Harbor, and said that this was about as far north as the UP went, except for Isle Royal which was way, way out in the lake.
The skies had cleared, like I thought they would, and the water was the most beautiful blue stretching all the way to the horizon, and the angry waves from yesterday had subsided into calm swells.
We walked along a shoreline path, all the way to the very end of the point, and I flew across the narrow stretch of water to an island on the other side. The water was too deep for Aric to wade, so he stayed where he was.
The other side of the loop looked over the bay and Copper Harbor, and that was what we took back.
When we got back in Winston, Aric said that we were almost to the campsite, and we drove through Copper Harbor and went to a place called Fort Wilkins.
It was getting too late to explore the park, so we picked a good spot and started a fire and had sandwiches and vegetables and beer. When it was almost dark, Aric got out some metal sticks that he said were old coat hangers and he showed me how to make s'mores, and then he showed me how to peel the burned crust off my marshmallow after I got it too close to the fire.
He warned me not to wave them around when they were on fire, because they could fly off the rod and they would stick to you. I asked if he'd learned that in the Boy Scouts, too, and he said that it was actually church camp.
I burned my tongue when I got greedy and tried to eat one without letting it cool down at all, and after that I was more careful.
Once we'd had our fill of s'mores, he let the fire burn down and pretty soon there was nothing but the sound of the woods and the singing of frogs and bugs, and the whole big sky full of stars, and we both lay on our backs on the picnic table and looked up.
There weren't too many airplanes flying by, which was something I was used to seeing. And then Aric pointed to a star that was moving, and he said that was a satellite, and we watched it until it went out of view.
He said that sometimes in Michigan you could see the northern lights, and it would be a very special treat if we did, but they were kind of rare. We did see a meteor, though, streaking through the darkness, and I thought that was pretty special, too.
We were both pretty tired when we got into Winston, so we just curled up together and fell right asleep.
northcountrytrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Old-Ore-Dock-Downtown-MQT.jpg
The old ore dock in Marquette.
Surprised a pony didn't make a bigger deal out of s'mores.
Edit: though in retrospect, a pony living on earth with human, particularly American, junk food for a while probably wouldn't be impressed by do-it-yourself sweets.
yep here in this part of PA we know the road flare trick for starting a camp fire but they will also put out a chimney fire .
but we have a different way for starting a fire if you do not have a flare handy.
there is a potato chip here in pa that works really good as it has so much oil in it just wow.
i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/04/12/62/28/0004126228140_500X500.jpg
instant fire starter.
Looks like Aric earned his road flare fire merit badge!
Silver Glow thinks she's up in the frozen north and is watching for polar bears. That's adorable.
Makes a change to see teh old gas fired camp fire. Redneck style.
Pity things like unscrappable megabulds cant be converted to appartments. After all, it seems the weirder the are, the more stupidly rich the person who pays over teh top for them, even if its only to rent them out.
Ive seen how sausages are made.
Ive seen how Pink Slime is made.
A video of the LS&I docks, which are still working at Presque Isle, a few miles north of the old DSSA docks you had them stop at:
As a bonus, the ship they show is the Michipicoten.
And one of the mines they were at (the Empire) is going to close at the end of the year. Loss of 600 jobs the UP can ill-afford, but all mines play out eventually. The Tilden is adjacent to the Empire (you can't really tell them apart by air) and will still be working for a while.
I'm surprised that traveling over the Portage Lift Bridge didn't get a mention on the way to Copper Harbor. That and the mines in Hancock stand out as pretty distinctive structures. Given Silver Glow's claustrophobia, she probably wouldn't be interested in any of the mine tours, though.
(As you might guess, I'm from the west end of Marquette County, and went to Michigan Tech in the Keweenaw.)
Fun trick if you're outside at night and you have an iPhone. Ask Siri "What airplanes are overhead?" and you get a nice little chart of what they are and where they're headed.
I remember a trick for cooking on wood fires. Coat the outside of the pan with soap. That way, the soot will stick to the soap & wash right off. Otherwise, it is almost impossible to get the pans completely clean. Propane fires put out much less soot, but still make some. Learned that in the Boy Scouts.
Sorry Aric, it is the opposite actually, the further north you go, the bigger the number. 42th is the frontier beetween California and Oregon.
Sault for exemple is above the 46th.
And Kalamazoo is around the 42th.
At least someone got his priorities right!
I think you mean 45th Parallel. Meridians are longitude.
he ought to get washed properly.
That reminds me of Coming to America.
Also being washed by your lady is awkward at first but it's a very loving gesture. To bad that ex was bat **it crazy.
thought
Wait, are those counted from the pole? So the 42nd is 48°N?
Edit: And yeah, meridians are longitudes; these are parallels.
Yep, a female pony in the boys' bathroom is definitely less of an issue than a male human in the girls'.
(Also, *boys', I think. Not boy's.)
I bet they feel way more fragile than they actually are.
Come on, Aric, you let the pony ride you, why not let her wash you.
Yeah, but you need to be careful with those, or they'll eat you.
Damn, I suddenly need to go camping.
7491477
Wow. The technology put into Siri is so amazing.
7489723
>__________>
<__________<
It's... totally for work... not for assassination...
Why would Silver be unfamiliar with gazebos, pavilions, or s'mores, all of which are confirmed native to Ponyville?
Take care not to shoot arrows at the gazebos and anger them.
edit. 7492284 beat me to it.
7489852 You know, I've decided I like ornithopter more. It's more cute on Silver - it's closer to I'm a certified aircraft.
And I'd be surprised if the govt. folks didn't have some tracking on Winston. And maybe a satellite pic or two of their trip here and there, as well. Hopefully not while they were gettin' busy outside...
I'm kind of confused as to how a pegasus could be getting cold.
7491228
If I remember correctly, the piling fields to either side are all that's left of even older wooden ore docks.
well, flares certainly would work for starting a fire.
Amazing logic
everyone knows you're supposed to use wood for s'mores when camping.
7492854 Enduring it doesn't mean not acknowledging it. Plus she got her coat trimmed to accomodate for a more confortable summer climate.
7493366
The big thing with the broader definition is that you can count knowledge as technology, which is even a stronger case for magic being technology. Magic would be strongly integrated into their conventional technology, perhaps even inseparably. I'd say turning a frog into an orange counts as genetic modification. The difference between us and Equestria is just the methods. We have an electronic base for advanced technology, and they'd have magic.
Basing advanced tech of of magic actually gives us clues that they might be more advanced. Humans had to invent base technologies before we could develop advanced technology. We couldn't reliably generate electricity until around the 1870's, we've had 147 years. But Equestria is basing there's off of magic, which the entire population could manipulate in some form or another and a significant amount have drastically more control. So they've had the entirety of the existence of the species, no need to develop base technologies. They've had hundreds of thousands of years (depending on headcanon) while we've had less than 200. Not to mention that they'd be a lot more familiar with magic than we would be with electricity.
Ooooo, are they going to hit up the Porcupine Mountains Down past Ontonogan? It was quite nice when I was there, though they had a good number of sand flies.
Silver should be glad she's doing this before sand fly season.
7491254
The fact that it's do-it-yourself sugar, sugar, and sugar-bread, or that marshmallows are made out of hooves?
7491289
Candles are another trick I've seen used. Even a simple tealight will work.
I have seen the potato chip trick online, but I've never used it. Most trips I've been on, you're either close to your car, so you have better alternatives, or else you're backpacking and you don't take chips, because they have no nutritional value and take up a lot of space (and will probably be crushed into powder by the time you get to the campsite).
7491314
I can't remember if there was a firestarter merit badge. I don't think there actually was.
I wonder where all my old merit badges are? I've still got my Boy Scout uniforms, so presumably I have the sash somewhere.
7491336
7491365
What it lacks in subtlety and artistry it makes up for in efficacy. Gasoline-soaked sawdust works really well, too.
The problem with many of them is that they're so purpose-built it's prohibitively expensive to convert them, and in many cases the location is also a drawback. For instance, there are a lot of railroad coaling towers still around that would make for an interesting apartment building, except that they're located over active railroad tracks.
michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/imagesRRHX/Trains/C&NWCokeTrainWBAtLansingMI072583[JimSlater].jpg
7491477
There's also an app which lets you track satellites, space stations, and even some big space debris. Can't remember what it's called, though.
7491368
Do you know if they're going to restore the land when it closes, or just leave it as it is?
The truth is that I've never been to that part of the UP. I've been all over the eastern end, and the boundary lakes once, but never up the Keweenaw peninsula. Which is something I ought to rectify next time I go on a road trip.
As I can recall, the only mine I've ever been in was a closed gypsum mine near Grand Rapids which had been converted to a cold-storage warehouse. Something like that would not be the place for Silver Glow.
7491583
That tends to work pretty well, if you don't mind the pan being kind of slimy. Most of our gear, we didn't mind if it was a bit sooty, since it was only ever used for camping anyway.
7491754
Huh, I thought they counted the other way. Oops.
I think I'll leave it with him being wrong about what way they count, but correct 'meridians' to 'parallels.'
7491802
7491811
I did. And Aric's counting the wrong way, but I'm going to leave that mistake, because even Aric doesn't know everything.
7491994
And what more proper way than to be washed by a pony?
Agreed.
7492133
Correction made, thank you!
Aric is wrong about which way they go. The 48th is 48°N. Aric should not attempt to navigate a ship. (In the interest of full disclosure, I didn't know that until the comments--I thought that the pole was 0 and the equator was 90, but I figure I might as well leave Aric as being wrong, too.)
Michigan runs from 41 something on the southern border to 48 something on the northern border.
For that matter, a woman in the men's room is less of an issue than a man in the woman's, at least here in the states.
Yeah, they do. Probably that's true of all birds--I've never owned one, so I can't say that with certainty. Wings look pretty fragile, but they're probably pretty tough.
And they're immune to most spells and melee weapons.
Do it!
7492390
Of course it is. That's what they all say.
7492650
She's not from Ponyville. She's from a cloud town above a small fishing village, which would look somewhat like this:
4.bp.blogspot.com/-63R3CPniizI/VCA7KpDeyBI/AAAAAAAAEiI/pB8cKgXMRXw/s1600/DSCF0787.jpg
7492687
True story--in one of our campaigns, the whole party got blindsided by a chandelier.
7492724
I think so, too. It just feels right for her.
The more I think about it, since this story takes place after there's been contact for a while, they're probably not that paranoid any more. All the same, they're probably keeping watch on Silver Glow's cell phone and her credit card, just as a matter of course, and they probably also get notified whenever Pegasus 1 calls for flight permission.
7492854
Because she's trimmed down to her summer coat, and it's a lot colder at night in the UP than she's used to, especially since she's outside in the back of a metal truck, rather than inside her dorm room or apartment.
I tend to get used to the seasons, but if there's a big swing, it becomes uncomfortable. In the winter, I won't wear a coat if it's above 25F or so, because I've gotten used to it, but right now it's about 90F here and if it went down to 25F tomorrow, I'd be freezing.
Which is a long way of saying that it's about 30 degrees colder overnight in the UP than it was in the lower peninsula, and Winston has basically zero insulation.
7492922
I think that they are. And I think that there's the concrete base to another ore dock nearby, too, but I might be thinking of a different harbor.
7493071
They're really effective.
It's the best logic.
The only problem with the wood was that sometimes it would burn through and you'd lose your marshmallow in the fire, then as often as not you'd have to find another stick. But you're right; camp food is better when it's cooked on a stick you found in the woods.
7493601
I'd be a little cautious with that, and only apply knowledge as technology if it can be utilized (we know that space elevators could be built, but we can't build them)
I think magic's going to be integrated two ways--directly and indirectly.
The direct way is pretty obvious--using a unicorn to do something, whether it be something which could also be done by machine (let's say, lifting a board to a roof) or something that could not (turning a frog into an orange). But there would also be the indirect effect, like building windmills since they can control the wind, or maybe using an pegasus' inherent magic to make flying machines lighter (some headcanons use this to explain things like the pedal-powered helicopter).
You're right, though, that they've had thousands of years to figure out ways to use magic to do things, while we're fairly new at a lot of technology, and don't have the benefit of experience working with it.
I don't know that it's really possible to draw an apples-to-apples comparison between us and them, to be honest. And I'm not sure that it would be feasible if we ever encounter an alien race, either, assuming that we've advanced to the point where we meet them off in the reaches of space, that is. Obviously, if they suddenly show up here in a fleet of FTL ships, it'll be readily apparent who's the more advanced society.
7493709
They just passed through them without time to stop, unfortunately.
And I don't think I've ever run into sand flies in great numbers, or else I'm actively repressing the memory of them. Black flies the size of birds, though; I do remember those from the UP.
7492284
7492687 *Cough* look *cough*
Funny way for Silver to describe the lakes near the iron mines.
tritalk.co.uk/forums/userpix/14570_mermaid_man_1.jpg
Don't know if this comes up later, but as I was tracking their progress on Google Maps, I noticed that on Isle Royal there's a place called Windigo. Fancy that?
7504747
Something that I can use next time I'm DMing
7505185
Man, just look for them on Google Maps. Like, I was looking for something else in the UP and saw a couple of bright orange splotches and wondered what the hell those were . . . and funnily enough, if it's just iron ore in them, they're probably less toxic than the pretty blue quarry lakes, despite their horrendous orange color.
photography-plus.com/website/prodimages/1778.jpg
(Interestingly, from some googling, it seems that you can fish there. I assume that you could catch fish by just putting a magnet in the water instead of a hook. )
7982898
Huh. I didn't know that.
I thought about having them go there, but it's kind of inconvenient to get to on a road trip, and it's right on the edge of Silver Glow's flight ability. Normally, you have to charter a boat or a seaplane to get there.
You play bingo up in L'anse
With your mother and your aunts
And you tell me that it's only recreation
But you always get so hot
When you have to split the pot
That they have to kick you off the reservation.
10264496
Heh, Da Yoopers.
I had a car that fit Rusty Chevrolet to a T, except it was an Olds.
That's not as funny though, because it makes perfect sense that attacking one would cause you to hurt yourself.
Wait till she sees Fordite - only found in Michigan.
I used to make sausage. Y'all are wussies.
11319669
I have a boat that sometimes sheds mini-Fordite; it was painted at least three different colors in its life.
Also, it's probably not only found in Michigan; while I haven't lived in any other state for any long amount of time, I have to imagine that other states also have industrial paint booths/painting processes. I know for a fact that GM had a plant in Baltimore, 'cause my grandpa worked there in the 30s and 40s.
Silver Glow probably doesn't want to know about shoving chopped-up meat bits into tubes.
The pony version of the saying is that "You don't want to know how Kirin Beer is made."