leapinggnome.org

Of Bridgefest, and Lillian

Dan — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 19:11:06 +0000

Ah, well this past weekend welcomed Bridgefest to the Copper Country. Now bridgefest, for those not in the know, is the local celebration in Houghton and Hancock, MI dedicated to the liftbridge that unites the two towns over the Portage Canal. It is supposedly the heaviest double-decker liftbridge in the world, and with that title the title of heaviest bridge per foot of span. But I digress.

Bridgefest is a top-notch small town celebration. There’s a huge parade Friday evening, live music (and some tasty brews) all Friday evening and carrying on through Saturday. It’s held in conjunction with the Houghton Rotary’s Seafoodfest, bringing some great tastes into the mix. Mostly I hang around for the live music. A lot of local and smaller groups, but a lot of talented performers nonetheless.

One such talented performer is Hannah Bethel, a local girl from Chassell, MI who is currently trying to make it big down in Nashville. She has been playing at Bridgefest for as long as I can remember and is very talented. One cover she played yesterday was of an Emmylou Harris song called Red Dirt Girl. Normally I’m not one for too much country music, but the lyrics struck me quite a bit. Lyrics from my favorite verse:

She loved her brother I remember back when
He was fixin up a ‘49 Indian
He told her “Little sister, gonna ride the wind
Up around the moon and back again”
He never got farther than Vietnam,
I was standin there with her when the telegram come
For Lillian.
Now he’s lyin somewhere about a million miles from Meridian.

It’s a sad song. I’d encourage you to check it out.

New chain for my baby

Dan — Thu, 27 May 2010 21:02:40 +0000

Well, December is long past and I’ve been unable to update this blog regularly. Motorcycle season has long been open. The chain I’ve been using on the Honda is the same one I started using 3 years ago when I first got it running. Had I taken better care of it, the chain would probably still be good to use but now it is completely worn out. It doesn’t exactly roll like it should and honestly is looking rather rusty. Ah well, that chain was cheap (free).

I ordered a new one off of ebay and it is here ready to install! That should make my Honda a little happier with me. Anyway, I hope everyone else is having an amazing summer.

Success!

Dan — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:23:38 +0000

Well, our semester is now over. I managed to make it an entire semester without writing blog posts. Not that this was a specific goal, but I found myself with nothing to write and ultimately very little spare time to write anything. As of last week Thursday, my classes are entirely wrapped up and Christmas recess is in effect until January 11, 2010. It’s very nice to have a break!

I’m not sure what else to write about. About 2 weeks ago we got a significant amount of snowfall all across the keweenaw, and I’ve had my snowmobile out a bit. I took it to class/work for a couple of days while the roads were still a mess from the blizzard. It seems to be running well, so that’s nice.

Now I’m officially out of things to write about again. Let’s have a look on my iphone and see what interesting pictures I have there. Here’s one from a band that was performing at the KBC a couple of months back:

They played some folk-type music and it sounded pretty good. What else do I have…here we go. Here’s a shot of my snowmobile and Chris Morgan’s snowmobile outside the esteemed Mosquito Inn, in Toivola, MI:

My sled is the rattier one of the two (on the right). Well, I think that about does it for this blog post. And this blog post most likely does it for year 2009. See you in 2010!