Back home

Since I wanted to take the ferry back to Michigan, I decided to take
another boat. The Lake Express is a fast ship going from Milwaukee
to Muskegon in just two hours. Certainly faster than the Badger.
I had booked the last sail of the evening, giving me enough time to
hang out in Milwaukee for a bit. Karl and Kip joined me and we spent
some time at the old stomping grounds. We walked at the
lakefront, wandered through downtown and settled for a nice lunch
at the Rock Bottom. After walking back to the cars I said good bye to
Kip and Karl, who were heading back to Peoria. I still had plenty of
time, before I had to be at the ferry, so I went back to the park, had
a nice coffee at the Art Museum until it was time to make way to the
harbor.
As soon as I hit the parking lot of the ferry terminal, m y cell phone
rang with a prerecorded message from the Lake Express ferry.
They cancelled the trip, due to high waves and winds on Lake
Michigan. Just GREAT! I went inside to ask for my options and it was
either trying to rebook the next day or cancel the ticket and get a refund.
I wasn't really in a mood to wait around, so I decided to drive instead.

After I went back into the car, I programmed the Garmin to take me
home. SUPER... 355miles. Well, what can I do? I really don't like long
drives, especially, when it is late in the day and fatigue is setting in
already. Overall it went pretty smooth. I past Chicago feeling pretty
tired, but as soon as I turned East, I got my second wind.
As soon as I hit Michigan, the speed limit changed to 70 and I made
faster progress. I arrived back in Novi in the early morning.

Overall it was a great Mini-vacation.

Trip to Oshkosh. Part 2

After hitting Wisconsin I made my way down to Iron Ridge and checked
into the Motel. Finally, I could take a rest. Zzzzzzzz. Zzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzz.
Later that night I met with the gang from P-town and we had dinner
before calling it a night.

The next morning we made our way to the air show. I had no idea what
to expect until we were close to the airport and 3 P-51 Mustangs were
taking of right over our heads. Wow, what a start.

This airshow is massive. LOTS of airplane of all shapes, sizes and ages.
Form the small home build experimental to the Airbus 380. I spent
the morning basically just walking around and looking at the vast array
of airplanes. I am not a airplane
buff per se, but I do enjoy the
ingenuity and technology
displayed at these planes.
And the sky was just buzzing with
airplanes. Private planes coming
in for the show, various planes
offering rides, choppers hovering over
the airfield. Amazing.
I also had a chance to say Hi to Charlie Bates who was at the show.
It's always good to see old friends.

After lunch, I made my way to the airfield to watch the airshow. It started
with a flight demo of the White Knight 2. Very odd shape. After that,
as one of the highlights, a demo of
the A380. This HUGE plane took
off, flew a couple of passes, and
then went off back to Europe.
I also saw acrobatics and
stunt flying which was pretty
interesting as well.
To round up the
demonstrations, the WW2 warbirds were giving a display of their
flying capabilities.

I finished the day looking at some more planes and as daylight faded, we
all met at a diner, just of the highway for a late diner and then drove
back to the hotel.

It was a long day, but certainly, cool to take it all in.

Going to Oshkosh

What is this terrible sound in my head?? I was in the deepest dreams, when
this sound of alarm horns goes through my head..... Ah yes, I set my alarm
to the most annoying sound I could find to make sure I would wake up
at 2:30AM. Boy, it is early. After a three hour power nap I had difficulties
waking up, but I had to leave by 3:30AM to catch the ferry to Wisconsin
in Ludington.
I threw my stuff in the car, turned the Garmin Navigator on, and pointed
the Schnitzlewagen westwards. Off we go......

As predicted by the Navigator, I arrive in Ludington around 6:30. The
S.S. Badger was moored at the pier and after check-in I left the car to be driven
onto the ship. You can tell these guys to that all day long, because they
had all cars in the boat in no time and even driving a camper trailer
backwards was not a problem.
The 'Badger' is on old steam ship
from the 50s and was built to haul
rail cars over the lake. Later they
converted it into a car and passenger
ferry, but it still has the look and
feel of an old work horse and
the smoke stack does its name proud.
Although, these days they don't use coal anymore
to heat up the steam engine.

I watched the ship leave the harbor, but after that I was looking for a
comfy chair to get some shuteye. After I rested up a bit, I went to the
back of the ship to stuck my nose into the breeze. NICE.... For some
reason, I always liked being on the open water.
Just for fun I turned on the Garmin and what do you know, it put
our position right in the middle of Lake Michigan doing 16miles/hr.
I typed in my new destination and to my surprise the first instruction
is "leave ferry and turn into main street". Technology is great.

We arrive in Wisconsin to some rain, I get my car back, and
I am headings south. Another couple of hours and I should
make it to Iron Ridge, WI.
Tomorrow, I'll be going to the Oshkosh Air Show, so that should be great.
I'll keep you posted.

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY USA!

Let's talk about the weather

Let's talk about the weather. Really? Seriously? The King of Pop is dead
and you want to talk about how hot it is in Novi these days.
Well, not really. But I have not much to say about Micheal's dead,
besides the fact that I am not that surprised.
I was never a great Michael Jackson fan and since he has not done anything
musically good since the 80's, I forgot totally about him.
Well, so long Micheal.

Movie Update: I saw 'The Hangover' the other day. I thought the movie
was quite funny, but believe me, it is not everyone's kind of humor.
I'll give it four stars anyway. (4/5)

Restaurant Update: We have been going to this small Asian place in
Walled Lake for lunch lately, which I really like. It's called Nu-Pacific Bistro
and its just a whole in the wall, but I had some good food there.
3.5 out 5 Schnitzelwagens.

Go Red Wings!!

YEAH!! The Red Wings just won game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals. Usually,
I am not a big NHL fan, but I used to enjoy watching hockey in Germany.
When I came to the US I watched a couple of
game, but it often ends up looking more like
a wrestling match than anything else.
This year I started watching Detroit in the
play offs and I am impressed with the skills
all the teams demonstrate. Since penalties
are crucial in the playoffs, the fighting
is kept to a minimum. Detroit won today
against the Penguins, but they had some luck and it should be
an interesting series.

Movie Reviews:
Terminator Salvation: Another movie of the Terminator series. Lots of
action, lots of cool graphics, not much of a plot. 3 out of 5 stars.

Angles&Demons: Good story and descent acting. Luckily I didn't
remember the story from the book, so the plot twists came as a surprise
to me. Visual not as interesting as the Da Vinci Code, but still a descent
movie. 3 out of 5 stars.

Beam me up, Scotty

I wouldn't call myself a Trekkie, but I used to watch the
original Star Trek series when I was a kid and Captain Picard
and his crew later on. So, when I heard there was a new Star
Trek movie coming up, I was only mildy interested, because the
last couple of ones were merely episodes of the series, stretched
to fit into a ninety minute movie.
Nevertheless I went to see the latest movie
yesterday and I must admit it was a really
entertaining movie. Time wise the movie is
set before the series and shows how the
original crew, lead byCaptain Kirk, comes
together. I especially liked, how the movie
is not taken itself to seriously and how they
are poking a lot of fun at the original series.
I give the movie a 3.5 out of 5.





********** SPOILER ALERT!! If you don't want to know details
********** about the movie stop reading here *********************













As I mentioned before, I liked how the movie is poking fun at
the original series. Besides the classic cheesy lines and terrible
alien make-up (the green girl in the dorm), they also killed
the unknown crew member of the away team and, of course, in
every fight Kirk is loosing his phaser right away and resorts to
hand to hand combat. Classic. They even threw in some classic
lines. Scotty:"I'm giving her all she's got, Captain!"
Mmmm, maybe I am a Trekkie afterall.

Live long and prosper!