May 26 - Marquette and K.I. Sawyer, Mich.

Drove past the extremely large, operational Empire Mine next to Warner Creek in Palmer.  We don't know what they mine, but we've read that nearly 70 minerals are mined in this part of Michigan.

We forgot our fireplace tongs that we use for campfires.  Stopped at a thrift store and someone had just donated the whole brass set, so they priced it at $5 and we are now happy campers again!

We want to go on a glass bottom boat tomorrow, but they don't start tours till this weekend.  Maybe in a couple of weeks we can come back that way on our way south. 

Almost every small town we drive through has a nice city park, and usually a veteran's memorial there or someplace else obvious.  Saw more nice Victorian homes and beautiful churches today.  Most are 100 yrs or more old, but we saw a couple of real modern ones in Marquette-large town.

We ate our picnic lunch at a tiny park by the lake, in view of an ore dock.  There were no ships there today, nor at the one further down the bay.  Darn it.
Marquette's iron ore and dock facts:
After being mined, the ore is crushed and the iron separated out with a chemical or magnetic process.  Ore is combined with a binding agent, like a glorified cornstarch, and rolled into small balls about an inch in diameter.  The balls are fed through a kiln and fired by temps over 2000 degrees F.  This makes taconite pellets.  Each yr approximately 8,000,000 tons of iron in the form of pellets is shipped from Marquette's docks alone.  They come via railcar and are dumped into steel pockets or bins beneath the tracks.  To load the ship, a chute is lowered to the open cargo hatch and a door at the bottom of the pocket opens, allowing the pellets to run into the ship.  Time varies-depending on size of ship, and how prepared the dock is to load - 4 hrs is typical.  This is the job of the First Mate.  It is important to load the ore in a proper sequence to avoid over-stressing the ship.  Each chute of pellets weighs about 20 tons.  Most of these local pellets are shipped to Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.  These are roughly 70% iron and are combined with coke and limestone at the mill to make steel.

Next stop was K.I. Sawyer.  This was the first base Tom was assigned to - from Fall 66 to April 68.  He walked around B-52's for his 8 hour shift.  I remember one time he told me there was 7' of snow on the ground.  Often he'd come in and his hands would be too cold to clear his weapon.  He was told there was a nice aircraft museum there now, but the bldg was closed and off limits and there were several deteriorating planes on its grounds.  There was a B-52, but not one with the tail numbers he knew.  Besides, he says all those are still flying! The base closed many yrs ago and it became an intl. airport in 99.  He recognized a lot of the bldgs and showed me how far he had to walk to work since he didn't have a car.

Dessert!  On the way into town we saw a sign for a Big Boy Restaurant.  We used to stop at those in Minn on the way south to Iowa and haven't eaten in one for many yrs.  The placemats were made for Dave and Darlene since they said "Some people skip dessert.  I know, crazy, huh?"

It had been 92 and humid all afternoon and was now 4:00.  We headed to Yooperland-see attached photos - and then back to the camper to put sun tea out!