StringGrrl sees the World

Early Access to Camp for Volunteers, makes set-up easy peasy Back in the late 1900's I attended my first Blissfest. I was coming down from MTU where i was near completing my BS in Mechanical Engineering. My friends convinced me to stop in Bliss, MI for a multi-day music festival. And since it was end of term, i have most of my worldly possessions with me, so camping was pretty easy.  Chilling in the free standing hammock from Republic of Durable goods and a beer from Ascension Fast forward 28 years and I returned to Blissfest for the first time in 2022. I learned that Volunteering gets you in for nearly free. And since my neurospicy brain likes music festivals, but FREE Music festivals even more, i signed up to volunteer for 2 4 hour shifts to get the 3 day festival ticket for $170, with $160 coming back after i finish my shifts. Headliners the Wood Brothers take the stage Blissfest Stage 1    The line up Saturday to return to Bliss Stretching far behind, guess i should n...

Geocaching started in the Pacific Northwest, after all, so it is only fitting that StringGrrl and Kam make it a point to log a few visits while visiting Portland and Seattle areas this summer. Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach, OR Geocaching is a global treasure hunt game, played by a community of GPS equipped individuals. Object is simple, place a weather proof container (a cache) of a variety of sizes out in the world, record its GPS corrdinates and register at https://www.geocaching.com. Other registered users will be able to look up caches near their location and try to find it. Sometimes these are easy, difficulty or terrain 1.0, or very hard, difficulty or terrain 5.0, on a scale of 1-5.  Painted Rock Tributes decorating GZ While in Oregon exploring the area before work requirements up in Seattle area, we went exploring Coastal Oregon. Visiting Cannon Beach and the famous Haystack Rock, before making our way to Tillamook (that will be another post) and its famous Cheese Fac...

A frequently photographed piece of lower peninsula Michigan is "Turnip Rock", named so for it's resemblance to the root vegetable. It is located at the tip of the "Thumb" of lower Michigan, about 70 miles (115km) Northeast of Bay City or 133 miles (215km) due North of Detroit.  One of the more interesting bits of Geology in the Lower Pennisula To access the rock, you can launch from Port Austin, where I have read that the local Kayak rental place will charge you to launch your own boats if you choose not to rent. Alternatively, a little further east is Eagle Bay Public Access, which is free to use if you have Michigan State Park Recreation Pass ($13 per year added to your automobile registration).  The approach from Eagle Bay From Eagle Bay, it is nearly 5km or 3mile paddle to the Rock. When the lake is calm it is not too bad, though if you straight line it from point-to-point you will be further offshore than is comfortable at times. It was very calm when we ...

 Woke up in the tent on Sunday, last day of Blissfest, to the panic inducing knowledge that StringGrrl was not in the tent, not on my campsite, nowhere to be found.  tl;dr  Fortunately, someone found her and dropped her off on a sign near the camp entrance.  StringGrrl waiting for me to come back to the Camp Entrance  As some may know, this is not the "First Avatar" of StringGrrl and unlikely to be the last. StringGrrl 1.0 was the first incarnation and was made of very thin wood and was prone to broken and lost limbs.  StringGrrl 1.0 enroute to Japan summer 2008 StringGrrl 1.0 in Zurich StringGrrl 1.2 a new outfit and less one arm StringGrrl 2.0 (Amber is SG's travel companion) and StringGirl 1.2  The last known pics of StringGirl 1.2 and 2.0 before they ran away I was a wreck that morning when I arrived in Dusseldorf after a flight from Zurich. It was an early morning flight too early for breakfast in the lounge and instead hit Sprungli Cafe in the te...