Michigan Odds and Ends

Our trip to Michigan was pretty focused.  Lots of driving to get to Ann Arbor, then all available time spent with the guy we came to visit.  So I have surprisingly little else to report. We were just visiting/cleaning or driving most of the time.  But a couple of odds and ends...

Lansing Michigan.  When we drove into town we saw steam billowing out of the manholes in the street.  The next day when out for a walk I even saw one that had a stack on it.

I ran across a pleasant city employee working nearby.  I asked him about this.  He said that he understood there to be a steam heating system under the city.  I reminded him that this was August 1st.  He thought that maybe a certain amount of steam had to be run through it to keep it running.  Not exactly a Green Future here folks, burning fossil fuels to blow steam into the air in mid summer......

Nearby there was this Big Brain statue.  Maybe it is pondering the peculiarity of what is going on a block away.

We did make one other stop on the way down, at a place called Crystal Falls.  It seems the area around this little town is home to a gigantic, ancient fungus.  It is 30 acres in size and one of the largest and oldest organisms on earth.  So of course they have a Humongous Fungus Fest.

Frankly it was disappointing.  We knew that no part of the "fungus" is visible above ground this time of year.  But we figured there would be something interesting going on.   But other than a little, generic market and a lot of garage sales, it seems this chalk art was about it on a Saturday afternoon.

Oh, and the local movie theater was about to show a World Premier of a movie about the Humongous Fungus....

Well that's not a topic I'd want to spend part of a beautiful afternoon pondering, and besides we had many miles yet to drive.  

But hey, you might find it fascinating.  Here's a LINK to it!