Since Mikey had never visited north eastern Minnesota, we decided to take a little road trip. Heading up Hwy 61 past Silver Bay, we ran into something called "The Oberg Loop" It was supposed to be an easy 2 1/2 mile walk around this mountain top. What they didn't tell you was that you had to get to the top first. After numerous switchbacks and stumbling over an assortment of tree roots and rocks, we did make it to the top. You got a great panoramic view of miles and miles of forest as well as "The Big Lake they call Gitche Gumee"At the top we ran into an older couple (yes there are people older than me). They wanted to know the name of the little girl who was in the movie "ET". Huh?? Only in my world.... I did give them the name and everyone left happy.
We then headed over to Ely and worked our way down to Virginia. Mikey and I saw this neat truck. I thought it would come in handy around the property but, as you can see, it had a flat tire. Not knowing how we'd ever get it jacked up, we decided to pass on the truck. Oh, and a new tire cost $6,100.00
Once back in our neck of the woods, we toured Wisconsin Point and Park Point. Wisconsin has this neat new deal where you can buy a 1 day fishing license for 10 bucks. SO, yesterday we went fishing. Never fished my local lake before in August and with the high temps of late and the huge amount of rain we've received, I wasn't sure if we'd have any luck or not. We nailed a nice mess of big crappies and sunfish. Good fishermen will not be deterred....
Then we went out and hung my new portable deer stand. I think that's number 13, but I'm losing count.
UFFDA! Now I think I need a nap.....
1 comment:
Dewey,
Interesting post! When my dad worked at Uniroyal, he was a supervisor of the off road mining tire division, those tires you are standing by. My numbers could be off somewhat but they made 30/day at the Eau Claire plant. Uniroyal had a process that added steel rods within the tire tread which made them last a lot longer than the competition. Hew told me that most of the tires went to a big dealer in Hibbing. Uniroyal had a profitable plant in Eau Claire but also had a fairly strong and anxious union, The United Rubber Workers. More often than not there was a strike before the next contracts got settled. The last strike he had to deal with (he was a company man) lasted 10 months. In the time prior to the strike, the plant had just taken delivery of enough equipment to double production. With the inability to supply tires to the Iron Range the dealer found another line. When they did come back, all of there business was gone. In an attempt to get it back they began full production. Unfortunately no buyers and it went for a planned 60/day to 20 then 10 then 5 then they closed that division permanently. Dad had been groomed to take a higher level position as the production plans were to double. That strike shattered all of his hopes and dreams. He transferred to the curing room, a crap job, before retiring at 55 because he could not take the union's path of self destruction, honestly a dejected man. Uniroyal closed it's volitale Eau Claire plant a few years later. Thanks for the coinicidence, it made me smile!
More recently I visited Catepillar's heavy truck plant in Peoria, IL, where they make trucks like you are standing by. One product that we are working on uses electric overhead lines to suppliment power when coming out of the mine. Anyway they said that with each truck/mine set up they sell a full size road grader with the package. The engineers told me that the grader would pay for itself in tire savings in less than 1 year by simply keeping the mine roads smooth and graded every day. Pretty amazing!!
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