Hello from the U.P.

[ironmountain]

Live in Iron Mountain, Mi (2hrs north of GB, Wisc on the border). Was really into bikes in the 80's. (born '71). Started out with a Radio Flyer trike, moved up to a stingray looking bike. Maroon with banana seat. this bike had a foot pedal brake mounted on the down tube. Looked like Stingray. After that it was all bmx. Kuahara,GT,Hutch, PK Ripper, Schwinn Predator, with the fat front tire. Moved to road bikes after that. Schwinn leTour for a few years and then a Trek 660 that a friend gave me. He used to race and was sponsored.

I was looking for a Mt Bike for my wife on CL and wondered why bikes that I rode in the '80's were collectible. After college I picked up a Giant Mtn bike. Still my main bike, still looks brand new and it's 12yrs old.

Fast forward to this past fall. The farm/house that my father in law grew up on in Houghton is now our hunting/winter/running my Griffons camp. We were cleaning the woodshed out. It's close to a 20x20 bldg. Been standing there since the late 1800's when it was built.
He starts piling massive amounts of what I call good stuff...wife calls it junk. Handforged tools, 1cylinder engines, found a few old watches and tins full of buttons...the list goes on...
I took whatever he didn't want and sold it off for him for the "camp fund".

he asks if I had a use for some bicycles. he had 5 Schwinns in there. 1 is a Sprint from the 80s the rest are Chicago Schwinns. I took the sprint, a continental and a J.C. Higgins that had been in there forever...

 

[deven_science]

Barn fresh!

Welcome.

 

[Lowlife Lucas]

Welcome!

 

[HuffDaddy]

Welcome! my oldest daughter is up at NMU.

 

[ironmountain]

thanks for the welcome!
does your daughter like NMU? i moved from Grand Rapids to NMU. MSU was just too close to home. Dad was from Munising so I spent many months up there with family. Ended up here when wife was offered a job..
Quite a few guys on the bottle and metal detecting forums I'm on are from Northville. They usually find some pretty decent stuff.

yeah Deven_science..straight from the woodshed. I put pics up in the ID section. It's cleaning up pretty well so far... Spend enough time cleaning bottles/MD finds/tools and relics from 3' down in the middle of nowhere and just kind of get used to cleaning stuff up.

 

[HuffDaddy]

She loves NMU. She did her under-grad there and just finished her first year of grad school there.

 

[ironmountain]

it's a great school, in a gorgeous area. Except for late winter. Marquette is so different from much of the U.P.
They don't get a ton of snow, but the wind gets so bitter. I remember walking up to class and the only part of my face visible was the center of my forehead and eyes (gotta love neck gaiters). The year that Sault Ste Marie had 30" overnight and it was about -11111111111111 below zero in mqt. that cold just bites right into exposed skin...

you've had pretty decent weather downstate. Friend has been out Md'ing and bottle digging for the past few weeks.