Tuesday For messages about today's picture, see Cam Notes. This area is for other friendly conversation. Please read our Acceptable Use Policy.

Some other links of recent interest to Pasty Cam watchers:
• In Search of our Ancestors    • New Arrivals
• Politics and Religion, Ketchup or Gravy
Decade of the Pasty Cam on this day ^{Printed on Recycled Internet}

We've certainly had some fun on April Fool's Day over the years.

Mornin'

Happy Snowy Day !

Good morning! A windy April Fools Day!

Unseasonably warm here in Tampa. I will be sending a warm breeze North in my thoughts, for friends and family, to soon feel the new spring weather. It has arrived and will spread quickly. Good Morning and Beware! It is April Fools Day.

I hate to tell you folks in the Marquette area but WGN's weatherman in Chicago has designated your snow storm today as the "armpit" of the US! Bet you'll treasure that for a while huh?

Appearently the WGN guy has never heard of Battle Mountain, Nevada, the "official" armpit of the US so saith the Washington Post!! An excerpt from the article reads:

Take a small town, remove any trace of history, character, or charm. Allow nothing with any redeeming qualities within city limits -- this includes food, motel beds, service personnel. Then place this pathetic assemblage of ghastly buildings and nasty people on a freeway in the midst of a harsh, uninviting wilderness, far enough from the nearest city to be inconvenient, but not so far for it to develop a character of its own. You now have created Battle Mountain, Nevada.

I don't think Marquette can even begin to compete with that........

Good morning! Well Mother Nature played a terrible April Fool's joke on us. It snowed all day yesterday and feels much more like winter than it does spring. We probably got 4 to 5 inches all told, though it's not sticking around thankfully.

The fish picture in the slide show was hilarious! Also, when I saw the upside down car, I thought that maybe Charlie goofed but nope! It was supposed to be that way. The Gay smokestack was a great picture too. Thanks again. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

(Mskatie)

Weatherwise, I'd agree. It seems every time I visit Marquette....or Ishpeming for that matter (have a son living there), it's either raining or snowing, and if it hasn't been, it starts when we arrive! LOL. But, having lived in Chicagoland and the U.P., if Marquette is the anatomical armpit, that would put Chicago very near the exterior posterior. ;-)

Very interesting selection of photos today.

Yep, Deb, April fools day storm. Just got my front steps cleaned up to my liking too.

Deb, I don't even feel sorry for you with 4 to 5 inches of snow that will probably melt today. Try a blizzard!! I haven't been outside but it looks like at least a foot out there. And it's the wet, heavy stuff. On the upside, it's pretty and it always melts by the 4th of July!!

We knew we had a blizzard when we found our white metal Christmas tree with its one remaining string of lights still on, blown over and sitting in a drift behind the house! But the crows are still out in the hemlocks hollering for their breakfast. Our Lab is not asking for her usual morning walk in the woods, I guess her quick trip through the doggie door was enough for now. This will set back our first tee time by a week or so. Happy April Fools Day

LOL, Laurie!!!! Better you than us is my motto!

One of my favorite April Fool pictures was posted back in April 2005, but I have no clue by whom, since they posted it as: By sl;kdfj;oij on Friday, April 1, 2005 - 07:44 pm:
Whoever it was, it was quite clever for sure! It was the first freighter of the year, coming in to Eagle Harbor that day! :->

That one's great, Mary! Somebody had some fun with Photoshop!

Here is another one, for fun:
http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/gday/index.html

Do they ever close the Big Bridge, i. e. the one between the Upper and the Lower? Weather conditions look awful there now -- I would not want to be crossing!

eugenia r. thompson (Ert):
" Do they ever close the Big Bridge?"

See the Mackinac Bridge Website, where they are currently displaying the following Bridge Conditions:

---

Quote:

Currently we are experiencing winds of sufficient force in the Straits area to issue a warning to all motorists preparing to cross the Mackinac Bridge.

Examples of vehicles which are especially vulnerable to high winds are pickup trucks with campers, motor homes, vehicles pulling trailers and enclosed semi-truck trailers. Motorists are instructed to reduce their speed to a maximum of 20 miles per hour, turn on their four way flashers, and utilize the outside lane. Motorists are asked to exercise appropriate caution.

The Mackinac Bridge Authority is monitoring wind speeds at various points along the structure. Additional steps will be implemented if conditions change. If you are planning to travel to the Straits area, please tune to AM radio 530 or 1610 for updates.

---

We have 14" of the heavy wet snow here in Gwinn today. Woke up to a winter scene. Looks like winter hasn't given up here yet.. C'mon SPRING!!!!!!

Update: Sun is trying to peak out. Mother nature was just trying to play an April Fool's Day joke on us yoopers I think. It'll all melt tomorrow (I hope)

eugenia r. thompson (Ert):
"Do they ever close the Big Bridge?"

More particularly, to answer your question:
Yes, they have indeed closed the bridge on a number of occasions.

(I was continuing to rummage around on their web site in search of some documentation of such closures, or the conditions under which such closures occur, but found neither. I swear I have seen that information somewhere there before, but if it is still there, it is well hidden!)

To answer your question, Eugenia, yes, they do actually close the Bridge, if the winds get high enough (they aren't there yet), or the visibility gets low enough, etc. In fact, it was closed for parts of at least a couple of days already in 2008, one of which was the Sunday, that parents and others were trying to drive home from Michigan Tech's Winter Carnival, if I remember correctly. One of the parents was writing to the list, about how horrible the conditions were (full whiteout & high winds), for her husband's driving home; he was communicating with her by cell phone. He apparently he was one of the last, if not the last car allowed across the Bridge, before it was closed for at least several hours. The Bridge's closing filled up the motels on the north side of the bridge, all the way up to the Soo. In addition, there are some other stages, where the Bridge Authority requires an escort for high profile vehicles in bad conditions. In those conditions, they go through in caravans, so I understand.

Right now, they just want everyone to reduce their speed to 20 mph. Sometimes, it is just high profile vehicles or those towing trailers that are required to reduce their speeds to 20 mph. :-)

Eugenia
I'm aware of two recent closures of the Mackinac Bridge. On January 10th the bridge was closed for 6 hours due to blizzard conditions. On February 22nd the bridge was closed for two hours due to ice falling from the cables.
You can find details of the closures if you go to www.stignacenews.com and search the archives for "bridge closed"

They were escorting vehicles Thanksgiving weekend when I was heading back north, been lucky and never had to deal with a closure.

Came home from work today, Mrs. Snowman informs me that there is no supper and no money to buy food. Suddenly, the phone rings, it's Charlie from Pasty Cam, he informs me that we have won the Pasty contest and the prize is pasties for the next ten years. I'm in heaven and jumpin' up and down with joy. Mrs. Snowman informs me that we can't afford to buy ketchup. Suddenly, the phone rings again, it's the Heinz company telling us we have won ketchup for the next ten years. WOOOOO HOOOO, I'm in heaven now! While Mrs. Snowman and I are dancing around celebrating our good fortune there is a knock on the door. I answer the door and lo and behold it's Charlie and Mary Drew with a big sign that reads: HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY, AIN'T NO PASTIES, AIN'T NO KETCHUP. Mrs. Snowman and I, with tears in our eyes, call Pizza Hut and order a pizza.

As with the "Down on the Farm" Pasty Cameo of Sunday, March 30, today's "Store Wars" video is yet another candidate for a "Nettie" nomination!
(Isn't there a "Nettie" award for multimedia productions on da Internet?)

I saw the warning on the bridge site, and that's when I started wondering if they ever closed it. Thanks to all who provided me with answers and sites to check.

It's a beautiful bridge and I hope to go over it again some day but NOT in bad weather! :)

I saw that warning also, many years ago. We went across in a blizzard, and they closed it down not too long after that. Glad we made it.

Laurie (Ratherberiding): I talked to my daughter (in National Mine)
this evening and she says there's well over a foot of the white stuff
at her place. The snow plow hadn't been through yet. Looks like
the folks in the Ishpeming area got the worst of the blizzard.