* Sprint's roaming partner in the UP delivers/allows sending of SMS. woo.
* GSM roaming is still more awesome than CDMA. I honestly was unaware that my blackberry was roaming until I popped the sim into my laptop card.
* Nobody takes debit cards in the UP.
* The Sault St. Marie Locks have all sorts of menacing Department of Homeland Security stuff around them, and you are subject to search even being in the observation area. (Again, only because I read the signs, not because I found this out firsthand)
* Every hotel but mine has "free wireless internet". I think it's a good thing that I'm forced to use the internet sparingly though.
* I can't spell Tahquamenon Falls.
* When state parks say "nature walk", they absolutely mean it in every sense possible.
* There are few things more important to carry in your pack than Naproxen Sodium.

* lcp-echo-interval 0 is your friend when trying to stay connected to the internet using cell phones or GPRS modems of any sort in linux. LCP Echo is evil and will always screw up a perfectly good IP session, no idea why 🙂

* When you're in St. Ignace, and want to view a first run movie, don't ask the locals where the nearest first run theater is, they'll just laugh at you. Snakes on a Plane? Well, we have snakes, and we have planes…..

* Ditto with Meijer.

* It costs $9 to change your name at the Secretary of State.

* The Kewadin gold tokens only work in special slot machines, ones that won't take the casino player card, though you can continuously insert the thing forever trying, since they don't bother to label that on the machine anywhere.

* Tribes have their own police department. Fortunately, it wasn't me or mine that found this out the hard way. I just giggled as I drove past.

* Finding food after 10pm here is non-trivial.

* It is still possible to walk into a bar in the state of Michigan, and have EVERY SINGLE PERSON STOP WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND TURN TOWARD YOU. Go to Garden, MI and try this.

* Garden, MI and Garden City, MI are polar opposites (though I knew this beforehand, though not how truly different they were 🙂 )

* Only the nickel slots are honest at Kewadin. The rest won't let you cash out just your winnings, or play a nickel at a time or whatever. (and it IS possible to make a profit playing slots if you know what you're doing)

* It is possible to get SBC to install a POTS line at a campground in a ghost town. I can't imagine how much flack you must get filing the service order, but someone managed to do it. Color me impressed.

Well, one would think by now I would have found a way to post to livejournal by now. Well, I could have at any time, but I was totally otherwise occupied.

Since this is the first public post I've made about it, here's the story.

I was going to elope with (Becky). We decided to talk to our parents about it, and my parents were like "well it's about time, but you guys aren't doing this without us present." So then we were like "oh damn, we were going to do this in about a month" (it had been secretly being planned since May). So with a sudden change of plans, we agreed to a 20 guest ceremony in Grand Haven, where I grew up. After much strategic planning and hoping for good weather, at 1pm on Aug 19, 2006 we all converged on Duncan's Woods in Grand Haven, and had a wedding. The weather was looking really iffy on the forecast, but it was absolutely perfect when the day came. Everything went perfectly, better than we even planned, and my dad and stepmom threw a small reception at their place for the guests of the ceremony. Much fun was had all around.

I got a miniDV camcorder on Friday to capture all of this, and it worked perfectly. The original file of the approximately 15 minute ceremony is 2.1 gigabytes. It's 12 bit stereo with 480i digital resolution, 29.95fps, 28M/sec codec rate. Decreased to DVD quality (8M/sec codec rate) it's still 475MB. I plan on re-encoding it to DiVX a bit later. Given I have 1xRTT to upload it, you're just gonna have to wait until I can find something with more than a hundred k of upload. 🙂

I managed to upload one photo of it all, out of at least 60 photos. Again, when I have access to a connection that isn't slow as molasses, it's all totally on the 'net.

We're up in the upper peninnsula having a great time, we'll be back in the area on late Wednesday night.

Until then, best wishes from Paul and Becky Timmins! 🙂

Other things of note:

* Reserving hotels online about 5 hours before you arrive works better than one would think.
* Meteorologists don't know shit.
* Don't move firewood. In case you haven't been told about 600 times on the way up.
* Sprint has remarkable 1xRTT coverage. Even in the 906.
* Same with my T-Mobile Blackberry
* Ring size charts lie. Get yourself sized in person if you order rings online.
* When econolodge says "computer hook up" on hotels.com, what it really means is "hahaha good luck finding a fucking dialup in St Ignace!" (note to self, see if my St Ignace number block has been turned up so I can throw the RAS on it – working for a phone company has its perks!)

Note to people who are unfamiliar with Livejournal, which I presume would be higher than normal since my parents have been made aware of us going to be posting here, as with the relatives – if you're not on my friends list, your comments will be moderated and unviewable until I get around to approving it. Don't get worried and try to comment more than once.

Update: Photos of the wedding and honeymoon are available here