Gaylord

My grandpa, my mom's dad, was born in Detroit.

Raised in Gaylord, Michigan, kind of north central in the state.

And he's a Michigan State Spartans fan.

And...

With Vincent Price, which is probably a wild card for a lot of people.

But the reason I go with that one was years ago when I was in college, we used to my family would always go up to Gaylord, Michigan every year and stay at this rental property, the resort property, a family we knew owned up there.

But we'd usually go in the summer.

but there was one year I was in college that we had got invited to go up to a Halloween party over the weekend of Halloween, like up at that property.

So let's move up to the north region, which is pretty much all of the counties in the northern lower peninsula, vast area geographically.

There's a big one I know we've heard a lot about from people that's coming up in Gaylord, some initial work starting this fall.

It's not going to be complete, but it's worth mentioning because it's the first diverging diamond interchange.

We talked about DDIs earlier in some of the southern parts of the state, but this is a big deal.

Some are nervous about what it's going to mean during the construction.

But can you talk a little bit about that? Sure.

So as you mentioned, beginning this fall, we're going to replace both the northbound and southbound bridges of I-75 over M-32, which is right at the north Gaylord exit.

And we're also going to rebuild M32 between Edelweiss Village and Meacher Road in Wisconsin Avenue.

And we had a similar conversation from a quasi-neighbor of yours.

We had Paul Beach now from Gaylord, Michigan, northern Michigan, not quite UP, but the relationship building that he and his crew had built with media that when there was no snow two winters ago...

they were able to flip the narrative probably more effectively than a third-party PR house.

And that's not in any way taking anything away from the third-party PR houses, but it was that the media was talking to somebody who was absolutely on the ground in Gaylord and was...

Using, honestly, the true voice of the destination saying, yeah, snowmobiling kind of sucks.

But we've got cross-country skiing.

And yet, as we're driving through small towns, we're seeing a lot of empty storefronts.

And I'm thinking to myself, how in the hell can this be? Because I want to be in the Keweenaw.

Harbor Springs will take on Leland at 7 o'clock.

And TC West will take on Grand Haven at 7.30. And for volleyball matchups tonight, currently underway is Johannesburg-Lewiston and Alcona, Gaylord-St. Mary and Maple City-Glenn Lake, Pelston and Sheboygan, and coming up at 6.30 is Cadillac and Alpena, Gaylord and T.C. West, and at 7 is Benzie Central and Elk Rapids, Frankfurt and Lake Leelanau-St. Mary, Houghton Lake and McBain-Northern Michigan-Christian, and Mancelona and Grayling, and at 7.30 is Hillman at Tawas.

Well, in soccer, as it is the lone playoffs that are already underway, football will be kicking off soon, but Northern Michigan is guaranteed to have at least one team left locally as Harbor Springs and Leland, as Austin said, will be playing each other.

So even if Elk Rapids and T.C. West lose, there will be a local rooting interest heading to, I think it would be the regional finals? The regional final.

I know there's been stuff.

My buddy has seen things up in Gaylord, which is the northern Michigan, in the middle of northern Michigan.

And I have friends in UP who come across things up there as well.

In fact, I know the Bigfoot show went up there, and one of my friends was at their town meeting to talk about their experiences, you know, because one had run across the road up there, I guess, in front of a lady.

There's kind of two interesting stories recently.

So the bishop up in Michigan, Bishop Jeffrey Walsh of Gaylord, Michigan, has banned saying mass ad orientum, banned saying mass the way the church has said mass for years.

Virtually 2,000 years until the 1960s, as Monsignor Gamber shows in his book that he wrote with an endorsement by Cardinal Ratzinger, this practice goes all the way back to the ancient church, uninterrupted, until the 20th century.

That's why it's banned.

And in volleyball matchups, Burt Lake Northern Michigan Christian defeated Alanson three sets to zero.

Alpena defeated Gaylord three to zero.

Atlanta defeated Hillman three sets to one.

T.C. St. Francis defeated Benzie Central three to one.

East Jordan will take on Harbor Springs.

That's going to be a good game, I can tell you that.

Elk Rapids and Kalkaska, Frankfurt and Oscoda, Gaylord will host Croswell-Lexington, Cadillac will be traveling south to Greenville, Kingsley will hit the road and they'll take on Hazlitt, Johannesburg-Lewiston will take on Manton, Lake City will be hosting Mason County Central, Mancelona will take on Benzie Central, McBain will host Fowler, Grayling will take on Shepard at Shepard, Tawas will host Maple City-Glenn Lake, TC Central will take on TC West in the annual Patriot game.

That's going to be another good one, ladies and gentlemen.