Sometimes it seems like the U.P. is one big forest... which is why so many of us are attracted here. As so many of our daily adventures on the Pasty Cam have been in the woods, it seems appropriate to kick off year #20 with a tribute to forests, and a cameo visit by the subject of yesterday's "Day in History", Smokey Bear (or Smokey the Bear, as the Sons of the Pioneers sang it).

With the new year we're trying a change-up in the format, looking to bring video and other multi-media to the main Pasty Cam page each day. We guarantee there will always be something new and interesting as we reminisce about the previous years' scenes. We invite your suggestions for video clips, immersive photography, live web cams, etc. Looking back, we sometimes forget that much of that technology was non-existent on the Internet when we began this journey back in the Dark Ages.

I asked our regular weekday moderator, Mary Drew, to let me say a few words as we embark on year number 20. It has been my pleasure to be the editor of these daily pages from that first day in 1998, when my son Jonathan and I came up with the idea near the end of Winter Carnival in the winter of 1997-98. Hard to believe we've managed to publish at least one photo every day since then. Well, today is a special day for me in another way... my first day of Medicare! That's right, I was 45 when we started the Pasty Cam, and this month I'll turn 65. So I thought it would be as good a time as any to give my notice. Not a 2-week notice, but a 365 day notice that I'll be retiring, Lord willing, one year from today :o)

Thanks to all who have contributed content, comments, and encouragement to all of us at Pasty Central. So glad you've been able to join us on the journey.

Congrats Charlie, I miss you already, however I don't think you could fully retire...you would go nuts.
Heavy rains in SE-MI his morning, thunder woke me up at 3:30, and what do you do at 3:30 in the morning? Visit Pasty Central and then pay some bills.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy, Happy, Happy Anniversary! I LOVE
Pasty....and TWENTY years of daily pictures! And I
am proud to be one of your photogs along with some
of the most phenomenal, spectacular "eyes"
everywhere in this beautiful U.P.!! Congrats....

All the best, Charlie, and thanks for the 365 day notice! We can gradually get used to the idea. It's less of a shock that way!

Happy Anniversary, Charlie. We can't imagine pasty
without you. I agree with Alex in that I can't
imagine that you could completely retire. You're
too active for that. I turn 65 this year also and
can't imagine not having my job to go to. However,
if I lived up there, with all the UP has to offer, I
probably could live the life of exploration. Thanks
for all you've done for pasty in the past 20 years.
I do love my pasty.com.

I forgot to mention that it's LizinIdaho's birthday
today! She's a little under the weather so I hope
she gets many birthday wishes. Happy Birthday dear
friend!

Thank you Charlie (Mary too!) for all you do to keep Pasty Cam and pasty.com going for all of us to enjoy each day. Happy early birthday too! All the best!

Thank you Charlie for all the work that you've put into that twenty year journey. As fast as things come and go on the internet, it is an amazing accomplishment. And one that us daily viewers have benefitted greatly from. I hope that what you've built will flourish for another twenty after you retire.

'dido' to what everybody said.

Twenty years? Really? I'm starting to feel like an old-timer.

Thank you, Charlie and Mary and everyone else who has been
involved with bringing us the Pasty Cam over the years. Bravo for
your much appreciated labor of love.

Koskintoronto, Amen to that !!

Adding my Congratulations on your Twenty Years of fantastic daily Pasty Cam photos of our beloved Upper Peninsula!! Thank You to Charlie, Jonathan, Mary, all the wonderful photographers, and everyone else who pulled together to keep this awesome site flourishing. And I want to especially remember Edie, because she was an integral part of the operation for most of that time. I can't even think about the Pasty Cam journey ending yet.

Gosh! I can't believe that I have been looking at Pasty Cam on a daily basis for almost all of those years (18 of 20). Very habit forming! I am sure to miss it. And welcome to Medicare. I just started a few months ago.

Thanks for all of your kind comments. I know some of you have actually been visiting pasty.com even before we started updating pictures on a daily basis. The Snow Thermometer back in 1995 (that's 22 years ago), and Winter Carnival coverage in '96-'97 pre-dates the formal start of the Pasty Cam in March of '98. It was the encouraging feedback we received in those early days that prompted us to start this *daily* glimpse of life from the U.P. :o)