Is it summer......yet?

We had a little overnight rain in Janesville, although I didn't hear it, the rain drops on the windows told the tale.  Ever since we reached Hammond, IN it has been getting slightly colder.  Now that we are in Sparta, WI it has gotten stormy, and a lot colder.  We arrived in Sparta in another rainstorm, but by the time we were situated in the local Walmart parking lot it had mostly stopped.  It rained on and off most of Saturday evening, and as I sit here composing today's offering it is blustery, and drizzly.....looks more like Fall to me right now.

TLE snapped this picture Thursday....not bad for 65 mph!

Our original plan for Saturday was to leave Janesville between 9 and 10 am so drive the 140+ miles to Sparta.  We wanted to get there around Noon time in order to take out our bikes and do a little riding on the Sparta to Elroy Rails to Trails bike path, but those plans were washed away by the unexpected cloudburst just as we were arriving.

The drive north was very pleasant with good roads, and little traffic, but was marred by the fact that my speedometer and cruise control quit working.  They were both working great as we arrived in Janesville Friday afternoon, but Saturday morning they were both missing in action.  We stopped at a Rest Stop so I could check the fuse block, and other basic trouble shooting stuff, but there were no fuses out, and all the wiring under the dash looked fine.  This is when I discovered that the right front turn signal (not the one on the very front, but the one on the side of the coach under the passenger window) was not working......WOW, three electrical related issues occurring all at the same time.  I decided to wait to do further trouble shooting until we got to Sparta.  Thankfully my GPS mapping program gives me my speed, so I can live without the speedometer working, but I really miss the cruise control.

We arrived in Sparta around 12:30 to threatening skies, and occasional showers, so we scrapped plans to go bike riding.  Instead TLE read, while I tried to fix the right front turn signal.  It turned out the ground wire had come lose inside the assembly, and once I reattached it the turn signal came back to life.  I won't know if the turn signal issue is related to the other two things until I start moving again Sunday.

After that I turned on the big generator to put some juice back into the house batteries as we have not had the sun for 24 hours, and then turned on the TV for a while.  Around 7 pm we took a 2 mile walk down Route 16....a mile down and a mile back.  We eventually came to an IGA (Independent Grocers Association) store.  One of my favorite juices is Snap-E Tom....I think I've written about that before HERE.  Well, the last time we found Snap-E Tom Tomato and Chile Cocktail was in Russell, Kansas at another IGA store.  We decided to check inside, and what do you know?  They have about a case of Snappy Tom on the shelf!  We'll be back Sunday morning to stock up....I love serendipity!

Later I did some computer work, and read a few online articles while listening to the Kings vs. Blackhawks  (hockey) game on XM Radio.  The Kings made a valiant effort to stave off elimination by coming from behind to tie the game with just 10 seconds left in regulation, but they lost on a sudden death goal at about the 95 minute mark (well into the second 20 minute overtime period).  My friend Keith back in Highland, IN will have a big smile on his face this morning.

I went to bed around 11, and TLE followed about 30 minutes later.....the forecast for Sunday is 70% chance of rain so we shall see what the bowl of Jello has in store for our "plans" then.

I had a few comments on yesterday's blog entry "It does take a toll..."....most were sympathetic, but one fellow thought I was whining too much about just a couple of hours of bad driving.  Maybe I was too obscure in my diatribe, but the reason for my rant was that toll roads always seem to be the worst roads.....where is that money going....it's certainly not, in many cases, going to fix the road.  It's one thing to pay taxes to build roads....I get that, and have no problem with that.  I think we also assume that some of our tax dollars are going to maintain those same roads.   It's another thing to then have to pay a toll to drive on that road, and find it to be in worse condition than the "free" roads.  On top of that to disrupt traffic flow by choosing to repair 80 miles of road all at the same time does not seem to be good planning to me.  I know roads must be repaired, and maintained, and I expect occasional inconveniences for 10-15 miles at a time, but 80?  To add to my frustration was the fact that over most of the 80 miles NO WORK appeared to be in progress.  We used to have a joke about CalTrans workers in California....CalTrans is the government agency that does most of the freeway maintenance in California.....the joke was it takes 4 CalTrans guys to dig a hole....3 to watch and one to dig.  I saw a lot of that in the 80 miles at 45 mph Friday.  I know most CalTrans workers are hard working guys and gals, but there appear to be too many supervisors in most government work projects.  Now I'll get back to my "whine" and cheese.......

Thanks for stopping by!