IÂ’ll write about my weekend later, but first I thought you might enjoys some eye witness first-hand photos of an incident that happened on Interstate-39 just south of Interstate-80 at mile marker 58.

My wife and I were heading back from our re-enactment. Clone didnÂ’t come with to this event; instead he stayed with my sister. She lives in Bloomington and we met halfway between Rockford and Bloomington at a town called Oglesby, we were picking up Clone there. We had just turned off of 80 heading south on 39 when we ran into a traffic jam. GREAT! I love traffic on major highways. It was moving slowly, so at least it wasnÂ’t a stand still. There was a squad car blocking the road directing people to the right line. Then there was another directing people off the road completely, not onto the shoulder, but into the grassy ditch alongside the road. More emergency vehicles where arriving as we waited to get through.

I couldnÂ’t see what had happened at this point. I made the comment that I was glad we were in my truck, because it was better suited for off-roading then KtrevaÂ’s mini-van is. Okay, my truck was built for off-roading. It wasnÂ’t until we got close did I see what happened. Fortunately, the Digital Camera was in the cab of the truck. Ktreva snapped these pictures.

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

My first thought was, “Holy crap, the concrete buckled from the heat.” Today I called the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and spoke with a person there regarding the incident. She advised me that the concrete had not buckled, but had exploded from the heat. She explained that buckling takes time to happen. On really hot days, the roadway can expand fast with no release, that when the pressure builds up enough it will literally explode. That is what happened here on 39. She said it happened twice yesterday, once around 1:00 PM and again around 5:00 PM (which is when we drove by).

Based on the time of the incident, we had to have arrived on the seen with in minutes of it happening. That makes me real happy that we didnÂ’t get out of there any sooner. Once we got past the bad pavement there was a line of vehicles from full ton pick up trucks pulling a trailer to Dodge Neons on the shoulder with everything from flat tires to what appeared to be broken axels and radiators. If you look at the pictures you can see it was about a 1 and a half-foot high ridge in the road.

After picking up Clone we had to head back that way. We had stopped to get gas and eat, so it was about an hour later when we drove back. They had road crews there working on it; unfortunately the traffic was still backed up. They were now directing them through the ditch in the median around the bad section of road.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:48 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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For the first time in 18 months IÂ’m taking my wife on an official date. We have a sitter, IÂ’m taking her to a nice restaurant and then IÂ’m taking her to see a movie that she wants to see. ItÂ’s been so long since the last time just the two of us went out, itÂ’s almost like itÂ’s a first date.

The best thing is, IÂ’m pretty sure IÂ’m going to score tonight.

Posted by: Contagion at 03:55 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 Mr. Contagion and Ktreva...yeah that is WAY TOOOOOO LONG.

score?

for the love of pete

Posted by: armywifetoddlermom at July 07, 2006 04:44 PM (gLfxV)

2 ... good for you guys...

Posted by: Eric at July 07, 2006 05:18 PM (r5XsL)

3 YEAH!! Good for you!

Re: scoring......how's that whole facial hair thing? hmmmmm..

;-)

Hope you have a wonderful evening!

Posted by: Tammi at July 07, 2006 05:59 PM (3UQTn)

4 Wow. I am glad to see someone else has troubles getting sitters. ... last time was... 19 months... ick. Really should not have figured that one out. Need to work on this date thing. We need one.

Posted by: vw bug at July 07, 2006 06:09 PM (NyrfU)

5 Yay! Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

Posted by: Mrs_Who at July 07, 2006 06:53 PM (rtTnw)

6 Many a man has left on a date thinking the same thing and then coming home defeated. I hope ou kept your game intact during this dating sabatical.

Posted by: Dr. Phat Tony at July 08, 2006 08:04 AM (SXElV)

7

Posted by: Johnlqlg at April 22, 2007 09:06 AM (VhNjw)

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Normally on the Fourth of July we have a big party at our house and invite a bunch of friends over to eat and socialize. This year due to sinking a ton of money into the house in June, we decided to save money and not have the party. In fact we decided not to do much of anything other then have me due some grilling. I picked up a couple of thick pork chops and slowly bar-b-qued them for over an hour. At this point I want to warn all of my southern readers, I did use a bottled bar-b-que sauce. I donÂ’t have the time, patience nor desire to make my own sauce. However, I am always on the lookout for a good bottled one. If you know of any, IÂ’d be more then willing to give them a try.

While the meat was cooking, we set of some totally legal in Illinois fireworks; smoke bombs. Clone had packages and packages of Pop-itz. (The small teardrop shaped pieces of paper that pop when you throw them on the ground). He didnÂ’t quite get the concept at first that they had to hit a hard object to pop, so he was throwing them in the grass and everywhere. After a while he caught on and was having fun making all kinds of noise by throwing the pop-itz around.

Today I discovered that pop-itz and a lawn mower make for an interesting combination. Of course itÂ’s been a couple of weeks since I mowed last. (Yes, I know, donÂ’t even say anything. YouÂ’ll only encourage Ktreva.) That means that all kinds of things where hidden in the grass. Like say 5,243,845 pop-itz. With roughly only about three quarters of them popped. I was pushing the mower through the lawn when I heard what sounded like someone running across bubble wrap. It went on for about 20 seconds and then stopped. I couldnÂ’t figure out what it was at first. Then I noticed all the little white pieces of paper mixed in the cuttings. For the next 3 passes of the mower I would get the same effect. Clone must have dumped 10 boxes of the damn things into the grass.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:27 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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