Oregon or Bust! ; Yet another flat tire ; Excelsior Springs and Independence, MO ; Kansas City ; Lawrence, KS.
(posted from Lawrence Public Library)
(This post covers 22 – 26 August, 2009)
-------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 26 August-
This morning we began following the Oregon Trail. Our first stop was Upper Independence Landing, the spot where the riverboats would put the emigrants ashore for their trip into Independence.
We then followed the turn-by-turn description of the Trail for twenty miles. That was actually a fairly intense process since the guide book would mix directions in with commentary. Sometimes we’d miss a sign or misinterpret a direction. But in any case we saw several locations of swales, campgrounds where the emigrants stayed, and building which were there during the emigration times.
We then backtracked into Kansas City (Mo) to the Westport area, a competing emigrant-landing site to Independence. We checked out the sites around Westport and then decided we had had enough trail-work for the day. We had the GPS lead us to the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum only to find they were closing at 1600 today—less than 15 minutes from our arrival. A quick check of the other museums in the area showed the same. We were doubly frustrated in that the GPS seemed to be leading us in circles—something I’ve not seen before. (That later turned out to be a power problem—the power plug had come loose and the unit had depleted its batteries).
We took an iced-tea break at the nearby Starbucks to regroup. We decided we had had a great day seeing the local terrain, the landings and the crossing point of the Blue River. But we weren’t going to continue the tedious practice of following the historical route turn by turn. We decided we wanted to get out of the city entirely. We picked Lawrence, Kansas as our next stop and had the GPS take us there.
As we neared the Lawrence Wal-mart, we decided to have supper at the Longhorn. We split an excellent filet mignon and salad.
At the Wal-mart we picked out our spot and then did our routine shopping for essentials before returning to the van to blog away.
-------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 25 August-
This morning we toured downtown Excelsior Springs, Mo. The town is famous for its ‘healing waters’ and here they are of four kinds—iron-manganese, lithium, calcium, and soda. In 1937 the town built a ‘Hall of Waters’ and its architecture was the a very pleasant surprise. At the time the designers believed there were too many European influences in architecture so they strived for something uniquely North American and selected the Mayan culture to fill that role. Their use of color and Mayan shapes is first-class. It somehow lightens and lends interest to what could otherwise be a drab building.
We were too early to tour the Water Bar, which (the brochure tells us) serves waters from all over the world and is reported to be the longest in the world. They appear to be between make-overs. The bar and the room are beautiful but the bar appeared not to have the selection of world-wide waters we expected to see. A few unfamiliar bottles of water on the counter had a ‘Coming Soon!’ sign but otherwise all we saw was a cooler with various flavors of Vitamin Water like you’d see in a Wal-mart. Perhaps they stock the shelves after opening up.
The building also serves as the town offices. Upstairs is a courtroom and the town hall and the offices of the tax collector, planning commission, etc are spread throughout the very cool art-deco building.
The town specializes in health treatments of one sort or another. One was open early today so we stopped in. Our host, Nancy, gave us a tour of her shop. She specializes in air ionizers, HEPA vacuums, chemical-free carpet cleaners, and the most important machine in her life—a Kangen water machine. She gave us quite a pitch about the wonders of this $4000 water-treatment machine. She says it places a positive charge on the water molecules which take the toxins out of your body. She told us story after story of people who have been healed of cancers, skin diseases, heart conditions, respiratory conditions, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, etc, simply by drinking the water from the machine. The machine makes waters of different pH levels, each for a specific purpose. One is for drinking, one for beauty treatments, one for disinfecting (I’m forgetting one or two here…). It has platinum plates to ‘charge’ the water and a small dosing tray for potassium chloride. The unit is supposed to last at least 15 years but, depending on your water, a factory cleaning may be needed every five years (and $500!). The potassium chloride solution will have to be added every year or two ($100).
We really enjoyed our time with Nancy. She obviously believes deeply in the product and gave us pause when our we both noticed a flush on our faces from drinking the water (do they add some chemical to do this?).
The machine costs $4000, is ‘registered as a medical device in Japan’, and is sold via a marketing program which reminds me of Amway. You, as an owner, can not only get well, you can make your friends and acquaintances well, and you get a commission on any machines your friends and acquaintances buy.
Nancy demonstrated how the Kangen water makes a difference. She had me stand beside her, feet together, left arm down with my hand cupped. She then pushed down on my hand with her fist, telling me to resist. My right foot lifted off the floor.
Then I had drank the water and we repeated the test. This time she couldn’t force my outside foot off the floor.
I love this kind of demonstration because it immediately makes you want to understand how it works. Labashi later said that on her try she believed Nancy was pulling slightly to the side as she pushed down the first time but not the second. She demonstrated it and that indeed seemed to replicate Nancy’s results (though of course without the water).
In any case, Nancy is the sweetest lady and clearly not only believes in her product but also believes it has saved her life and her husband’s life. This reminded me of the RadioLab podcast Labashi and I had listened to on our drive to Detroit. Are there really results from the Kangen water and, if so, do they come from the placebo effect as discussed on the RadioLab episode? Or is it all marketing hooey? I’d guess the latter but in any case, we had fun learning about it.
We then drove to the nearby fancy hotel—‘The Elms’—to check out their spa offerings. I thought it might be fun and rejuvenating to have mineral-water soak or maybe even the hot-mud pack. But it turned out we could only do separate whirlpool baths in individual rooms. Half the fun of a soak is playing around like little kids to entertain each other so that was out. We could have taken a day pass for the hotel’s swimming pool and indoor or outdoor Jacuzzis but at $25 each and no privacy, it just wasn’t worth the price. Sometime this winter we’ll have a soak at Berkeley Springs. A hot soak in the summer isn’t all that special and we’ll need a late-Fall or winter diversion anyway.
We had lunch in the parking lot of The Elms, then headed for Independence. As we drove down route 291 we came upon a sign for a Lewis and Clark historical site. That turned out to be located in a sports complex which was interesting in itself. They had many different sports fields—baseball and softball diamonds and soccer fields, but no bleachers at any of them.
The Lewis and Clark memorial was a sign commemorating Lewis and Clarke’s trip across Missouri in June, 1803. The party camped at the nearby river bend. We loved seeing the view and imagining what it looked like in 1803. The sign told us of the prodigious killing spree of the party’s hunters. In this area they were killing eight to nine deer a day (for food, of course).
The highlight of the day was our visit to the National Frontier Trails Center in Independence. We spent the afternoon reading all the panels, each showing quotes from the diaries of emigrants on the Santa Fe, Oregon and California Trails. Independence was the primary ‘jumping off point’ for emigrants. Paddlewheelers would bring them and their wagons and animals up the Missouri from St. Louis. At Independence, they’d make their final preparations for the journey West and start out across the Plains.
After our visit to the museum portion of the Center, we took a quick look in the Library and Archives, a very impressive collection. I’d love to spend a winter here doing nothing but going through the collection.
After the Trails Center we crossed the street to a meadow where you can still see the ‘swales’ (tracks) of wagon-trains as they left Independence.
The day was very hot so we thought we’d go find a shady spot in a local park to relax before spending the night at the local Wal-mart. But in our search for shade we found Fleming Park and Lake Jacabo, a Corps of Engineers lake and campground. Once we learned they had showers included in the $14 cost of a campsite, we decided to stay there.
That evening we met ‘Paul’, a fellow camper. He’s a 61-year old construction worker whose home is in southwest Missouri but he’s living in his car at the campground while working in the area. He says he’s a Conservative. And not a Republican, mind you, but a true Conservative. (I might have guessed that from the Rush Limbaugh program playing on his radio but it was nice to have all doubt on the subject eliminated.)
We had a pleasant conversation with Paul. He’s a good-ole-boy and don’t like the gov’mint tryin to tell him what to do. He explained the problem with the cash-for-clunkers deal, for instance. Some of his friends traded in their vehicles and the damned government won’t let those vehicles, all in good condition, be re-sold. And the $3500 or $4500 is just a trick. You still have to pay it all back and you have to take out a six-year loan to do it that nobody can afford. So in a few months the Man is gonna come get your new vehicle cause nobody could make those payments and the Man shure as Hail ain’t gonna give you back your old one cause he ruined it (part of The Plan). So what did you gain by listening to the government? Nothin’ but trouble (says Paul).
As he spoke, Paul would occasionally cuss a bit, then apologize profusely to Labashi for his words. And as we parted, he apologized for stating his opinions so forcefully. He says he has had a hard life and learned a lot and may not always be right but by God he has an opinion—as is his Right as a TRUE American. And don’t forget, he said as we left—Americans always stick up for each other.
We had a blissfully-quiet night in our campsite.
-------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 24 August-
Our night last night wasn’t a great one. We had some unexpected noise—some heavy machinery noise from a nearby factory or something—all night. Labashi slept right through it but I couldn’t get to sleep for awhile. I was about to tap her on the shoulder and say we were going to have to move when I heard her deep breathing and decided I’d try for awhile longer and did indeed fall deeply asleep. In the night I woke twice and both times thought I’d not be able to get back to sleep but did.
After breakfast we visited two tire stores but neither had tires I liked in stock and neither could schedule me in the same day. I had been hoping to find some tires which don’t have the aggressive siping or tread my Goodyear Wranglers do. They were fine for my Alaska trip but a little noisy for the interstate and all the flats concern me. I’ve had more flats in the last year than I had all my other driving years combined, I think.
Alas, I couldn’t find a tire I like so decided I may as well see if Wal-mart will give me an allowance on the tire that had the problem. After looking at the divot, the Wal-mart guy said the tire is defective. Even if it had been plugged it shouldn’t have done what it did.
Unfortunately, the Wal-mart guy didn’t have a replacement in stock. He had sold the last two sets this morning. But he did call the Wal-mart on the other side of town and found one for me.
That Wal-mart was right on our way and just off the interstate so it was an easy trip for us. That Wal-mart guy also diagnosed the problem as a defective tire. He replaced it in about twenty minutes. And the charge? $12.50. Try getting that price from a ‘pro’ tire shop.
After the tire adventure we had lunch in the Wal-mart parking lot, then headed south, underway by noon.
We drove all afternoon and ended up by 2000 at Excelsior Springs, Missouri, again at a Wal-mart for our overnight. We shopped for a few necessities, then Labashi read and I caught up the blog.
-------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 23 August-
This morning we helped Labashi’s parents prepare to leave for their vacation trip to northern Michigan with Labashi’s cousin and sister. We, on the other hand, were loading up to depart for our Oregon Trail trip. I pulled out the GPS and had it find the route to Independence, Missouri—the ‘jumping off point’ to the Oregon, Santa Fe, and California trails.
After seeing the rest of the family off, we headed out I-94 to Chicago to catch I-55 south. I’ve not had great luck getting past Chicago without some delays and today was more of the same.
About 60 miles before Chicago I felt the van start to sway as if it were being blown about by a strong wind. But I couldn’t see evidence of a strong wind around me. And soon it became clear that a rear tire was losing air and giving me the ‘squirrelly’ feeling in the steering.
We happened to be driving through a construction zone which had the right-hand lane closed and two others open and very busy. I was able to drive between two of the barrier cones to pull off into the right-hand lane. That turned out to be a great spot to change a tire. It was flat with plenty of space and the line of traffic cones kept the other traffic well away from us.
Upon removing the tire I was amazed to find a large divot in the center of the tread and I could see the torn steel belt. This is my fourth flat with this set of tires and my third with this individual tire. I first fixed this tire on the McCarthy Road in Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park last August. I put in one of the el-cheapo square-style Wal-mart plugs and that lasted some ten-thousand miles. Then, this past February, I noticed the tire going flat in a parking lot in Umatilla, Florida. Air was escaping around the plug. I had it professionally repaired using an internal patch. But I believe my old plug somehow was today, six months and four or five thousand miles later, the cause of severe overheating around the plug site and ultimately failure of the internal patch.
Fortunately I was able to swap on the spare in only fifteen minutes or so and we were underway again. I was hoping to get past Chicago and started down I-55 before running into heavy traffic.
But only a mile or two past our breakdown spot we came to a completely-halted line of traffic. An emergency vehicle had gone by with siren blazing while I was putting on the spare so we guessed there was an accident ahead.
We came to a stop very near an exit and a quick look at the map appeared to show a road running parallel to I-94. And as we exited, we saw a sign saying ‘I-94 Emergency Route’. Since the GPS was trying to get us to use I-94, we simply followed along. Our detour ended up taking us some twenty miles on the alternate route and then we found ourselves on a near-empty I-94 for a few miles. Good deal for us….bad for all the people stuck behind the accident!
We finally reached I-55 South and made the turn away from the city. Traffic immediately lightened up and we had a pleasant evening drive.
We used our Wal-mart Atlas to find a Wal-mart with a tire shop and that turned out to be Normal, Illinois. We pulled in about 2000 hours and checked out the Wal-mart, then used the GPS to find several other tire stores to check out in the morning.
--------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 22 August-
Today we had a family party in honor of our guest from Belgium (Labashi’s cousin). We spent the morning in preparation, welcomed our guests at 1300, and spent the afternoon and evening chatting away happily.
I bowed out in the evening to get in my four-mile walk. After sampling the Belgian chocolate our guest brought along, I need it…
Great day!
****** END OF POST *******
(posted from Lawrence Public Library)
(This post covers 22 – 26 August, 2009)
-------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 26 August-
This morning we began following the Oregon Trail. Our first stop was Upper Independence Landing, the spot where the riverboats would put the emigrants ashore for their trip into Independence.
We then followed the turn-by-turn description of the Trail for twenty miles. That was actually a fairly intense process since the guide book would mix directions in with commentary. Sometimes we’d miss a sign or misinterpret a direction. But in any case we saw several locations of swales, campgrounds where the emigrants stayed, and building which were there during the emigration times.
We then backtracked into Kansas City (Mo) to the Westport area, a competing emigrant-landing site to Independence. We checked out the sites around Westport and then decided we had had enough trail-work for the day. We had the GPS lead us to the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum only to find they were closing at 1600 today—less than 15 minutes from our arrival. A quick check of the other museums in the area showed the same. We were doubly frustrated in that the GPS seemed to be leading us in circles—something I’ve not seen before. (That later turned out to be a power problem—the power plug had come loose and the unit had depleted its batteries).
We took an iced-tea break at the nearby Starbucks to regroup. We decided we had had a great day seeing the local terrain, the landings and the crossing point of the Blue River. But we weren’t going to continue the tedious practice of following the historical route turn by turn. We decided we wanted to get out of the city entirely. We picked Lawrence, Kansas as our next stop and had the GPS take us there.
As we neared the Lawrence Wal-mart, we decided to have supper at the Longhorn. We split an excellent filet mignon and salad.
At the Wal-mart we picked out our spot and then did our routine shopping for essentials before returning to the van to blog away.
-------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 25 August-
This morning we toured downtown Excelsior Springs, Mo. The town is famous for its ‘healing waters’ and here they are of four kinds—iron-manganese, lithium, calcium, and soda. In 1937 the town built a ‘Hall of Waters’ and its architecture was the a very pleasant surprise. At the time the designers believed there were too many European influences in architecture so they strived for something uniquely North American and selected the Mayan culture to fill that role. Their use of color and Mayan shapes is first-class. It somehow lightens and lends interest to what could otherwise be a drab building.
We were too early to tour the Water Bar, which (the brochure tells us) serves waters from all over the world and is reported to be the longest in the world. They appear to be between make-overs. The bar and the room are beautiful but the bar appeared not to have the selection of world-wide waters we expected to see. A few unfamiliar bottles of water on the counter had a ‘Coming Soon!’ sign but otherwise all we saw was a cooler with various flavors of Vitamin Water like you’d see in a Wal-mart. Perhaps they stock the shelves after opening up.
The building also serves as the town offices. Upstairs is a courtroom and the town hall and the offices of the tax collector, planning commission, etc are spread throughout the very cool art-deco building.
The town specializes in health treatments of one sort or another. One was open early today so we stopped in. Our host, Nancy, gave us a tour of her shop. She specializes in air ionizers, HEPA vacuums, chemical-free carpet cleaners, and the most important machine in her life—a Kangen water machine. She gave us quite a pitch about the wonders of this $4000 water-treatment machine. She says it places a positive charge on the water molecules which take the toxins out of your body. She told us story after story of people who have been healed of cancers, skin diseases, heart conditions, respiratory conditions, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, etc, simply by drinking the water from the machine. The machine makes waters of different pH levels, each for a specific purpose. One is for drinking, one for beauty treatments, one for disinfecting (I’m forgetting one or two here…). It has platinum plates to ‘charge’ the water and a small dosing tray for potassium chloride. The unit is supposed to last at least 15 years but, depending on your water, a factory cleaning may be needed every five years (and $500!). The potassium chloride solution will have to be added every year or two ($100).
We really enjoyed our time with Nancy. She obviously believes deeply in the product and gave us pause when our we both noticed a flush on our faces from drinking the water (do they add some chemical to do this?).
The machine costs $4000, is ‘registered as a medical device in Japan’, and is sold via a marketing program which reminds me of Amway. You, as an owner, can not only get well, you can make your friends and acquaintances well, and you get a commission on any machines your friends and acquaintances buy.
Nancy demonstrated how the Kangen water makes a difference. She had me stand beside her, feet together, left arm down with my hand cupped. She then pushed down on my hand with her fist, telling me to resist. My right foot lifted off the floor.
Then I had drank the water and we repeated the test. This time she couldn’t force my outside foot off the floor.
I love this kind of demonstration because it immediately makes you want to understand how it works. Labashi later said that on her try she believed Nancy was pulling slightly to the side as she pushed down the first time but not the second. She demonstrated it and that indeed seemed to replicate Nancy’s results (though of course without the water).
In any case, Nancy is the sweetest lady and clearly not only believes in her product but also believes it has saved her life and her husband’s life. This reminded me of the RadioLab podcast Labashi and I had listened to on our drive to Detroit. Are there really results from the Kangen water and, if so, do they come from the placebo effect as discussed on the RadioLab episode? Or is it all marketing hooey? I’d guess the latter but in any case, we had fun learning about it.
We then drove to the nearby fancy hotel—‘The Elms’—to check out their spa offerings. I thought it might be fun and rejuvenating to have mineral-water soak or maybe even the hot-mud pack. But it turned out we could only do separate whirlpool baths in individual rooms. Half the fun of a soak is playing around like little kids to entertain each other so that was out. We could have taken a day pass for the hotel’s swimming pool and indoor or outdoor Jacuzzis but at $25 each and no privacy, it just wasn’t worth the price. Sometime this winter we’ll have a soak at Berkeley Springs. A hot soak in the summer isn’t all that special and we’ll need a late-Fall or winter diversion anyway.
We had lunch in the parking lot of The Elms, then headed for Independence. As we drove down route 291 we came upon a sign for a Lewis and Clark historical site. That turned out to be located in a sports complex which was interesting in itself. They had many different sports fields—baseball and softball diamonds and soccer fields, but no bleachers at any of them.
The Lewis and Clark memorial was a sign commemorating Lewis and Clarke’s trip across Missouri in June, 1803. The party camped at the nearby river bend. We loved seeing the view and imagining what it looked like in 1803. The sign told us of the prodigious killing spree of the party’s hunters. In this area they were killing eight to nine deer a day (for food, of course).
The highlight of the day was our visit to the National Frontier Trails Center in Independence. We spent the afternoon reading all the panels, each showing quotes from the diaries of emigrants on the Santa Fe, Oregon and California Trails. Independence was the primary ‘jumping off point’ for emigrants. Paddlewheelers would bring them and their wagons and animals up the Missouri from St. Louis. At Independence, they’d make their final preparations for the journey West and start out across the Plains.
After our visit to the museum portion of the Center, we took a quick look in the Library and Archives, a very impressive collection. I’d love to spend a winter here doing nothing but going through the collection.
After the Trails Center we crossed the street to a meadow where you can still see the ‘swales’ (tracks) of wagon-trains as they left Independence.
The day was very hot so we thought we’d go find a shady spot in a local park to relax before spending the night at the local Wal-mart. But in our search for shade we found Fleming Park and Lake Jacabo, a Corps of Engineers lake and campground. Once we learned they had showers included in the $14 cost of a campsite, we decided to stay there.
That evening we met ‘Paul’, a fellow camper. He’s a 61-year old construction worker whose home is in southwest Missouri but he’s living in his car at the campground while working in the area. He says he’s a Conservative. And not a Republican, mind you, but a true Conservative. (I might have guessed that from the Rush Limbaugh program playing on his radio but it was nice to have all doubt on the subject eliminated.)
We had a pleasant conversation with Paul. He’s a good-ole-boy and don’t like the gov’mint tryin to tell him what to do. He explained the problem with the cash-for-clunkers deal, for instance. Some of his friends traded in their vehicles and the damned government won’t let those vehicles, all in good condition, be re-sold. And the $3500 or $4500 is just a trick. You still have to pay it all back and you have to take out a six-year loan to do it that nobody can afford. So in a few months the Man is gonna come get your new vehicle cause nobody could make those payments and the Man shure as Hail ain’t gonna give you back your old one cause he ruined it (part of The Plan). So what did you gain by listening to the government? Nothin’ but trouble (says Paul).
As he spoke, Paul would occasionally cuss a bit, then apologize profusely to Labashi for his words. And as we parted, he apologized for stating his opinions so forcefully. He says he has had a hard life and learned a lot and may not always be right but by God he has an opinion—as is his Right as a TRUE American. And don’t forget, he said as we left—Americans always stick up for each other.
We had a blissfully-quiet night in our campsite.
-------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 24 August-
Our night last night wasn’t a great one. We had some unexpected noise—some heavy machinery noise from a nearby factory or something—all night. Labashi slept right through it but I couldn’t get to sleep for awhile. I was about to tap her on the shoulder and say we were going to have to move when I heard her deep breathing and decided I’d try for awhile longer and did indeed fall deeply asleep. In the night I woke twice and both times thought I’d not be able to get back to sleep but did.
After breakfast we visited two tire stores but neither had tires I liked in stock and neither could schedule me in the same day. I had been hoping to find some tires which don’t have the aggressive siping or tread my Goodyear Wranglers do. They were fine for my Alaska trip but a little noisy for the interstate and all the flats concern me. I’ve had more flats in the last year than I had all my other driving years combined, I think.
Alas, I couldn’t find a tire I like so decided I may as well see if Wal-mart will give me an allowance on the tire that had the problem. After looking at the divot, the Wal-mart guy said the tire is defective. Even if it had been plugged it shouldn’t have done what it did.
Unfortunately, the Wal-mart guy didn’t have a replacement in stock. He had sold the last two sets this morning. But he did call the Wal-mart on the other side of town and found one for me.
That Wal-mart was right on our way and just off the interstate so it was an easy trip for us. That Wal-mart guy also diagnosed the problem as a defective tire. He replaced it in about twenty minutes. And the charge? $12.50. Try getting that price from a ‘pro’ tire shop.
After the tire adventure we had lunch in the Wal-mart parking lot, then headed south, underway by noon.
We drove all afternoon and ended up by 2000 at Excelsior Springs, Missouri, again at a Wal-mart for our overnight. We shopped for a few necessities, then Labashi read and I caught up the blog.
-------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 23 August-
This morning we helped Labashi’s parents prepare to leave for their vacation trip to northern Michigan with Labashi’s cousin and sister. We, on the other hand, were loading up to depart for our Oregon Trail trip. I pulled out the GPS and had it find the route to Independence, Missouri—the ‘jumping off point’ to the Oregon, Santa Fe, and California trails.
After seeing the rest of the family off, we headed out I-94 to Chicago to catch I-55 south. I’ve not had great luck getting past Chicago without some delays and today was more of the same.
About 60 miles before Chicago I felt the van start to sway as if it were being blown about by a strong wind. But I couldn’t see evidence of a strong wind around me. And soon it became clear that a rear tire was losing air and giving me the ‘squirrelly’ feeling in the steering.
We happened to be driving through a construction zone which had the right-hand lane closed and two others open and very busy. I was able to drive between two of the barrier cones to pull off into the right-hand lane. That turned out to be a great spot to change a tire. It was flat with plenty of space and the line of traffic cones kept the other traffic well away from us.
Upon removing the tire I was amazed to find a large divot in the center of the tread and I could see the torn steel belt. This is my fourth flat with this set of tires and my third with this individual tire. I first fixed this tire on the McCarthy Road in Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park last August. I put in one of the el-cheapo square-style Wal-mart plugs and that lasted some ten-thousand miles. Then, this past February, I noticed the tire going flat in a parking lot in Umatilla, Florida. Air was escaping around the plug. I had it professionally repaired using an internal patch. But I believe my old plug somehow was today, six months and four or five thousand miles later, the cause of severe overheating around the plug site and ultimately failure of the internal patch.
Fortunately I was able to swap on the spare in only fifteen minutes or so and we were underway again. I was hoping to get past Chicago and started down I-55 before running into heavy traffic.
But only a mile or two past our breakdown spot we came to a completely-halted line of traffic. An emergency vehicle had gone by with siren blazing while I was putting on the spare so we guessed there was an accident ahead.
We came to a stop very near an exit and a quick look at the map appeared to show a road running parallel to I-94. And as we exited, we saw a sign saying ‘I-94 Emergency Route’. Since the GPS was trying to get us to use I-94, we simply followed along. Our detour ended up taking us some twenty miles on the alternate route and then we found ourselves on a near-empty I-94 for a few miles. Good deal for us….bad for all the people stuck behind the accident!
We finally reached I-55 South and made the turn away from the city. Traffic immediately lightened up and we had a pleasant evening drive.
We used our Wal-mart Atlas to find a Wal-mart with a tire shop and that turned out to be Normal, Illinois. We pulled in about 2000 hours and checked out the Wal-mart, then used the GPS to find several other tire stores to check out in the morning.
--------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 22 August-
Today we had a family party in honor of our guest from Belgium (Labashi’s cousin). We spent the morning in preparation, welcomed our guests at 1300, and spent the afternoon and evening chatting away happily.
I bowed out in the evening to get in my four-mile walk. After sampling the Belgian chocolate our guest brought along, I need it…
Great day!
****** END OF POST *******
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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