Daily Archives: August 4, 2010
Rainy Day Monda…eh…Tues…eh, Wednesday, too…
Well this morning got off to an exciting start!
Jan got up about 8, but I was awakened about 9:30 by heavy rain, high winds, thunder, and a very loud roaring sound. Coming out of a sound sleep, my first thought was “tornado”.
Turns out it wasn’t a tornado, but merely the high winds making the awnings rumble like a base drum. I put on some shorts and ran out in the rain to put the awnings up so they wouldn’t be damaged. I saw that the wind had also sent the satellite dish on a nosedive.
For the next couple of hours we rode out a lot of rain and lightning. But by 11:30 it had slacked off enough for us to head out for lunch.
And following our Nick Russell Memorial Restaurant Jealousy Tour theme, we went to Bob Evans for lunch. Jan had a soup and sandwich platter, and I had breakfast. Bob Evans is a chain that Nick and Terry introduced us to last year and we always really enjoy it.
Coming home, we dropped some clothes off at the Goodwill store and got back to the rig just in time for the sun to come out. At least for a while.
I put out the awnings and set the satellite dish back up. Just in time for it to start sprinkling again. Oh well.
On a completely different rant, I finally got a chance to find out about the toll roads around here, and in the Northeast, in general.
In Texas we have toll roads, but they’re built as toll roads and are not Interstates. But up here some Interstates ARE toll roads. For example I-70 / I-80 that runs across upper Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois is a toll road.
So I know that the Interstate system was built using Federal funds from US taxpayers, so why are some states now charging us to drive on roads we’ve already paid for. But it turns out to be fairly simple, and not the ripoff I had thought. Or at least, less of a ripoff.
The thing is, the toll roads were here first. They were already in existence when they started building the Interstate System in the late 50’s. So if they built the new Interstates along side the toll roads, then the no one would use the toll roads and the bondholders would go broke. If they used the Interstate Highway funds to buy out the toll roads to make them free, then that left less money to build the rest of the Interstate System. So they just decided to leave things as they were.
So now, about 2900 of the 46,000+ miles in the Interstate are toll roads. For more info, check Toll Road History.
After more rain during the afternoon, about 6 we drove over to the second stop on the NRMRJT (Nick Russell Memorial Restaurant Jealousy Tour), Lakeshore Grill on Simonton Lake. They have good food and a great view of the lake.
We got back to the rig a little after 7, just in time for more rain. But tomorrow is supposed to be bright and sunny. We’ll see.
Tomorrow we’re going to take a day trip down to Logansport, IN, about 90 miles away. Jan lived there when she was about 8 years old, and she wants to check the place out.
More tomorrow…
Quote of the day:
Fools rush in where fools have been before. – Unknown
dAS
