respublica

Monday morning traffic report

Every St. Louis morning news program has been reporting a tractor trailer on fire at 270 and Olive. What strikes me, as always, is just how too darn big these trucks are now. The interstates in Illinois to and from St. Louis are clogged with these big guys. They are in front of you, behind you, next to you and it is beyond belief how huge they are allowed to be. Some government agency is constantly regulating one thing or other, but never these enormous trucks. Here is the semi on fire this morning.

How tiny the men on the left look.

Monday morning ladder drops

2 ladders have fallen on local highways this morning, must be Monday.

Tally:

Mattresses 56

Ladders 76

Another tally update

Mattresses 56

Ladders 74

two ladders this week hit roads  Be watchful out there

A big tally jump

All of a sudden mattresses and ladders are moving again. And falling onto the roads.

Currently:

Mattresses 54

Ladders 71

Highway droppings

There has been lull in mattresses and ladders falling onto St. Louis roadways. We haven't had any since September 16 when the number stood at mattresses 52 and ladders 62. But, just to keep us interested, Lance Hildebrand, traffic reporter for Y98, has started keeping track of cars with expired temporary license plates. This is kind of common practice in Missouri, many drivers aren't all that interested in getting permanent plates. So far the oldest seen had an expiration date of 11/17/17. There are a lot of expired tags in the St. Louis area. Charlie Brennan of KMOX gets on an expired temporary plate kick quite often. There must not be much enforcement.

Actually, I am often behind cars with expired temporary plates while in St. Louis.

A yearly reminder

With the darkness coming earlier and earlier, this is a good day to remind St. Louis area drivers that other states have much better lane lines. I keep hoping MoDOT will get with the system some day.

Tennessee roads we were on a couple of years ago.

An interesting road trip?

Want a different kind of vacation trip and have a lot of time on your hands? How about doing a driving trip to visit every US city or town named Springfield? Here is a map showing the best route to take for doing this.

Click to enlarge.

An unusual addition to the tally

Yesterday Dale drove to Paris, Illinois to visit his mother and ended up behind this vehicle and thought I'd enjoy seeing it since I've long kept track of these things falling on St. Louis highways.

It wasn't local, but still worth a look.

But as an FYI, the current St. Louis area tally is: Mattresses 52  Ladders 62

 

A new tally!

Even with somewhat less traffic as people are working at home more often, these things are still falling onto St. Louis area highways.

Mattresses 50

Ladders 60

On another travel note in the STL, news this morning. The King bridge was closed for many months for repairs or some such. It recently re-opened and today we learn that today and tomorrow the westbound lane will close from 9-3 and Wednesday and Thursday the eastbound lanes will close from 8-3. For inspections! I mean, seriously? They just spent a long time re-doing that bridge, why weren't inspections done before they opened just a short time ago?

One more travel post

Today Dale and I are going out to replace our Missouri Drivers' license for an Illinois license and this is causing all kinds of mental stress. We've been pouring over the Illinois rules of the road (103 pages!) and are hoping we won't have to sit down and take a test on all this. We know we'll have to be quizzed on road signs and take an eye exam.

When we moved from Illinois to Missouri 15 years ago, it was easy in and out of the drivers license office. An eye exam and sign quiz, that was it. But now we have no idea how much will be involved today and so are hopefully prepared for anything. But 103 pages of rules is almost too much to absorb and so, I least, am stressed. Dale not so much. We do have to bring along a whole packet of proof of everything from social security numbers to birth certificates to marriage license, signature, residency and so forth.

We have heard stories of how long the lines have been near us in Collinsville so we've decided to go to Nashville, Illinois in Washington County for the licenses where it should be less wait time. It could also be true that fewer people may mean more testing because the staff has the time. But that's just the way my mind works and why Dale is the most patient man on earth. We know Nashville, Dale's first church as pastor was in Washington County and we know a lot of people out there still.

This should finally be the last major thing to take care of from this move.