respublica

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.

 

These things happen

I've constantly noticed the growing number of semi's on the road these days and I'd argue that they are dominating the highways. Not only are there an increasing number, but that they are way too big. We see them when going back and forth from Collinsville to St. Louis and we were really aware of them heading up to Chicago for our nephew's wedding.

We always feel fortunate to have avoided any incidents involving one of these semi's. But Katie and Charlie and the two boys weren't so lucky. They weren't hurt  in an accident, but found themselves in a 5 or 6 mile total stand-still back-up on the Pennsylvania Turnpike while heading home Sunday. They had no idea what was causing this, but it went on forever. When they finally were able to move, they saw the reason for this, a semi had crashed through the guard rails and ended up hanging over the side of the highway. Click to enlarge the photo

It is hard to say how this happened or where the trailer is the cab was hauling or what happened to the driver. Just awful and probably preventable.

Lane Lines, beautiful lane lines

I know I've posted about this before, this issue with highway lane lines in St. Louis which disappear at night and during rain. Some time back I put up a couple photos I took while we were driving in Virginia and Tennessee which had gorgeously bright lane lines. This weekend while we were in the Chicago suburbs we drove through more beautiful lane lines. Bright Bright Bright!

Why can't MoDOT find this type of highway paint?

Your weird behavior story of the week

It is 2020 after all but this just about tops it. Commercial airline pilots at LAX reported seeing a guy in a jetpack flying about 300 yards off their wing while on final approach to the bustling airport. At 3000 feet! Pilots on landing approach were from Southwest, American, and  Jet Blue.

Catching up on the road falls

Mattresses 45

Ladders 55

Ladders are really pulling away right now, must be because of all the construction work going on.

Respect the load

@MoDot_StLouis added a tweet this morning which advises drivers to "respect the load"  and "share the load" with the giant tractor trailers. They added, "They weigh 80,000 pounds... They can’t stop as quickly as you. Let’s all work together and practice safe driving."

Anyone who has driven the interstates around St. Louis and the Metro East knows full well the size of these trucks and, we have seen a huge increase in numbers. There are days when all lanes of 55/70 heading to and from St. Louis are filled with these oversized trucks and they aren't exactly poking along. Get next to these on each side and front and back and you'll experience more than a little anxiety.

Frankly, with all the governmental regulations we live with in all manner of issues, you'd think there would come a time when the size and weight of these semi's would be controlled. They can't get much, I often think, but then they do.

And one more virus related behavior: Super Speeding

The Iowa State Patrol and Iowa Department of Transportation said citations for speeding over 100 mph have increase 84 percent compared to the four-year average. The Iowa State Patrol released data from speeding violations that showed 1,635 drivers exceeded the speed limit by 25 mph or more from January 1 through June 10. Most speeders are male between the ages of 14 (!) and 29.

Iowa state police are calling them super speeders and they have noted a pattern of speeders "on Iowa’s roads since the start of the Pandemic. At last check, it reported a 113% increase in speeding citations of more than 100 mph compared to the four year average.

Ever driven through Iowa? Or Kansas? etc? I wonder if the same data may be true for other states. It's easy to blame everything on the pandemic but this could well be true in this case. Too many days with nothing to do, no sports, parades, festivals and too many young guys with too much energy and no where to go with it.. But driving that fast an lead to disaster, surely these guys know this.

The Gingers are back

Every now and then I've linked to a blog site written by two sisters who described their travels. After a hiatus, they're back online. Haley was moved by the whole family last week to Baltimore where she will be in graduate school. Now she's on her own in a new city and wandering around checking things out, especially the food. Her mom is the seminary's director of landscape and grounds.

Check it out.

Oops, late tally update

Mattresses 42

Ladders 44

I got busy and forgot to keep up with these things falling on St. Louis highways