Today's journey started well. However, after passing around Madison, WI on I-90/94/39 near De Forest, WI, the freeway came to a standstill. A bad accident occurred just south (east) of x126 heading north (west) on the freeway. Apparently, an SUV heading east crossed the median and struck a semi-tractor trailer truck head-on. The collision killed the driver of the SUV and caused the entire truck to overturn and block all 3-lanes of the freeway. Traffic headed west was forced to do a u-turn using one of the freeway turn-arounds that county workers and sheriff deputies use. The sheet-draped SUV and area around the SUV revealed the tragedy of the situation.
So, everyone who was heading west was now heading east. I decided to take a route (19W to 12W back to the Interstate) that wasn't too badly congested. This was probably because I was one of the last vehicles that made it past the point where they shut the freeway down and diverted traffic around the accident. So, by the time I started on my trek to get back westbound on the Interstate, most of the traffic had already went through the area. The area I traveled was beautiful (near Devils Lake State Park). It was a bitter-sweet experience as I knew that someone's loved one wouldn't be coming home for dinner that evening.
Altogether, I lost about one hour and one-half in the detour process. Even so, I reached my destination (Fargo, ND) with 15-minutes to spare before my 11-hours of driving time expired. It was a hot and humid day today. Although the temperature outside of the cab was around 95-degrees, inside it was around 70-degrees. The '03 Columbia ran well in spite of the water temperature gauge reaching nearly 185-degrees (I'd be nervous if it went above 190 or 200-degrees!).
I listened to the entire Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs game on the way up. I'm still astounded that some sports station in Minneapolis is hooked into the Cubs radio network. It was a great game. The Cubs jumped out to a lead and then the Brewers tied the game. This pattern repeated until the 8th inning when Milwaukee went ahead for good. The Cubs, however, almost pulled it off in the 9th inning. But they failed to get one more needed run to at least tie the game. At the end of the game, my radio signal went haywire. So, I'm glad the game ended when it did!
After fueling in Fargo, I parked the truck and began the process of settling down for the evening. In the distance I saw clouds build up into a huge mushroom-like cloud system. It turns out that a tornado touched down in Minnesota within that system. In fact, I'll be heading to that area tomorrow to deliver one of my stops. Hopefully, the tornado did minimal damage if any.
Well, I found out that my son's other hermit crab died today (or last night) via my wife. "Elmo" is no more. He's the 2nd (and last) of the crabs that my son has had. "Long Red" died 1-2 weeks ago ("Little Red" died about 6-months back). So, I'll find out if the family buried him this afternoon next to Long Red in the flower garden. We saved Long Red's shell (after pulling the deceased body of Long Red out of the shell) and will do the same for Elmo. So, at least my son will have the memory of the crabs by the shells that some future crab may decide to inhabit (that is if we continue getting hermit crabs). My son seems to be taking it rather well, but it will probably lose it later this evening. I'll try and connect with him after he get's home from T-Ball practice.
Tomorrow begins the journey back home with 1-delivery in North Dakota and 2-deliveries in Minnesota.
miles driven = 586
7:40:34 PM
back to top |
