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Doesn't This Sort Of Thing Happen In Winter?
Wednesday, 20 May 2009 15:47Best Intentions
Tuesday was Exam 1 day for my PHYS-1070 class this summer. I thought it'd be nice to get in earlier than usual, so I got up earlier and hit the road earlier. Alas, as I sat in the Shell station's restroom in Wayland MI, I heard a large number of fire trucks driving by. "Huh, that's either a big barn fire or someone's done something stupid on US-131." Getting back on US-131 south, I could see this big column of black smoke in the distance. Three miles south, everyone got off the road -- and I could see that northbound traffic was just ending a detour -- US-131 was closed ahead.
So it was off into the wilds of the back roads of Allegan County. Or at least into Bradley, down Country A-45 / 10th Street to Shelbyville. The big problem was the two right-hand turns. Both were four-way stops and there was existing traffic, in addition to the increasingly backed up miles of US-131 traffic. The turn in Shelbyville was particularly narrow and the Allegan County Sheriff's deputy directing traffic could only let one vehicle make the turn at a time and the trucks were still ending up in the dirt on the shoulder.
Miles of backed up traffic...
So I ended up arriving later than usual. (sigh) And I haven't yet found out what the problem was. It wasn't in the news that I saw and coming northbound last night I saw no evidence of scorched earth on either side of the road. However, in between Exits 61 and 59 (corrected 5-21-09 Th), there is the Hopkins Propane outfit, so maybe they had a truck fire or something and were worried about all the propane going up.
Other interesting thing was that it took seven patrol cars to get enough people to man the detours, and that doesn't even include any police at the actual scene. That's got to be a lot of the county's manpower.
Fair Weather
Very pleasant yesterday. Today is supposed to get up to 80degF, but it's been really nice and breezy all day. And yet just the other morning I woke up and felt warm arm on my legs, because the outside temp had dropped to 33degF, which was just below the setting for switching from heat pump to furnace. Nice to get that functionality with the new system tested before the fall. (grin)
Dr. Phil
Tuesday was Exam 1 day for my PHYS-1070 class this summer. I thought it'd be nice to get in earlier than usual, so I got up earlier and hit the road earlier. Alas, as I sat in the Shell station's restroom in Wayland MI, I heard a large number of fire trucks driving by. "Huh, that's either a big barn fire or someone's done something stupid on US-131." Getting back on US-131 south, I could see this big column of black smoke in the distance. Three miles south, everyone got off the road -- and I could see that northbound traffic was just ending a detour -- US-131 was closed ahead.
So it was off into the wilds of the back roads of Allegan County. Or at least into Bradley, down Country A-45 / 10th Street to Shelbyville. The big problem was the two right-hand turns. Both were four-way stops and there was existing traffic, in addition to the increasingly backed up miles of US-131 traffic. The turn in Shelbyville was particularly narrow and the Allegan County Sheriff's deputy directing traffic could only let one vehicle make the turn at a time and the trucks were still ending up in the dirt on the shoulder.
Miles of backed up traffic...
So I ended up arriving later than usual. (sigh) And I haven't yet found out what the problem was. It wasn't in the news that I saw and coming northbound last night I saw no evidence of scorched earth on either side of the road. However, in between Exits 61 and 59 (corrected 5-21-09 Th), there is the Hopkins Propane outfit, so maybe they had a truck fire or something and were worried about all the propane going up.
Other interesting thing was that it took seven patrol cars to get enough people to man the detours, and that doesn't even include any police at the actual scene. That's got to be a lot of the county's manpower.
Fair Weather
Very pleasant yesterday. Today is supposed to get up to 80degF, but it's been really nice and breezy all day. And yet just the other morning I woke up and felt warm arm on my legs, because the outside temp had dropped to 33degF, which was just below the setting for switching from heat pump to furnace. Nice to get that functionality with the new system tested before the fall. (grin)
Dr. Phil
