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• Crazy Temps. at the Lake

  Posted:Sun, 21 Jul 2019 04:59:16 +0000

  Lake Michigan can make some crazy temperature changes. Saturday, the temp. at the Chicago Water Intake (Harrison-Dever Crib) reached at least 94.1°. The intake is 2.75 miles east of downtown, the Lake Michigan surface water temp. was 69°. It’s very unusual to get a temp. that warm. Midway Airport got to 97°. There was a brisk southwest wind, so the air wasn’t spending a lot of time crossing those 2.75 miles.

  At 4 pm, the air temperature was 92.3°, the relative humidity was 49% and the wind was southwest at 15 mph with a peak gust of 38 mph. One hour later, at 5 pm, the temperature was 72.6°, the relative humidity was 95% and the wind was northeast at 22 mph with a peak gust of 32 mph.

  That’s a one-hour temp. drop of nearly 20 degrees, the relative humidity goes up 46% and look at the air convergence going on where that southwest wind met the northeast wind.

  

  Same story at Michigan City, Indiana (pic. with rainbow in upper right from Sat. at 7:33 pm). In one hour the temp. dropped from 91.2° to 75.6° and the wind went from SW at 18 mph to NE at 27 mph.

  And at Milwaukee WI, the temp. at 1pm was 87.3° – at 2 pm it was 64.0°. The wind shifted from due SW to NNE and gusted to 35 mph. Air can’t go down into the water, so all that air was coming together and lifting up, helping to build up the storms. Speaking of storms:

  

  This was the S. Haven buoy camera Sat. evening showing a thunderstorm and shelf cloud approaching from the northwest. The buoy had a high temp. Sat. of 79° and a low temp. of 73°. The peak wind gust with the storm was 36 mph. Waves increased to 3 feet. Remember, cold air coming over warm water makes bigger waves than warm air coming over cold water.

  The water temp. at the S. Haven buoy was 76.1° Sat. evening. At a depth of 36 feet, the water temp. was still 74.6°. But…at a depth of 43 feet, the water temp. was 54.4° and at 56 ft., the water temp. was only 46.0°. If we were to get a day with a brisk northeast or east wind (uncommon at this time of year), the warm surface water could be blown back toward the middle of the lake and the colder water below could rise to the surface. That process is called “upwelling“.

  BTW, the South Haven and Port Sheldon buoys are self-funded projects. There is a GoFundMe page set up for anyone who would like to help keep the buoys out there next summer.

  

  This is South Haven Saturday PM 7/20/19. The boats are racing to get back into the channel. There is a rapidly approaching thunderstorm in the distance to the northwest with a nice approaching (and windy) shelf cloud. The peak wind gust with this storm was 53 mph and the wind shifted 170 degrees from 190 deg. (almost due south) to 000 deg. (due north).

• Severe Weather Threat Ends

  Posted:Fri, 19 Jul 2019 16:08:04 +0000

  Here’s the Severe Weather Outlook Map for the rest of this Sat. night:

  

  The threat of severe weather is over for Lower Michigan. There is still a Marginal Risk across parts of N. Illinois, N. Indiana and N. Ohio. Thunderstorms are still possible before daybreak, generally south of a line from Muskegon to Flint. Heavy rain and vivid cloud-ground lightning are possible with the overnight storms.

  Here’s regional radar:

  

  And Grand Rapids radar:

  

  Here’s links to current U.S. Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado Watches, current Mesoscale Discussions from the Storm Prediction Center, current Michigan weather observations, Wisconsin weather observations and Minnesota weather observations.

  

  Here’s Storm Total Rainfall from radar. It shows 4-10″ of rain across parts of Mason and Lake Counties. Saturday AM/midday storms produced significant flooding. There was a report of 12.43″ since 5:30 Sat. morning 2 Miles North of Millerton in far Eastern Mason County, right on the border of Lake County. Gentleman said culverts are all flooded over. Here’s some rainfall amounts: 9.5 at Custer, 6″ at Irons in Lake Co., 5.15″ at Bear Lake, 4.59″ at Chase in Lake Co., 4″ at Ashton, 2.6″ Walhalla in Mason Co., 2.51″ Ludington. A wind gust of 48 mph was recorded at Big Rapids. FLOOD WARNING for Mason and Lake Counties. Sat. evening there were 10 roads closed in Lake Co. (inc. US 10 at one spot) and 5 in Mason Co.

  US 31 NORTH OF SCOTTVILLE WAS CLOSED IN MULTIPLE PLACES DUE TO WATER OVER THE HIGHWAY.

  

  Here’s the severe weather outlook area for Sun. 7/21. The Marginal Risk has now been moved south of Lower Michigan – it’s across IL – IN – OH. There is still a chance of a non-severe thundershower south of a line from Oceana Co. to north of Port Huron. Cooler and less humid air is on the way for early this coming week.

  Peak wind gusts Fri. night: Estimated 80 mph in Jenison (Magnolia Dr. microburst), 69 mph Ford Airport in G.R., 67 mph on a ship northwest of Manistee, 67 mph at Hudsonville, 64 mph Muskegon Airport, 61 mph in East Grand Rapids (tree on car), 58 mph in Kalamazoo and in Ludington, 56 mph at Battle Creek, est. 55 mph in Comstock Park, 54 mph Holland (airport),51 mph in Manistee and N. Dorr, 49 mph at Lansing and Big Sable Point, 47 mph in Shelby and Gobles, 46 mph in Fremont and Ionia, 45 mph at Big Rapids and Paw Paw, 43 mph in Allegan, 40 mph at Hartford and 37 mph at Charlotte.

  Here’s storm total rainfall:

  There were several reports of small hail. Up to 161,000 Consumers Energy customers lost power, including over 51,000 in Kent Co. According to PowerOutages.us there were over 1/4 million customers without power in the Great Lakes Region. We’re still at 140,000 without power at 9:09 pm Saturday.

  

  The Excessive Heat Warning for Ottawa, Kent, Ionia and Clinton Counties to the south and the Heat Advisory for Muskegon, Newaygo and Montcalm Counties to the north have expired.

  

  This picture was taken by my daughter #2 Thurs. evening at Grand Haven. The high water level has moderate waves crashing over the breakwater. The windward side of the breakwaters can develop dangerous currents on breezy days. The wind pushes the water toward the pier (it’s actually a breakwater…piers allow water to go underneath them…breakwaters do not). With a south or southwest wind, like we have this PM, the south sides of the piers/breakwaters may have dangerous currents pushing you out toward the middle of the lake.

  There was also an Air Quality Alert Saturday for Berrien, Cass, Van Buren, Allegan, Ottawa, Kent and Muskegon Counties. That has expired.

• The Motel…

  Posted:Fri, 19 Jul 2019 06:34:42 +0000

  So…we (wife, me and friend visiting from Australia) leave Tennessee driving north early Weds. afternoon. We pass the build-up around Cincinnati and Dayton. Getting late, too late, around 9:30 pm (“My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim. I had to stop for the night. “)…we pick a town and start looking for a room No rooms…everyone is full. Wait…one motel has two rooms left…so we take them. Hey, they say, they have a pool.

  I kid you not…this was the pool! It’s was small, above ground, older-than-disco, sitting on decades old pavement. It’s a uniform about 3-foot deep. There was a ladder, but it was quite a distance away. Notice, there must have been a sale on duct tape.

  

  The best part was the inflatable chicken! I can’t remember the last time I got to swim with an inflatable chicken. It took up about 1/5th of the pool. It also didn’t look too happy. I watched out the window as a young employee came with a plastic bag of yellow-something and shook it into the pool water. I was hoping it was chicken feed. Note the chicken appeared to have a couple of crossing band-aids behind its right eye. There were 3 tiki lights and a nearby grill that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since the Lions last won a playoff game.

  

  This was a hall of the motel. I’m hoping this part of hotel was not in use. No carpet, just a cement floor.

  

  This was the wall disintegrating behind the door to the laundry area. BTW, what is it with pillows these days? The motel room had two queen beds and 8 pillows. I’ve noted that in recent years, we seem to have doubled the number of pillows in motel rooms.

  

  This was the crumbling sidewalk on the side of the motel. Everything was really old here (me included). At the top of the stairs to the 2nd floor, you had to open a door outward to get in and when you opened the door, you almost had to step down a step because there was no room. There was bath soap and facial soap, but they seemed exactly the same. The bath soap seemed to make the tub slippery…so I got out quickly and carefully. I didn’t take the dare to look under the sofa (also old and hard). There was an envelope where you could leave a tip for the maid…who turned out to be an old guy. They did have breakfast in the AM – no milk, so I had water on my corn flakes. On the good side, the people there were friendly and the bathroom was reasonably clean.

  We’re home briefly tonight, but driving to Traverse City to have dinner with daughter #3 and her family. I’m back to work on Sunday.

• Tuesday’s Rainfall

  Posted:Wed, 17 Jul 2019 07:03:56 +0000

  The map above is storm total rainfall from Tues. PM. The G.R. airport had 0.48″. Not too far away, Cutlerville had 1.75″ in just an hour and 3 min. Lansing checked in with 1.23″. They had 1.16″ of that in an hour. A weather station 3 miles southeast of Bedford in Calhoun Co. had 1.18″ of rain in just 35 min. 1.17″ fell in Dutton, most of that fell in 30 min. A weather station in Kentwood had 1.22″ in an hour. Coldwater had 1.35″ with 0.72″ in an hour. Kalamazoo had 0.42″ and Battle Creek 0.27″. Several large tree limbs were blown down in the town of Wynn in Isabella Co. Several power poles were blown down along ‘W”. Blanchard Road just west of Wynn.

• Road Trip Day 6

  Posted:Wed, 17 Jul 2019 04:22:09 +0000

  This is my mother opening some of the birthday cards she has received. We spent two hours opening the cards. She read every one aloud. I explained where each town/city was relative to Grand Rapids and if I personally knew the sender. I haven’t counted the total number of cards, but it’s well over 200 and probably closer to 300. She is saving every card, so she can read through them again. A couple things that were interesting. There are hardly any duplicate cards. The vast majority are all unique. I was also impressed with how legible the writing was in the cards. So many of you have perfect or near perfect penmanship.

  

  I lost my internet connection yesterday and never added this picture – so here it is with what I wrote: This was the creek by my mother’s house Sunday evening. It was not only as high as I have ever seen it, it was also flowing very fast. Usually, you would have no problem jumping over the little streamlet. I could have almost taken the kayak from here down to Lake Melton with it flowing this fast.

  

  Monday was mostly cloudy…with breaks in the clouds and a few partly cloudy times. These were clouds from Tropical Depression “Barry”. This is an interesting shot with “wave clouds”. You can also see the wind vane on the left and the flag showing a calm wind. I’ve mentioned before that out of over 250 weather stations in the U.S., Oak Ridge TN had the lightest average wind. It has mountains all around it and they tend to keep the wind in check most of the time.

  

  They have many different flowers and blossoming trees. In the evening, after mom went back to the retirement home, I took about a 4-mile walk along Lake Melton and came across these roses. The blossoming trees had blossoms of white, pink, lavender and purple. I saw one tree that was a mix of white and pink flowers.

  

  Here’s some white flowers at Lake Melton. I was impressed with the thick green cover in forested areas. The little sunlight had reaches the forest floor is enough for a wide variety of ferns, grasses and other plants. There were places where the green kudzu has taken over, covering everything.

  

  On my walk I passed this tall pole. It had spikes – someone could climb to the top. There was one guy wire to hold the pole in place…but, no other wires were attached to it. Is it somehow there for the rowing competitions on the lake? Is it a relic of the past, when it had lifted utility wires? A mystery…

  

  Speaking of relics of the past, I came across this old railroad track. I would have missed it except for the rail that you can see center-right in the pic. Looking forward and behind me…you could see that at one time, there was a railroad there. It’s been long abandoned with overgrown for many years. It was probably used in the years during and shortly after WWII. By the way, this is the ultimate science city. They have a Centrifuge Avenue and a Science.gov Street. A number of streets are named for different states.

  

  This is a cool pic. You really had to be there. This is the full moon rising above Lake Melton in the evening. The air is very humid and as the air starts to cool, it sinks to the lowest spot – which is the river. The air condenses out and with light to calm winds, we’ve had fog along the river each night.

  

  Check out the pic. above. This was a “fog wave”. It was amazing to watch. I spotted the wave well to the south of us…this “wave” of fog rising perhaps 10 feet above the general fog layer. The fog wave was moving from south to north at about 1 mph. I could walk faster than the fog wave was moving. It moved right past me to the north. I had never seen something like this before.

• Road Trip – Day 5 – Sunday

  Posted:Tue, 16 Jul 2019 04:11:03 +0000

  Many of the guests who came in for the Saturday party departed Sunday morning. Some left by car and some headed to the airport at Knoxville. The gang from Traverse City was flying Knoxville to LaGuardia (NYC) to Traverse City. Those who were left went to church. The church was full. For the summer, they combined the 10 pm and noon services, since fewer people come to the noon service in the warmer months. The sermon was on the Good Samaritan and after the service, the youth group put on a traditional Irish breakfast for everyone.

  

  The day ended with thundershowers and the pic. up top shows a thunderstorm (cumulonimbus) on the left and the cross of St. Mary’s Church on the right. There was a diminishing thundershower overhead to the south that had just put out it’s last flash of lightning. These airmass t-storms form in the heat of the afternoon, then diminish as the air cools due to the rain and the cooling at sunset. With very light winds at the surface and aloft, there was very little wind with the storms, but a period of moderate to heavy rain. Oak Ridge had 0.69″ of rain Saturday evening (after 8 pm) and then another 0.57″ on Sunday.

  

  This was the creek by my mother’s house Sunday evening. It was not only as high as I have ever seen it, it was also flowing very fast. Usually, you would have no problem jumping over the little streamlet.

  

  Before the thundershower, we got a walk in at Lake Melton. Note the pretty pink flowers, the calm lake (with fog trying to form on the lake in this very humid air, the bright blue sky and the mix of scattered both high and low clouds.

  

  Here’s mom after our relatively short walk. They have a large gazebo/shelter at the park and a nice playground for the kids. The walking path at the lake goes on for miles and has a steady stream of walkers, joggers, dog walkers, scooters, bicycles, tricycles. I would say over half of the people (and pretty much all of the dogs) say “hi” while you are passing by.

  

  Here’s a boat speeding by…most boats go slow…there are the rowers – Lake Melton is a very popular place for rowing. They rent kayaks, rowboats, paddle boats and small boats with motors – mainly for those fishing. There are still a few trains a day that pass by on the tracks on the other side of the lake.

• Road Trip to Tennessee – Day 4 – Saturday

  Posted:Mon, 15 Jul 2019 04:06:35 +0000

  I’m a day behind…here’s a summary of Saturday – the day of the big family and friend party – about 40 people at my sister’s house Sat. PM/evening. The pic. above is when most of the crowd gathered in the living room. Look how happy my mother is in this pic.

  My day started with breakfast at the motel. Then we drove to pick up mom at the retirement home. We headed to my sister’s to get ready for the big party.

  

  My sister was getting the last of the supplies and we each had tasks to accomplish. Here’s part of the food. Mom’s “favorite” food is bananas (she always says “eat a banana a day” – for potassium, etc.

  

  Here’s me, mom, my brother Dave and my sister Ann. Time for a pic. while we are preppin’ for the party.

  

  We had two big carrot cakes from Sam’s Club (her favorite).

  

  Here’s mom opening cards that came in the mail. THANKS so much to everyone who sent a card. She has received well over 100 cards (maybe closer to 200). She read and is saving every one. We had a lot of cards from Michigan…but also at least a dozen other states and several foreign counties.

  

  

  We hung the cards from the blinds on the windows and scattered others around the first floor.

  

  There were games to play…here’s mom and I playing cornhole…I let her get just a little bit closer.

  

  This is part of the crowd in the living room. We played “mom trivia” and winners got a “Top Banana” award (a little trophy) or a banana key chain. We also were entertained by the “bell lady” – a music therapist who works with seniors, kids and others. She passed out bells and pointed to use when we were supposed to play our bell. Great fun.

  

  This was a borrowed awning. We had a couple of these set up to keep people in the shade. Unfortunately, late that evening this poor awning met it’s demise in a thundershower that moved in. We had heavy rain that collapsed the awning. This is the “dog days” of summer – The dog on the left is Matt and Emily’s (granddaughter) and the dog on the right is Reba – my sister’s dog. She volunteers at the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter…she’s currently down to 1 dog and (I think) four cats…or is it five..

  

  A few pics. of people at the party…here’s mom with Daughter #2.

  

  This is Gene – a retired Civil Engineer from the Oak Ridge Laboratory, who was a golfing partner of my sister’s late husband.

  

  

  

  

  This is a pic. of my mother when she was a teenager, around 1935.

  

  Here’s some flowers and balloons at the party

• Road Trip Day 3 – Mom’s 100th birthday!

  Posted:Sat, 13 Jul 2019 04:47:34 +0000

  The Birthday Party wound up at Crafter’s Brew Garden in the evening, an outdoor beer garden with live music. My brother (from Chicago) arranged to play with the local band part of the evening. In the pic. above, he’s got on sunglasses and a black shirt, facing the camera. Then there is a woman with fairly long hair with her back to the camera…then (look close) my mother with a BIG smile. They had her get up and the whole place sang “Happy Birthday”. Everyone in the place was on their feet clapping and hollering. Afterward, mom “danced” with a few people as the band played “Come Together” by the Beatles – Paul McCartney said of that song “it’s gobbledygook”.

  

  Here’s mom having a beer at Crafter’s. She finished that one…but declined any more, though she had lots of offers. Crafter’s is “dog friendly” and there were some very friendly dogs there that tolerated the loud music just fine. There was also a guy with a pet squirrel there. He said the squirrel was 9 months old. It sat on his shoulder and let people pet it. Our visiting friend from Australia has been fascinated by squirrels. They don’t have them in Australia where she lives. Crafter’s has 24 craft beers on tap and dozens more in bottles.

  

  Here’s Dave playing with the Gary Coleman Band. My brother is on the left- black shirt and sunglasses. The guy in the back to the right of Dave is the drummer. Dave told me he can play over 1,000 songs…everything that the Beatles did…everything the Stones did….everything Petty did…Eagles, Clapton…he’s also great on mandolin.

  

  Here’s a wider shot of the crowd at Crafter’s. There are people to the left and right of me and behind me. It was a warm evening. The high temp. in Oak Ridge was 91 on Friday.

  

  While I was at Crafter’s – a spotted a big cloud that looked like a cat. I got my phone, excused myself and went outside to take a picture. By the time I got out there…it didn’t look much like a cat, but use your imagination.

  

  This is the same cloud about 15 minutes later. Now this giant cumulus had turned into a tiny cumulonimbus and it was starting to produce some rain…but it quickly faded as we came to sunset.

  

  Back up timewise…Gayle and I got up and went down for breakfast. We are staying at a very nice motel in Oak Ridge for 3 nights – my choice – so other family members can use my sister’s house and my mother’s condo, which she still owns, even though she has moved into the retirement home. Enough people come on visits here that we kind of felt justified in keeping it for the time being. Breakfast was very nice. We left to go to my sister’s house, picked up my mother and went down to Lake Melton. We sat in the shelter and watched a flock of geese moving around having lunch.

  

  Here’s some geese on the lake. Before I got this shot…these 8 geese were perfectly spaced in a row. The lake was very calm and the wind was light – I’d estimate 2-5 mph. We saw several kayaks and a paddleboarder on the lake.

  

  Here’s a highlight of the day. After Lake Melton, we came back to my sister’s house to open birthday cards. Thank you, thank you to all who wrote cards…Mom had much fun opening the cards…reading every word on every card. We have placed the cards around the house so that guests at the Saturday night party can read them, too.

  Many friends and relatives are already here in Oak Ridge and came with us to Crafter’s in the evening.

  It was a wonderful day! Tomorrow (Sat.) is the big party at my sister’s house. We’ve hoping for dry weather, though there is a chance of showers/t-showers. If it’s dry, we’re in the backyard…if it rains, we’ll fill the first floor.

  Thanks to Ellen, Emily, Matt and Terri for covering for me this week and next. Have an awesome weekend.

• Road Trip Day 2 – We arrive in Tennessee

  Posted:Fri, 12 Jul 2019 05:55:27 +0000

  The top pic. is my sister, my brother, my mother and me at Calhoun’s restaurant on Lake Melton in Oak Ridge, Tennessee – having a rather long dinner Thursday night – Friday is the BIG DAY when my mother turns 100 years old.

  

  We started the day at a motel in Lexington KY. I got up early (for me) for the free breakfast and got the most gigantic banana I have ever seen. Here it is next to my room key. After that I went down to swim in the pool. My wife and I found 3 gigantic bees. They looked like bumble bees but were about twice the size of a Michigan bumble bee. They were extremely lethargic and walking around by the pool. My wife dispatched them by stepping on them and then moving then off to the side against a wall. We didn’t want someone (kids) to step on one of those. While I was swimming a paper wasp landed in the water close to me. It swam around for about 30 seconds, then just flew away. We departed the motel around noon (which was checkout time).

  

  It was hot…the temperature on our car thermometer reached 92. We stopped to get gas. You can use the GasBuddy map to find the cheapest gas. We stopped at Renfro Valley to see if Punkin the cat was at the old cabin. The cabin was being renovated, so Penkin had gone to someone’s home to live for the summer. As we continued south, the clouds got thicker and it started to rain. By the time we drove the ridge in NE Tennessee, we were in moderate to heavy rain and fog and the temperature had dropped to 70 (quite a drop for driving south in summer). We passed two accidents. We continued into Knoxville to pick up two gigantic (theme of the day) carrot cakes for the Saturday party. We had a discussion as to whether we should actually do 100 candles (50 on each cake) or just put a one-zero-zero. The latter won out.

  

  This is a gigantic (again, theme of this post) flower on a tree. There were a dozen of these trees planted in a row…some with pink flower clusters and some with white flower clusters.

  

  This flower was on a tree with waxy leaves…they had several kinds of trees like this with waxy leaves. This was another relatively gigantic flower.

  

  We had dinner at Calhoun’s on Lake Melton. It rained off and on, but there was a big overhang and we stayed dry. It was humid, but temps. were in the 70s. Mom had chicken and she got a big sundae on the house for her birthday dessert.

  

  Lake Melton is actually the dammed up Clinch River. This is one of the best rowing venues in the world. The lake has about a 1.5 miles “straightaway” and is surrounded by hills that block the wind. Oak Ridge is one of the least windy places in the U.S. Here’s a couple rowing in the (light) rain Thurs. evening. I took this pic. while I was having dinner.

  

  During dinner we saw a rainbow…kind of faint, but it counts! We ended dinner by singing “Happy Birthday”. Everyone at the tables around us just joined in. Next to us there were 6 Hispanic women having dinner and they sang “Happy Birthday” to mom in Spanish. We finished the evening back at my sister’s backyard, talking about the days of growing up on Chicago’s North Shore and watching occasional lightning in the distant west. Tomorrow (Friday) is THE DAY! Weather permitting, we’ll have a picnic at Anderson Co. Park and then go to hear my brother play guitar with a local group at a craft brewery restaurant. Saturday, we’ll have nearly 40 people back at my sister’s for the BIG party. Have a wonderful day!

• Road Trip to Tennessee – Day 1

  Posted:Thu, 11 Jul 2019 04:01:58 +0000

  Road Trip! Gayle and I are headed to Tennessee for my mother’s 100th birthday. Her big day is Friday, but events are scheduled for Friday thru Sunday. We left G.R. around 12:30 pm…headed south on US 131 to I-94, then east to pick up I-69. We thought about going to the Eaton Co. Fair on the way, but decided we’d better use the time to drive. I feel sorry for the farmers…many fields idle this year due to the cloudy, wet and cool spring. Fields that are planted are behind schedule.

  

  This rest stop near Fort Wayne IN is getting a make-over. Hey, no problem! There’s a couple of porta-potties. When we pulled into the rest stop, the car thermometer (which is pretty accurate) had 94 degrees. The high temp. at Fort Wayne was 95 and at 6 pm, Fort Wayne had a temp of 94, a dewpoint of 71 and a heat index of 101. That was OUTSIDE the porta potty. INSIDE the porta-potty there was enough heat to destroy an entire polar vortex in less than a minute. On the positive side…no insect, bacteria or virus could have possibly survived in there for more than a few seconds. For you chemists…I’d say it was almost hot enough to melt tungsten.

  

  No rain on the way down…but I did snap this pic. of a heavy cumulus cloud. It was a pretty day with blue sky, a varying green landscape, the white clouds and just a hint of smoke in the sky. There were several slowdowns due to road construction, but they were relatively brief. We stopped at an Arby’s for a sandwich…I had a coupon AND I get the senior citizen discount. The lady behind me in line said she was in a hurry, so I let her go in front of me. We saw one accident…the police had just got to the scene…didn’t look like anyone was hurt.

  

  We found a motel…happened to land at Lexington and…well…it’s the start of Breyerfest here…so the motels are pretty booked up. We did find a room…complete with a dripping shower and a centipede-like bug (alive) next to the Gideon Bible in the drawer. The room next door was vacant because someone had kicked the door in. The lobby featured a verbal fight between a young couple. The clerk asked the woman if she’d like her to call the police. I sure can pick ’em.

  When I was a kid…a motel room had a queen-sized bed and a small bathroom. Today, a motel room has a giant flat-screen TV, coffee maker, microwave, fridge, iron and ironing board, several kinds of soap and lots of pillows…like 4 per bed. You get a huge breakfast – carb. city – and since it’s free, you pig-out like you just landed on shore after crossing the Pacific Ocean. Coffee in the lobby 24/7, mints and sometimes cookies. Breakfast is from 5:30 am to 9 am. 5:30 am? I’m on vacation…I’ll stumble down at 8:30 or 8:45, maybe.

  Went to the Cracker Barrel for dinner. They have that little game with golf tees…you try and jump them so that you have only one left in the front of the wooden triangle at the end. This is a great game for old guys like me…because we forget how it’s done…so every time we eat here, we have to start over. By the way, our dinners came REALLY fast…and I got some chocolate-covered almonds to munch on while I work here on the computer in the hotel room.

  Tomorrow, we head thru the rest of Kentucky and halfway thru Tennessee to Oak Ridge. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone. My brother – the guitar guy from Chicago…lined up a gig for himself in Oak Ridge, so we’ll go to hear him play. Saturday is the big party. I’ll take pics. and may do a facebook live. Have an awesome day everyone!

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