| |
 |
 |
Sunday, June 1, 2008
822 - A memorable Memoridal Day weekend
Dodging tornadoes, dealing with ugly traffic on I-80, paying $100 gasoline fills and enduring the threat of floods – whew! And how did you spend your Memorial Day weekend?
Mine was, in a word, memorable.
People across Wyoming dealt with tornadoes, heavy rain, fog, snow and cancelled picnics and events. The bad weather stretched from the Rockies to the Midwest, where I was.
Members of my family got caught up in those horrible tornadoes in northeast Iowa last Sunday that killed seven people and injured seventy. Five of the injured included two of my brothers, two nephews and a sister in law.
I drove thru little Hazleton, Iowa, about 4:30 p.m. last Sunday. My brothers Jim and Dan and family members came through the same area two hours later and were nailed by a tornado that lifted a nearby mobile home and slammed it into their Suburban, which then rolled and came to rest amid pieces of the trailer.
Jim’s son Michael was sucked out of his shoes and out of the car but landed safely nearby. Jim’s wife Laura had to be freed by Jaws of Life by local firemen. All are safe now, thankfully.
Then another brother, Ron, who lives in Laramie, was watching a tornado roll through his town and lift the roof off an adjoining building and knock out some of his windows earlier the same weekend.
Yes, I have eight brothers. I could also tell you about John driving around thunderstorms and my sister Mary spending much of last Sunday in the basement in Strawberry Point, Iowa.
Cheyenne folks dodged a tornado and south of the border a person was killed in Windsor, CO.
A not as exciting but painful thing to endure was my first $100 fill of gas for my SUV. Highest price for unleaded was 3.96.9 cents per gallon in Avoca, Iowa. It was $4.83 per gallon for diesel.
While we were gone Lander had more than three inches of rain over the weekend and recorded its wettest May, ever. And it was raining from Wyoming to Wisconsin.
We have driven across Nebraska for almost 40 years and never have we seen so much water standing in the fields and puddles everywhere.
On our way home on Monday, Memorial Day, the highway was packed with huge trucks. I am convinced that a toll should be mandatory for these huge rigs to help out pay for maintenance.
How cold can it get in Wyoming on May 26? It was 38 degrees at both Muddy Gap and Beaver Rim. Probably got below freezing later that night.
Drove through a thick fog between Cheyenne and Laramie. Pretty scary … kept thinking about that huge multiple accident up there awhile back.
Other big news in northeast Iowa was the raid of immigrant workers in Postville, Iowa. More than 400 illegals were picked up by immigration officials while working in a packing plant.
It was the largest raid in the history of the USA.
That plant will always be famous to me since one night’s work there in 1964 was my prime motivation to get a desk job.
Called Hygrade back then, it was a horrible place to work. And apparently it is even a worse place today. Workers had been bullied and beaten at the place, which had been converted into a kosher meat plant.
Meanwhile in my hometown of Wadena, Iowa, my brother John, my mom and I attended the annual Alumni Banquet. This little town, which always reminded me of Hudson, served up a nice meal and good times.
High point was a presentation by a member of the class of 1928. She was 99 years old and more alert than most people there.
It was also an opportunity for me to get into an argument with a local business leader about what a boondoggle ethanol is. He was quite insulted and made it clear that until we have a shortage of food, my argument was not valid.
And they were pleased with the recently passed farm bill, which gives even more money to Midwestern farmers.
Also, while in Iowa, I caught up with my old friend Dan, the curmudgeon, who offered up the following philosophy in-between coughing and hacking on his cigarettes. He thinks the following:
John McCain would be the best president for Wyoming.
Hillary Clinton would be the best president for the USA.
Barack Obama would be the best president for the world.
He supports Sen. Obama but thinks Sen. McCain will win.
Go Figure.
|
|
 |
|
|
