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  • 20 Hours in America

    West Wing fans will recognize the title of this SteveRogers.info blog post as the title of Season 4, Episode 1 (and 2), where Donna, Josh and Toby got stranded in Indiana.

    Well that happened to me today.

    For a little background, I left St. Louis on Monday for Milwaukee to see my sister.  On Tuesday, I went to Madison and back to Milwaukee to respectively see my uncle, the Madison state capital, and then go to the Brewers-Cardinals game with my sister and brother in law.  Wednesday I drove down to Chicago to spend a day with a friend from college, Rachel.  Today, I woke up left Chicago and headed east to Princeton.

    Two hours into my trip, there was a truck in front of me towing some vehicle on a trailer.  A metal pipe or something similar bounced off the trailer.  I could not really avoid it, and was originally thankful it bounced under my car.  However, this pipe happened to puncture my gas tank, which I figured as my gas gauge went from quarter full to empty in five minutes.  I was able to get off the highway and to a gas station, with my gas light well lit.  My car wouldn’t start again after I had turned it off.

    The gas station was not a service station, but there were some locals (who spent their mornings at the filling station) who looked under my car and confirmed there was a hole in the gas tank.

    I apparently ended up somewhere in South Bend, Indiana.  Called AAA, and they had me call the fire department before they would allow a truck to tow the car.  So I called; explained the situation; and said I was at such and such gas station.  They asked if it was the one with the deli, and I said yes.  The firemen showed up, checked the car, said it was fine, and proceeded to eat lunch at the deli.

    I made calls to AAA, State Farm, the parents, and then organized my notes (phone numbers, confirmation numbers, etc) from the day.  There were three girls working at the gas station/deli, and there were people who came in, chatted, continueing conversations from the previous day.  It was a bit of a scene out of the little farm town and everyone knew each other at this filling station.

    3 minutes after I got food from the deli, the tow truck arrived.  The driver was very nice and said that things like this happened often.  On my way out of the gas station two of the girls working there wished me luck.  The tow truck driver hitched up my ’97 Honda Accord, and we drove off to Rick’s Auto Body Shop.

    Rick’s was a small shop on Mayflower road with nothing nearby.  I got there and explained my situation, and we relatively quickly got everything approved with insurance for them to fix my car, which would be done by the next day at the earliest.  During this time, Rick himself (an elderly gentleman) came down and introduced himself.  The shop was run by a father (Rick) and son (Dan).   Again this place was classic Indiana it seemed, with a big ol’ bible quote on the wall, and Dan and Rick closing up shop by 4 to go fishing.

    Using the shop’s computer and dial-up internet, I found Rachel’s parents’ home number using reverse white pages.  They welcomed me to stay with them while my car got fixed, and even offered to pick me up.  Now, I needed a car to get back to Chicago.  Dan then drove me to the South Bend airport, and we talked with one memorable quote  from Dan asking if Princeton was one of those Ivy Leagues (the farmer/Indiana accent/drawl made the quote).  He was a good guy, who was happy with his life, and looking forward to fishing with his dad and son.

    I got dropped off at the airport, but the airport rental car places apparently could not process insurance claimed rental cars.  So Laura, the manager of Enterprise who was just getting off work, continued the trend of midwestern hospitality and drove me another local Enterprise.  During our drive, she pointed out the good restaurants and told me about her job.  She was very nice.  One we got to the other Enterprise, they set me up a car that is only costing me $15 a day.

    I brought my GPS with me (I love that thing) and there was no good spot to mount in the car.  Cleverly (I thought it was very clever) I mounted the suction cup to the passenger side visor mirror.  I then made my way back to Chicago, and hung out with Rachel and her family for the rest of the night.

    So today, I drove from Chicago to South Bend and back.  While it is annoying to have your gas tank get punctured at the beginning of a 13 hour drive back to Jersey.  I was thoroughly impressed with how smoothly AAA and insurance processed things.  Additionally, it is hard to get mad when you had friendly people at the local South Bend filling station; a patient and helpful tow truck driver; a father-son auto repair shop; a rental car manager who drives a customer to another location on her way home; and a welcoming (and fun) family in Chicago.

    The Midwest is the best.

  • While getting tired of Michael Jackson on the radio…

    While getting tired of all of the Michael Jackson on the radio…I found this slightly amusing

  • Collision of Worlds

    Well…My my….Worlds collide.

    Today, the DLCC made a post about the Seventeenth Amendment, referencing this Arkansas Senate candidate who said:

    “I’m not sure that the 17th amendment was a smart thing to do… We need to go back and get like the founding fathers suggested.”

    Now, I am a little disappointed in my DLCC friends.  They claimed that the US Senate would have 62 Democrats without number 17.  Now, I have yet to thoroughly run the numbers (c’mon Minnesoata), but I believe Democrats would only have 55 seats in the Senate without the 17th Amendment.  The DLCC Communications team (looking at you Matthew) really should have referenced The Southern Seventeenth Amendment Swing .  If they wanted numbers, simply seek the older version posted here.

    Now, I believe that the DLCC was off because they did not consider staggered terms and classes of Senators.  2008 was an interesting year.  In the indirectly elected Senate, Democrats gained seats in Iowa, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire.  But the Republicans took Tennessee, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Kentucky.

    And who said that the Seventeenth Amendment was irrelevant!

  • Christopher Fraser MP from Norfolk Southwest

    The summer before I started this blog, I was a research assistant (fancy name for intern) for Christopher Fraser MP of Norfolk Southwest.  It was a pretty fun gig.  He was just recently elected and had no Parliamentary staff, so it meant I got to do a bit more than busy work.

    We had a good time.  We campaigned for another MP, went around his district, and celebrated the Fourth of July together (see picture below of Christopher enjoying a Budweiser and Apple Pie).

    Also, here we are on the roof of Parliament (Don’t know if this was legal)

    roof

    Unfortunately, Christopher announced yesterday that he would not seek reelection.  His wife is in poor health, and it has gotten swept up in the Parliamentary Expense scandal….And well…. it made a few headlines…

    Hopefully Lisa gets well soon, and the Fraser’s get to spend more time together with Christopher out of office.  I wish them nothing but the best, but is was interesting to see Christopher Fraser from Norfolk Southwest in the news today.

    June 3rd Update

    Sort of got mentioned in a story!

    He said his staffing costs had risen by 50pc since 2005/06 as he needed extra full-time staff to help after initially starting out with interns. But he declined to give an account for the £1,792 claimed for “spouse’s travel” in 2007/08 stating that “all spouses are entitled to claim for travel”.

  • State Leg Tid Bit

    Less of these since leaving DLCC, but….

    Lampe legislation a ‘counter to hate’
    Lawmakers renamed a section of highway in Springfield that a neo-Nazi group adopted to keep litter-free after a Jewish civil rights leader.

    Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, got an amendment added to a transportation bill to rename a portion of West Bypass from Farm Road 142 to West Sunshine the “Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Memorial Highway.” Heschel marched with Martin Luther King Jr. at the Selma, Ala., Civil Rights march in 1965.

    Lampe said she asked Jewish groups to nominate a religious figure to counter the Springfield unit of the National Socialist Movement, which adopted the section of road.

    “It’s a counter to hate,” Lampe said.

    Two signs noting the National Socialist Movement’s participation in the Adopt-A-Highway program went up last October. The Missouri Department of Transportation could not turn down the group’s application to be in the program based of its views because of the group’s First Amendment right.

    A Jewish organization in Kansas City will pay for signs marking the memorial highway along the same stretch of road maintained by volunteers from the neo-Nazi group. “I’m leveling the playing field,” Lampe said.

    In HB683, Rep. Bob Dixon got a provision added to rename a one-mile portion of East Chestnut Expressway from the new airport entrance road to Interstate 44 the “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Mile.”

    May 22, 2009

  • Albert

    He is a pretty special player…

  • Small World

    My sister ran cross country in high school and college.  She now works in the career services offices of Cardinal Strich University in Wisconsin.  Karen recently accepted a position as the head cross country coach at this university as well.

    Also recently accepting a head coaching position at Cardinal Strich was Drew Diener, a former Saint Louis University Billiken.  I don’t know if Karen ever saw Drew play, but it may be an interesting conversation when they first meet.

    Karen: So you played at SLU?

    Drew: Yeah, from 1999 – 2003.

    Karen: My brother has this web site….

    That is quite the co-wink-e-dink (however you spell it).