McHenry County Blog

On Friday, October 19th, right before the election, Governor Pat Quinn took Amtrak on a 15-mile trip.

From Dwight to Pontiac, I think.

The train went 111 miles per hour.

Governor Pat Quinn got a publicity pop a month ago going faster than a car on a very small part of the trip from Chicago to Springfield.

The problem is that a car can still drive from the Chicago area to Springfield faster than the train.

And the Governor can fly in one of the State’s fleet of planes, just like the influential Chicago legislators.

They won’t take the train.

During the 1970′s when I had a lot of time, I often took the train from Crystal Lake to Chicago and from Chicago to Springfield and back.

But it didn’t save me time. Didn’t save me money either, because the State reimbursed the cost of the train ticket.

The train looking like a bullet train, but it’s maximum speed was only 69 miles per hour, just like now on most of the route.

I’d look out the window and see cars passing the train.

After a stop in Joliet and Dwight and Pontiac and Normal and Lincoln, I’d see the same cars and trucks passing us again.

It’s going to be a long time–probably never–when someone from the Northwest, Western or Southwester suburbs is tempted into Amtrak to go to Springfield.

Except to the train riding experience maybe.

And, I’m bold enough to suggest that there are not a lot of regular travelers from Downtown Chicago to Downtown St. Louis.

Hey. It only is going to cost $4 billion.

That would build a lot of roads.

When we were down in St. Louis parked within walking distance of the arch, I saw a woman wearing this tee shirt.

It says’

along with the firm’s web site address, www.devinetees.com

Look at the imaginative that the designer has put a cross in both the “D” and the “T.”

It certainly caught me attention, as did another tee shirt, which you will see next Sunday.

Monday Rockford-area (and McHenry County) 16th District Congressman Don Manzullo tried to get President Barack Obama and his Peoria-based Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood to allocate some high speed rail money to a Chicago route that would include Winnebago County.

No success on that pitch, though.

Look at the map on the front page of the Chicago Tribune today. (Click to enlarge.)

Madison is relatively close to Rockford, but the route is from Chicago to Milwaukee to Madison.

Wisconsin wins big in this derby.

Illinois doesn’t do poorly, at least for those who want to go between Springfield and Springfield.

The route goes all the way to St. Louis, but I have a hard time relating to the part south of Springfield.

The summary about a high speed train trip to St. Louis says it will take 3 hours and 49 minutes to get from Chicago to St. Louis.

No ticket price is suggested in the article.

It says a car trip is now 4 hours, 52 minutes.

But for those of us in the far Northwest ‘burbs, it would take at least and hour and half to get to Union Station in Chicago.

So, 5 hours and 20 minutes for me to get to St. Louis.

Versus 4 hours and 52 minutes by car.

More relaxing, of course.

Kind of tough to read in a car…unless one can convince one’s spouse to drive…as I always try to do.

It takes me four hours to drive to Springfield and about another 1 and a half to get to St. Louis.

So, would McHenry County residents take high speed rail to St. Louis.

Not very likely.

In the end mode of transportation comes down to a cost-benefit analysis.

An alternative has to be as convenient and comparably priced.

Ignored even though our citizens voted for Obama.

Oh, well.

That’s the way it goes.

= = = = =
The Amtrak train you see is rocking through Downtown Springfield, Illinois, on some of the worst track imaginable.

It was the Fourth of July and this member of Crystal Lake Kiwanis had been up late the night before counting money for the Crystal Lake Gala.

The Kiwanians pretty much closed the place down. We were the money counters.

Virtually no one was left after we exited the grounds.

Certainly there was no bus to take us to the remote lots where we had parked.

Our family decided to leave on vacation the morning of Independence Day. I was happy to have my wife drive while I tried to catch some shuteye.

It was more crowded on the toll road to I-39 than I had expected. There was even a traffic jam at the Belvidere Oasis parking lot.

No problem getting over the Illinois River at LaSalle, even though it was under repair.

Because we had to drive right at the edge of the bridge, I got a pretty good shot of the railroad bridge downstream to the west.

There were lot of police cars in Illinois.

The one above was on I-39.

These two were on I-55 south of Springfield.

Both were relatively near the Mississippi River, “relative” being relative to the five hours that we had been driving.

Then it was on to the Mississippi River bridge we almost always take through or, more precisely, over Downtown St. Louis.

We saw these bridge signs and followed the main I-55 one.

The river had been a flood stage, so I wanted some pictures, as you can well imagine.

I didn’t get any that were very good.

The edge of the bridge was in the way.

Traffic inched along like it was rush hour.

Then we saw the right hand lane was closed on the Missouri side. The traffic was barely moving.

My wife pulled over to the next lane and the next thing we heard and and felt was

We pulled over into the closed lane and the truck did, too. I jumped out an got a photo of it. No damage to the truck I could notice.

But of the damage to my wife’s 2001 Toyota was extensive.

We agreed to pull off at the first exit, which just happened to be the street nearest the St. Louis Arch.

There was no traffic, but the trucker was worried that he was parked in a prohibited zone.

He was more worried that he would get a moving violation as a result of the crash.

After figuring out that the car was still drivable and we could get to my sister’s at Joplin, we really didn’t care that his version of the accident differed from my wife’s.

It took so long for the St. Louis Police officers to come that we got to know the trucker a bit better than one might expect and see the sights. He had had a real accident going home one very rainy day and had taken out 150 feet of guard rail avoiding a worst accident.

My wife jokingly asked if he hit us because of the McCain for President bumper sticker.

I noticed the side of his truck, which you can see above, and concluded he also was a McCain supporter. Note the assault rifle.

In any event, we went over the Mississippi River bridge and though the Ozark Mountains to little sister Ellen’s home in Joplin, Missouri, without further incident.

We didn’t dare open the trunk until we got there.

When we did, we found not even the wine bottle had broken inside.

And we found the trunk was still waterproof during a deluge at Branson, Missouri.

It was the Fourth of July and this member of Crystal Lake Kiwanis had been up late the night before counting money for the Crystal Lake Gala.

The Kiwanians pretty much closed the place down. We were the money counters.

Virtually no one was left after we exited the grounds.

Certainly there was no bus to take us to the remote lots where we had parked.

Our family decided to leave on vacation the morning of Independence Day. I was happy to have my wife drive while I tried to catch some shuteye.

It was more crowded on the toll road to I-39 than I had expected. There was even a traffic jam at the Belvidere Oasis parking lot.

No problem getting over the Illinois River at LaSalle, even though it was under repair.

Because we had to drive right at the edge of the bridge, I got a pretty good shot of the railroad bridge downstream to the west.

There were lot of police cars in Illinois.

The one above was on I-39.

These two were on I-55 south of Springfield.

Both were relatively near the Mississippi River, “relative” being relative to the five hours that we had been driving.

Then it was on to the Mississippi River bridge we almost always take through or, more precisely, over Downtown St. Louis.

We saw these bridge signs and followed the main I-55 one.

The river had been a flood stage, so I wanted some pictures, as you can well imagine.

I didn’t get any that were very good.

The edge of the bridge was in the way.

Traffic inched along like it was rush hour.

Then we saw the right hand lane was closed on the Missouri side. The traffic was barely moving.

My wife pulled over to the next lane and the next thing we heard and and felt was

We pulled over into the closed lane and the truck did, too. I jumped out an got a photo of it. No damage to the truck I could notice.

But of the damage to my wife’s 2001 Toyota was extensive.

We agreed to pull off at the first exit, which just happened to be the street nearest the St. Louis Arch.

There was no traffic, but the trucker was worried that he was parked in a prohibited zone.

He was more worried that he would get a moving violation as a result of the crash.

After figuring out that the car was still drivable and we could get to my sister’s at Joplin, we really didn’t care that his version of the accident differed from my wife’s.

It took so long for the St. Louis Police officers to come that we got to know the trucker a bit better than one might expect and see the sights. He had had a real accident going home one very rainy day and had taken out 150 feet of guard rail avoiding a worst accident.

My wife jokingly asked if he hit us because of the McCain for President bumper sticker.

I noticed the side of his truck, which you can see above, and concluded he also was a McCain supporter. Note the assault rifle.

In any event, we went over the Mississippi River bridge and though the Ozark Mountains to little sister Ellen’s home in Joplin, Missouri, without further incident.

We didn’t dare open the trunk until we got there.

When we did, we found not even the wine bottle had broken inside.

And we found the trunk was still waterproof during a deluge at Branson, Missouri.