INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS

It will be interesting to see how they react if Homeland Security does not get funded. Will it be like the Government shutdown orchestrated by Obama last time with hordes of armed men taking to the streets and shutting down and guarding national parks and monuments? I think I can take it if the TSA fails to appear for work but knowing them like I do, they will promptly order the airlines to sit idle on the runways and taxiways waiting for TSA types to screen luggage and passengers.

Still, I passed through my old home Fort Riley on the way home from San Diego last week and stopped at the Exchange where they not only sold weapons but had lots and lots of ammo. Since we were driving, I bought 150 rounds of .45 which gets us back to the "time to go to the range" mode. I also made a point of visiting the Walmart in Vandalia since we spent the night right next to it and checked out their ammo supply. It was too cool. They had lots of guns and ammo. MetroParkCentralis does not do guns and ammo at their Walmarts. MCRD's Exchange stopped selling guns and ammo 30 years ago. I know, it's where I bought my first .45. None of the Exchanges in California sell either weapons or ammo.

We had a very nice vacation. We took the train to San Diego and had a Sleeper car from Chicago. We were a couple of hours late leaving Chicago which left us plenty of time to get to LA. We got off at Fullerton and caught our connecting train as it passed through enroute to San Diego. We stayed at Naval Air Station North Island and after a few wonderful days we got in a rented car and headed home via Las Vegas, Denver, Fort Riley and Vandalia.

The last day of driving was over the top. We were driving on I-70 just west of Columbus, Ohio when the traffic on the freeway came to a dead stop. We were in the left lane and I soon found myself in a place where I could see people bailing out across the median and heading back west. Opportunity gave us a chance to get into the middle lane and I took it. Another pure chance gave us plenty of room and time to get into the right lane and I took it. All the while announcing that I was the most patient of men and in no hurry and could simply wait all night for the road to clear. Then I steered into the shoulder and took the offramp for State Route 29 to US-40 and never looked back.

It turns out there was an enormous pile-up on the freeway and those who failed to bail were going to spend the next 5 hours running out of gas and heat in the subzero traffic jam that used to be I-70.

We got home a little after midnight after driving up I-71 in white-out conditions. It was funny. It was 73 in California, the same in Las Vegas, 65 in Denver, cold in Fort Riley, freezing in Vandalia and subzero in MetroParkCentralis. It's going to be like that for the rest of the week.

There was no snow at all until Indianapolis but plenty after that. The west slope of the Rockies had no snow. There was nothing until we got to Vail. There was little to speak of all the way to the Continental Divide. We talked to a musician who was on the train with us, enroute to play a gig at hte House of Blues in San Diego. He was the one that let me know that there was zero snow in the Sierras. California is so screwed. Drought, NO snowpack in the mountains, no water. There was a light dusting at the peak of San Gorgonio but the rest of the mountain chain was bare.