Adventures good and
bad occur at times when you least expect and with people you are sure they will
never happen with. Such is the case on
Wisconsin 35 in mid-September with my wife and mother-in-law.
My wife's niece and
her husband were married two years ago.
They started their marriage in her condominium but they both wanted to
purchase a house. They sold the
condominium near River Falls, Wisconsin and purchased a house in New Richmond,
Wisconsin. Being proud of the new
purchase, they soon invited people to a housewarming. New Richmond is located between Eau Claire
and River Falls. My mother-in-law wanted
to attend the housewarming but did not want to drive the distance, which took
three hours by car, by herself. So my
wife and I drove from Madison to Prairie du Chien to pick her up. We would then drive to La Crosse where we
would join my wife's sister and husband.
The La Crosse contingent would then drive all of us to New Richmond.
After picking my
mother-in-law up on a bright, clear Saturday morning. We then took the next step and began driving
to La Crosse.
The drive from
Prairie du Chien to La Crosse is scenic
Wisconsin 35 (WI 35) follows the Mississippi River. It is a two lane highway carved out of bluffs
which rise to the east of the highway in many places along the route. Each encounter of bluffs carries a
corresponding warning sign "Watch for Fallen Rocks". There exists no follow-up sign telling you
what to do if you encounter a "fallen rock" but the signs exist
nonetheless.
I was driving our
2003 Honda Odyssey van with my wife and mother-in-law. We could see boats in the river as well as
towboats towing large quantities of barges along the Mississippi.
The drive was quite
uneventful until I passed a "Watch for Fallen Rocks" sign near
Ferryville, rounded a corner, and hit a rock the size of a lunchbox on the side
of the road with the passenger front tire.
Seeing the rock was one thing.
Listening to the car hit the rock with a fearsome clunk was another. I
thought we had blown a tire or worse and would be forced to pull off the road
in an area where no shoulder existed.
However the car and the tire kept going.
The reaction from
the passengers was immediate.
"Didn't you see the rock? We
saw it. We don't believe you hit the
rock! Why did you hit that rock? We saw it, didn't you?"
I was still a little
stunned after hitting the rock. My only
response was, "Yes, I saw the rock but it was a little hard to miss it
once I saw it."
I did see the rock
and due to oncoming traffic and the lack of a shoulder my mind apparently
thought it was best, for safety purposes, to hit the rock rather than hitting
someone straight on from the other direction or crash into the side of the
bluff. I agreed with the passengers
assessment that missing the rock would have been the right move.
We drove a mile down
the road until we could safely pull off to see the rock damage to the tire
and/or van. The turn off was a city road
and there an older guy was cutting grass on a riding lawn mower next to the road. We pulled up, stopped, and my wife and I left the van to look at the damage. There was a golf ball side bulge on the
sidewall of the tire. The old guy got
off his riding lawn mower and sauntered over to the van. He went over to the passenger side, looked at
the bulge, sighed, and shook his head.
"Well, it
doesn't look good. Unfortunately the
shops in town are closed on a Saturday afternoon. I can
give you a name of a guy I know in town.
He may be able to fix it. He
might not be home because of course it is a Saturday afternoon, you know. You could go up the hill where we are
standing for about 10 miles. There
might be a feller there but it is a Saturday afternoon."
We thanked the old
guy for his help or lack thereof. We
both returned to the van.
My wife made the
decision about going 10 miles up the road or continuing on WI35. "if Ferryville isn't open then why would
10 miles up the road be any different?"
I didn't have a
different opinion. We decided the best route was to continue driving along WI35
albeit slower and hope the tire would hold out until we reached La Crosse which
was 30 miles away.
The van moved along
WI35 at or under 55 mph. Because there
are no areas to pass along WI35 there
were many frustrated motorists following our slow progress, although I tried to keep to the 55 mph speed limit. We passed Ferryville, Lynxville, Victory, De
Soto, and Genoa. Each town passed was a
small victory because the bulging tire had not blown.
My wife called her
sister and she advised us to drive to a tire change place when, or if, we made
it to La Crosse. We finally did make to
La Crosse and the tire change place was closed on a Saturday afternoon. The only other place to have a new tire
installed was Walmart. Walmart was
open. They did have a tire and they did
replace the tire an hour after we visited the store. The bulge on the side of the tire was now the
size of a grapefruit.
We did make it to
the housewarming uneventfully with my brother-in-law driving their Dodge
Caravan. We then came back the next day
to La Crosse. I then drove from La
Crosse to Prairie du Chien in the Honda without further mishap. I looked for my rock on the road near
Ferryville and it was not there.
I guess everything
turned out fine. However, I still would have liked a follow-up sign telling me
what to do when I hit a "fallen rock".
