Fuel for Thought

OOS--Northern Wisconsin

I really hate taking off time during the end of a month. I really, really hate missing any time at the end of a quarter, so I hurried my break to visit friends last week in northern Wisconsin. I don’t think I’ve fit as much quality into three days as last week, and I still made it back to catch the last few days of third quarter freight.

I started the week near Memphis coming out of the shop from fuel pump repairs. I had a load going north within hours. The van ran great.

The out-of-service objective was northern Wisconsin. I had a choice of going around Lake Michigan through Chicago or the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I chose the U.P. The autumn colors became noticeable in the last fifteen miles of lower Michigan. Pockets all across the U.P. were exploding with colors. The maples were a fiery red. The best sunlight and colors were during the eastern half of the day, but I had trouble finding pull-offs to take pictures. I lost clear skies later in the day.

The photos are from an afternoon stroll north of Washburn, Wisconsin on the shore of Lake Superior.

The van is running great. The shifting hasn’t been this tight and smooth since before the new transmission over 100,000 miles ago. And freight is keeping up.

eb