by:  Diane Benjamin

If millions of people were travelling this weekend, they weren’t on Illinois roads.  We left Saturday morning for Wisconsin and returned yesterday.  Traffic was only a problem when a semi was in the left lane blocking traffic!

To leave Illinois cost $1.90.  To come back to Illinois cost $1.90.  These toll booths were staffed.   A few weeks ago I was in Wheaton.  The toll booths on that route weren’t manned.  Most people must have IPASS.  I didn’t have exact change, so I had to go on the tollways website and pay before I got a huge bill in the mail.  Illinois wants to make sure they collect from people leaving or entering – so they pay people to take money.

The gas price in Clinton Wisconsin was $3.49 a gallon.  Of course we filled the tank on the way up and before we re-entered the land of corruption, I mean Illinois.  ($3.49 is still unacceptable, but that’s not going to change until the elected change)

If you have to drive on I-39, especially southbound from Rockford, watch the right lane.  Numerous concrete patches aren’t wearing well.  Some are like hitting a crater, we hit one that was so deep I’m surprised it didn’t blow a tire.

Let’s talk Wisconsin:

•  The roads are good.  I don’t remember any roads in need of emergency repairs or resurfacing.
•  We saw many schools that looks new.
• Same thing with Fire Departments and Police Stations.  One new building was a joint Fire Station and Police Department.
• We saw many private construction projects and a few places where roads were being widened.
• If you want to go to a State Park, you have to buy a sticker for your car – $25 a year.  Don’t let Illinois know because they would jump on a new source of revenue, but this seems to work in Wisconsin.
• There are many state parks because of all the lakes and forests.  We hiked in one of them and never saw a Park Ranger or any garbage.  Maybe requiring a fee keeps people out that aren’t there to appreciate nature.
• We drank spring water directly from a pump that remains from the late 1800’s.  Yum!
• Rolling tree covered hills and small mountains maker better scenery than fields, sorry farmers.
• I didn’t see a single wind turbine!  Maybe they are somewhere else in Wisconsin, but not where we were.  Or maybe Wisconsin is smart enough to know expensive subsidized electricity kills economic development.

One town we visited had a small rapidly running river through it.  Private citizens raised funds for rock walls and walking bridges over it.  Plaques and etched bricks contained donor names.  Could government do this as well as private donors?  Let’s just say IT WAS GORGEOUS.

If Wisconsin didn’t have winter – I would move there tomorrow.  Maybe that Global Warming thing will help their climate!

Wisconsin used to be covered by glaciers.  They even call the deep valleys “kettles” because they were scooped out of the earth.  Maybe somebody can do some research and find out why the glaciers melted.  Surely it had something to do with CO2.

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