Summer Fun/Craziness Continued

First of all, last weekend was a blast! Here are pictures from our second trip up north this month. Our first trip was with friends, and this one was with family. We had lots of fun playing mini-golf, sitting by the campfire, and doing much more in Wisconsin's beautiful north woods.

It was especially great to see Andrew, Holly, Ella, and Lily, who made the drive from Minnesota. We had so much fun that we almost decided to visit them this weekend as well. However, we quickly became busy with something else.

We've been getting a fair amount of rain lately. We discovered on Wednesday night that our sump pump failed, and we got about an inch of water throughout our basement. Now, this isn't really that much, but when you have cardboard boxes on the floor, the water seeps up into them and can seriously damage the contents. Thankfully, we were able to save everything important to us. We threw out a lot of old stuff. Some of it was a bit expensive when we bought it, but since we hadn't used it in years, it's not the worst thing in the world to get rid of it.

A huge thank-you to my dad, who always has a backup sump pump ready. He was over in about 30 minutes to install the new one. A big thank-you also goes out to our small group friends, who spontaneously agreed to cancel the evening's Bible study and head over to our place to help us clean up. We got a lot of soaked boxes out to the curb, and we had a waste removal service come by on Thursday to pick it up. We've also arranged with the city's Public Works department to have them pick up more than the standard complement of trash tomorrow.

We spent most of the weekend organizing all of our stuff. We also managed to clean up the garage while we were at it. Below are a few pictures, which include:
1) Our newly organized basement storage area
2) The trash we've set out for pickup tomorrow
3) The brand new accent chair that was delivered on Friday afternoon (we love it!)

I've had enough drama for a while. I hope everything is nice and routine as we head into Labor Day weekend! :)

Goodbye, Alero

Our vacation up north was wonderful. We went fishing, played mini-golf, learned card games, ate homemade breakfasts, rode on bike trails, and did a whole lot more, all while taking time out to relax. I think Jenelle, Jamie, Janet, Mark, and Heather all had a great time. However, there was one little thing that happened that put a damper on things.

On Saturday evening, we were headed back from dinner at Monical's Pizza, which was only half a mile away from our cabin. I stopped the Alero in the leftmost northbound lane of highway 51, my turn signal clicking away as I waited for oncoming traffic to clear. At about 5:15 p.m., I heard screeching tires followed by a loud and jolting SLAM.

A drunk driver rear-ended us. We estimate he skidded into us at about 35 miles per hour.

Accident Photos

The great news is that none of the four people in my car were injured. We were able to get the car off the road and call the police. The other driver did not appear to be hurt, but he was definitely impaired. His car's air bag had deployed and wouldn't start. A bystander in a yellow shirt waved traffic around his vehicle so that no one inadvertently crashed into him.

After what seemed like forever, the police came and processed the scene. The drunk driver was taken into custody on a stretcher -- more on him later.

As you can see from the photos, there were two bicycles on the back of our car at the time. After a visit to the bike shop on Sunday and the body shop on Monday, we learned that:
1) The bikes could be repaired, suprisingly, for less than their cost.
2) The Alero, though it could be driven to the body shop, was totaled because of damage to the rear of the vehicle and the exhaust system.

Another great lesson from all of this -- when waiting to turn left, DO NOT TURN YOUR WHEELS until traffic has cleared. If you do this, you will be pushed into oncoming traffic if you are rear-ended, which could make a bad accident even worse.

Back to the drunk driver -- as it turns out, this guy is wanted in Michigan for allegedly burning down his estranged wife's home while his wife was away. This article and this one have some more information. Jenelle and I find it surprising that the articles do not mention how the Vilas County authorities were able to arrest the suspect. Basically, we got in his way!

So, no more Alero for us. Jenelle and I will miss it, but not too much. We've already replaced the vehicle, and we're both doing just fine.

Up North 2007

I'll have more to share about our trip to the cabin in northern Wisconsin later. For now, here's several photos for your viewing pleasure.