Country Thunder De-Camps

To help clear up my mini-rant about Country Thunder I left the house on Monday morning to get some pictures.  I was hoping most of the crowd was gone already at 9:00 a.m. even though when I finally fell asleep at 1:00 a.m. the party was still going strong and loud.

The partygoers are leaving, but nowhere near gone.  If I still worked in Crystal Lake I would have to call in today.  I'd never get there.  Luckily Wayne is on the afternoon shift today and won't have to leave until later.  We live in a small older subdivision on the outskirts of Twin Lakes, across from farmland.  Our normally quiet and empty main road that leads into town looks like this at the moment and the normally empty  hay field looks like the picture below.

Local police turning in to subdivision to check on residents

It is only a little over a mile to the stop sign they are backed up from...but how far are they backed up once they get on Route 12 in Richmond where I wanted to go for my run this morning?  Now, if I wanted to go into Twin Lakes I might get lucky...then again the traffic could be backed up for miles in that direction too just past the curve.   I have to be at work in Lake Geneva by noon, hopefully things will die down a bit in two hours and I'll be able to get out.

30 seconds later that intersection isn't clear anymore.  Don't think I'm leaving just yet.

Most of the traffic will head into Illinois on Rte 12 right through the town of Richmond.  I can't imagine what their day is going to be like as they try to make their way home.  I noticed on their website that they state travel time to Milwaukee as one hour but travel time to Chicago as one and half hours and then put "without traffic" in parentheses.  I only have to make it 1/2 mile to the turnoff going north later this morning, I wonder  if my farmer neighbor would mind if I cut through the corn field?

In the spirit of the party that is (thankfully) over I give you today's Monday Mural contribution.



This little mural was found in Milwaukee a few months back.  I'd never heard of Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum before and wondered if this was a nostalgic mural but research indicates it's a current brand.  I'm sure there a few rum hangovers happening across the street this morning.

Now that Country Thunder has extended the party until the wee hours of Monday morning we'll definitely be out of town next year when they all descend.  Can you believe that when I mention that I live across from the festival while at work folks say "oooh, that must be nice"?