Author Archives: jwj

What A Mess…Car Snaps Electric Pole in Sullivan

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What a mess…Sullivan Fire Department was dispatched to a report of a car into an electric pole on Saturday morning, August 11th at the intersection of Beeman Street and Hughes Ford Road, next to the Odd Fellows Hall. I arrived and discovered a blue sedan had snapped the bottom of the pole and several wires were hanging above the car, along with a heavy streetlight. No injuries occurred but the young man driving was definitely a bit shaken up…and how he narrowly missed that fire hydrant is anyone`s guess !!

Had he sheared that off, there could have been some major problems as water rocketing out of a hydrant sheared off at the base, straight up into electrical lines, is never a good mix…firefighters would have had their hands full for sure had that happened. Luckily for all involved, Joe Thurmond, Electric Department Supervisor for the City of Sullivan, was in the area when it occurred and was quickly on scene to evaluate the situation. He then left to go to the Electric Department to call in manpower and then he and his crews returned to the scene shortly after the Fire Department arrived….

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….with equipment and trucks to remedy the situation….

…watching all of the city crews working together was something to see…talk about great teamwork and cooperation working toward a common goal was neat to watch…

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Once the crews removed the hazards, they they worked together to remove the base of the snapped off pole from the ground…

…so that a new pole could be installed…GREAT JOB by EVERYONE on scene !!

 

Cloudburst and Rainbow on August 7th, 2018

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I was driving back from Mom`s house the evening of August 7th, after taking her supper and visiting with her as I have done every day since her release from the hospital earlier this year…as I turned on to the North Service Road just west of Sullivan, I spotted what appeared to be a cloudburst ahead in the skies….

 

 

I had always heard of them, but had never seen one up close like this….sure was neat to see…and when I stopped up on the Hwy FF Bridge over I-44 to shoot some more photos of it, I noticed there was a rainbow forming up under the cloudburst as well….

 

…and that seemed very unusual to me…I had never heard of such a thing nor seen anything like it, either…

…so I decided to drive close to town to see if it became more visible…as I approached Thomure Lumber, it became very bright and visible underneath the cloudburst !! 

…and as I sat there and watched, it appeared that a second rainbow was trying to form on the other side of the cloudburst as well….two rainbows under this cloud….I wonder what the chances are of that….

…here is a video I shot as well…the rainbow doesn`t show up as well as the photos….

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July Storms and Car Fire

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I drove up to Cuba on the 14th of July to have some great BBQ for supper at Missouri Hick Restaurant…the Crawford County Fair was going on just east of MO Hick at the Cuba Fairgrounds and there was rain in the air as I came out after supper….I headed for home, east on the South Service Road and drove up the Hwy UU Overpass to get on eastbound I-44, and noticed a thunderstorm back behind me to the west and now over Cuba….I stopped to photograph it and shot some video as well…

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…it appeared to be moving at a pretty good clip, so I decided to stay out ahead of it and photograph it along the way, was hoping it would make it to Sullivan and bring us some much needed rain too. I left the interstate at Bourbon and photographed it from the Hwy J Bridge over 44 about 15 minutes later with the old Bourbon water tower in the photo….

…and then I stopped at Crawford Electric to shoot some more video and photos of it…it seemed to be gathering force as it approached there…

…as I drove thru Leasburg on 44, the rain caught up to me and was coming down in buckets…I drove out of it near Brand Road and didn`t see rain again til after it arrived in Sullivan. As it approached Crawford Electric it appeared to be getting stronger and more dramatic looking skies as well….here is the video I shot there….

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I drove a couple more miles east and stopped on top of the Hwy FF Bridge over 44 to shoot some more photos and video of it as it approached Sullivan….

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…and here is how the other half of the storm looked due south of where I was standing, with what appeared to be a wind cloud up above Hwy FF south of 44….

…and as I drove east on the North Service Road into Sullivan, I stopped across from my Doctor`s office building and photographed that wind cloud south of 44 again…

…and a few minutes later, here it is blowing…literally….through the Sullivan City Park where the ballfields and City Pool are located near my house….

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…and about 30 minutes later, Sullivan Fire Department was kicked out for a vehicle fire located behind the Super 8 Motel, so Onyx and I headed over to photograph it for the paper….on arrival finding Pumper 814 and crew on scene, they had been out on Hwy 185 north clearing some brush from the roadway, on their return to the fire station they heard the dispatch and responded, arriving just ahead of the paid crew in 854. Since it was still raining a bit and windy, I was not able to tell at first that it was a junky car on fire in the edge of the field behind the motel…

Firefighter Beau Kick pulled a preconnect hoseline to attack the fire and positioned himself on the far side of the fire while waiting for Jordan Shortt to charge the line….

Photos are a bit blurry as I was shooting with a low shutter speed due to the dim light, and Beau was moving faster than I was shooting…

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Fireworks over Sullivan July 4th, 2018

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I decided to try and find a different location to photograph the fireworks over Sullivan this year…wanted to try and shoot from the Hwy D Overpass that crosses the BNSF tracks, however the foliage on the west side of the bridge obscured my view of the Fairgrounds, so I drove down to the former doctors office building right across from the former Betz Printing and set up in the parking lot next to a nice couple. Just as the sun was setting, a nice guy came over and chatted me up about how to take better photos of fireworks, he had a nice camera and I gave him some tips, told him how I normally shoot them, and told him it can be a matter of luck, even for those of us that have been shooting them for years…we talked about Canon and Nikon Cameras as well as good lenses and settings…as he walked back to his spot to join his wife, I wished him the best of luck in getting some good images…as we were talking, folks down by the ball fields were lighting Japanese Lanterns and launching them into the skies overhead….

…the trails of the Lanterns became easier to see once the skies darkened more…

and then others with smaller fireworks set theirs off before the big show as well, some were very pretty…these just north of the railroad tracks….

…then the Big Show started off with a VERY appropriate burst of colors….too bad there was no music with it this year….here are the best of over 200 images that I shot of the show….

…this show was nice, some vibrant blues and purples in the colors….here are a few videos of the show….

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…and the finale video as well…..

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Another great show for sure, thanks to the City of Sullivan and the co-sponsors !!

Semi Trailer Fire near Leasburg June 25th

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I heard Bourbon Fire District kicked out for a semi trailer on fire just past Brand Road on the North Service Road and headed that direction…when I arrived, it was at the old flea market building that also used to sell fireworks, an old trailer was well involved several feet from the building…I heard no sirens of approaching fire units, so called Crawford County`s CenCom Dispatch to update them on the fire…there were some workers there that were putting together some scrap iron, while attempting to remove some metal pins from the trailer with a cutting torch, they set it on fire….

…Leasburg Fire Department arrived moments after a deputy, with a tanker and brush truck….

…and extinguished the fire….

…and video….

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Job well done by the two firefighters and deputy that arrived in a timely manner.

Thunderstorms in Late June

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From Mid June to the last part of the month, there were some dramatic looking thunderstorms that rolled through our area…spotted this one rolling in from the northwest on my way out to Mom`s house around 5 pm on the 19th…..

…shortly after leaving Mom`s house an hour later, I drove up the FF Bridge over 44 and photographed it, looking north here….

…and looking back to the northwest here….

…but this cloud to the north really captured my attention and held it for the longest time as a rain squall developed within it, starting to the north of Sullivan and then sweeping through town a little later, bringing rain down in buckets….

…as you can see above, the rain was definitely moving toward Sullivan…while below you can see yet another storm to the west….

…and some video I shot up there as well….

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…luckily, all we had was some pretty good rain out of it, no wind or hail….a few days later, another one rolled through town while I was asleep and I missed out on a neat looking shelf cloud that several people were able to capture some nice images of…

…pretty neat photos for sure and nice clouds too !!

Park Hills Show Mid June with Sunrises and Rainbows

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I decided I was going to drive down to the Park Hills Show on Sunday morning…I wanted to see if I could find some of those new agates out on the market, found in the country of Madagascar and some more of the chalcopyrite-bladed barite-sphalerite ball pieces found in the Washington County Quarry. Since I knew that would be at least half a day wandering around looking at everything and visiting with my dealer friend Johnny B from Mt Ida, who is always there, I decided to drive back to the Secret Spot Quarry on Saturday June 9th and see what else I could find there. Onyx and I were up before the crack of dawn thanks to my new job, which requires me to get up at 4 am these days to get ready to go to work…and as we exited I-44 at Cuba, I looked back and saw the beautiful sunrise….

…and when I reached Steelville, the sunrise only deepened and got better…

…and then when we reached Cherryville, we saw a beautiful rainbow…I was thinking, man what are we going to see next ??!!

For the story and photos on the Park Hills Show, check out other website at this link,….

Park Hills Show 2018

 

Annual Clement Mineral Show & MVA on I-24 Western Kentucky June 2nd

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Onyx and I made a quick drive down to Marion, Kentucky early Saturday morning, June 2nd, to take in the Ben Clement Mineral Show and visit with friends at the museum as well. It was a nice drive down on a nice day, not too warm at all. We arrived about 10 am and as I walked up to the museum, I spotted Ed Clement in front and visited with him for a few minutes before he was whisked away…I then had a few minutes to talk to Tina and Sherry, then found Bill Frazer inside and sat down to visit with him a few minutes before Russ brought him a taco pizza. We visited a few minutes more while they both chowed down on the pizza. Bill brought me up to date on some issues with the mine and museum before I walked over to check out the show. One of the main reasons I wanted to drive down there was to visit with everyone, including Gary Griffith and his son Walter, who are always set up with a fluorite booth at the show…they are great people and also donate a dumptruck load of rocks full of fluorite chips for the kids to dig thru outside the museum building each year. Gary lost his Dad Guy Griffith to cancer earlier this year…I always enjoyed talking to his dad whenever I stopped by their place to purchase great Southern Illinois Fluorite from them. I found Gary and Walter just inside the door this time….

…this time they had not only a couple of tables covered in fluorite specimens and octohedrons they chipped out, but they had one end of one table covered with fluorite jewelry…made by Walter`s wife….I purchased a couple of them as well, very pretty stuff. They also had discovered some neat stuff in their calcite pile at home recently…they normally separate the calcites from the fluorite, so they have a good sized pile of it and were going thru it recently and discovered fluorite cubes on the calcites, so they cleaned it up and brought it to the show…I purchased a few of them as well…

I sat on a milk crate they had behind the table and visited with them for quite a while, found out his Dad had cancer which slowly got worse and the pain finally became too much for him to handle at home, he had to be hospitalized to bring it under control. Def gonna miss talking to him as I am sure Gary and his family are as well. Gary told me a few stories about his Dad helping him and Walter when they were mining and Sherry told me a few about Guy as well.

Eventually I drifted down into the old school gymnasium to check out the vendors there….found Phil Daly up on the stage where Alan Goldstein is usually set up…Alan didn`t make it to the show this year…so I visited with Phil a bit and purchased some of his Kentucky minerals from his collection, which he is selling off…..

The dealer on the right in the photo above, had a beautiful cluster of smokey quartz crystals on the corner of one of his tables, sitting on a paper that stated the cluster was found in the Old Leatherneck Mine of Arkansas…which was the old mine that later became the Arrowhead Mine, both of which are now closed to the public….

…estimated retail price of $ 2300 only….lol…and no, I did not purchase it, but it sure is pretty. ?

Around 1:30 pm, Onyx and I headed for home and soon after turning west on I-24, traffic began slowing down and a few miles down the road we discovered why….

…and no, it wasn`t due to road construction…take a closer look ahead on the EB side….…as we approached slowly, I thought at first it was two tractor trailer rigs involved in a serious accident, could see the medical transport helicopter in front of all traffic and then saw the firefighters scrambling around…

…and then as we finally drew alongside the scene, I could see it was a tractor trailer pulling a pup trailer, the pup trailer appeared to be rear-ended by a trash truck, and it appeared the driver of the trash truck required extrication by the Calvert City Fire Department, who has at least seven trucks on the scene and were helping with traffic control further back in the eastbound lanes that were backed up for miles…

…hopefully no one was seriously injured…thankfully we did not see anything else like that on the way home…this time I decided to drive straight in on I-64 and cross the Mississippi River by the Arch….

…always a great view….was great visiting with everyone in western Kentucky once again. Here are a few of those calcites with fluorite cubes attached, closer up….