Contest #7

Imagine that, Dave and Bill were both right again. The last photo was of the canoe racks available for rent at West Bush Lake Park.

This one might be kind of easy but we'll see. Good Luck!

Contest #6

Dave and Bill were both correct again (I get the feeling I need to go outside of Bloomington with these pictures). The previous photo was of the I-494/Hwy 77/Lindau Ln interchange on the North side of the Mall of America. The photo was taken from the 6th level of West parking ramp.

For todays photo I will give no clues (Bill obviously does not need them!).

Contest #5

Congratulations to Bill, again. The correct answer to Contest #4 was the Hennepin Ave Bridge.

Do you know where this picture was taken from or what interchange this is.

Separation Sucks

Do you ever have one of those days were you have plans but get nothing done? I had one today. I was hoping to do a little Mothers Day shopping, grocery shopping and I had an idea for a photo contest picture that I wanted to go take.

I have had my Jeep for about a year now, I love it and have only had 2 minor issues with it. About a month after getting it I started noticing a "thumping" sound every time a certain spot on the front passenger tire would hit the pavement. I took it to the dealer to have them take a look. They took the tire off and there was a small piece of rubber that was inside the tire from the manufacturing process that fell out when they took it off the rim, they assumed that was making the noise. I did not hear the noise after that. Then this past winter I was driving home from work when I realized that nothing on my dashboard was registering (no speed, no compass direction, no fuel indicator, NOTHING). I again took it to the dealer and they replaced a connection in the ABS module and everything was fine.

Well, about a month ago I started noticing another noise from the tires. This time it was on the driver's side, but I could not determine if it the was front or rear. I just assumed it was a similar issue as before and let it go. That my friends was probably not the best of ideas. The noise got worse and today I took a look at the tire again and noticed 2 spots that were flat and 1 spot that had a hole in the outer layer. Here are a couple photos of the 2 spots.

This I decided was not good (I know I am quite the car expert!) so off I went to the dealer again. They said it looked like a tread separation but that I should take it to Goodyear since the tire would likely be fixed under warranty. My local Goodyear confirmed that it did appear to be a tread separation and that it should be a warranty replacement. Of course the local Goodyear locations do not stock the tire that my Jeep has and it needed to be ordered. Thankfully they are stocked at a local Goodyear warehouse and they can get a new tire within a day. Goodyear suggested not driving anymore than absolutely necessary before getting it fixed, due to the "very serious" risk of a blow out. The good news is they were able to get the tire ordered tonight and it will be at the shop by 10:30am tomorrow, in time for my 12:30pm appointment.

The bad news of course will all of this is I did not get my Mom a Mothers Day gift (Mom if you are reading this, it will be late sorry) and I was not able to get over to take the great photo that I had planned as well as running the needed errands. Oh well, the Twins are hosting the Chicago White Sox tonight so now I have an excuse to watch the game.

Contest #4

Alright, so Contest #3 might have been a little to obscure. The photo was of the "vent holes" on the side of a BBQ grill at Fort Snelling State Park. Here is a photo of the entire grill, hopefully it makes sense now.Now for Contest #4. This photo was taken in the Twin Cities Metro Area. Can you tell me what it is.
I will give a hint to help you start, a photo of this has been on my blog before.

And looking slightly into the future, I have a post partially done about a completely different type of contest.