According to Dean Hoffman :
Also does this mean when I was checking the ground wire of the cable system
(were it is lugged to the ground wire on the way to the ground rod) could I
have fried myself?

Doesn't Kirchoff's Law have something to do with this even if the
"neutral" is good? On a 3 wire service the ground rods and the earth will
form a parallel path with the neutral and there will be a small amount of
current flowing through the rods.

Absolutely true. But consider: ground rod connectivity isn't that good
usually.

Do the calculations - if the ground rod to dirt resistance is, say, 25 ohms
[permissible in the NEC], and the neutral wire resistance is, say, .1 ohms
(which is probably much higher than it should be), what would the neutral
wire current be for the ground rod current to be 5.5A? Secondly, what would
the voltage on the grounding system (eg: your plumbing, appliance
cases etc) be relative to dirt?

Something on the order of 1400A (the service wires will melt) and 120V
(danger! danger! don't touch that pipe!) respectively.

Measureable current through ground over a few milliamps means
there's a problem. High current guarantees there's something
VERY wrong with the neutral or something else major.