July 10

View of the day-Where post rocks come from. Along US183 north of Hayes, KS.

We got up early (by our standards) and headed out to the bins where the loads were waiting to roll. After hooking up the header to the Dodge, we started on our way north to Hamill, South Dakota at 8:30am. It was cool and cloudy to start, which always makes driving a pleasure, when you have no air conditioning, but the wind...ah, yes the wind. We were quite lucky when we left in May, singing the praises of the strong north wind pushing us to our destination in Oklahoma. It was supposed to turn around for the trip back but it fought us pretty much all the way, and with the hills in northern Kansas and the rolling sand hills in Nebraska...well, it wasn't pleasant.

The sun broke through in mid Nebraska, and although we thought we had made it through the weather front, the wind just seemed to get gustier the further we went, 25-35mph! We finally made Hamill around 5:30pm, after logging 385 miles. We got the load parked, confirmed our reservation for our usual camping spot, had a chat with one of our farmers and then turned around and headed back to Great Bend.

We have travelled the same stretch of road on our run for the past 13 years, and with having to do the back haul, you get pretty familiar with the sights along the road. Especially in Nebraska, where the sights are few and far between. It seems your mind has time to wander, as you think back through the years, and subconsciously notice the changes. Even though there are mile markers along the way, you mark your progress by a certain field or stretch of road or river or farmyard..."hmmm, they painted this year"..."wasn't that corn last year"..."the river is up more than normal"...and then, all of a sudden..."what? we're here already?!!"

We followed a harvest crew with three John Deere combines for a while in northern Nebraska, one of only two we encountered during the day. The second one came on our trip back as we stopped in Elm Creek, NE at the truck stop. As the sun was finally disappearing, a harvest crew from Saskatchewan pulled in, and as always, pushing the envelope to get just a few miles further before shutting down. Some things never change.

Most of the fields were cut out through KS and NE, although the latter has fewer wheat fields. The corn and soybeans looked fabulous, but almost all the fields we had seen were irrigated, so that is to be expected. In SD, the winter wheat was ripe from the border all the way to Hamill, the spring wheat was still looking pretty green, but that's also to be expected. Barring a rain storm, we will be ready to unload and commence to combining.

But first we must get back...