May 2, 2008

View of the day-Dear me...fueling up in Gettysburg, SD.

We left Carlyle relatively early and made the border in good time...however, it took longer than normal to get through. First there was a line up, and it couldn't just be small vehicles...no...semis and grain trucks. We bided our time and then pulled up to the stop sign in front of the building, as we have done for the last 15 years. Now, normally, the officer tells us to drive ahead and park out of the way so we can go in and get our paperwork put through. As he stuck his head out of the door and yelled across the driveway, Marilyn, in anticipation of the usual order, started to pull ahead. Not a good idea as the officer started yelling to stop and come inside, a portent of things to come...

Once inside, we handed our paperwork over and being as we were the first harvesters the other officer had put through, had a bit of a time getting that bit of business done...fortunately, this officer was somewhat milder than the first one. Of course, the first officer was the one who had to go out and check on the various serial numbers on the equipment. One look at our paperwork and he wanted to know where the serial number was for the pickup. Now, Marilyn has included that number on the list for the past 15 years, only to be told to take it off the list...a fine time to decide to do that...Mr. Happy gave another strike to us.

Now he goes out to look at the serial numbers on the trailers, etc. and comes back saying the number on the header trailer is wrong. We have two identical header trailers and because Marilyn wasn't sure which one we had brought when making out the list, she made two lists, one with each number...and...you guessed it...handed in the wrong one. Not satisfied with that mistake, Marilyn rewrites the number, but instead of 14525, in her dyslexia, writes 14252...which sent Mr. Happy into another round of...well...just another round.

Next he discovers the Freightliner has the wrong serial number as well. Now, this number was written down directly from the registration and has been used for the last 15 years, AND has been checked in and out by the border guards twice yearly. Apparently they just look at the last 6 numbers and not the alphabets in front of them. Marilyn changes these...and gets them wrong again...leaving out the last digit...

We finally made it out alive, and they let us in to the US to work again...much to Al's chagrin(not really). We left the border at 11:30 DST and made Kenmare for lunch. Now, Marilyn has Hot Stuff hot wings on the brain because that is what she always has at the Cenex...they are the best! Well, the way the day has started, is it any surprise that Mr. Happy's mother is working and won't cook any wings? Can it get any worse?

It was time to "SUAD"-Shut up and drive...our motto for the summer...well...all the time actually. There were wind warnings everywhere but thankfully it was coming out of the NE so we did get a pretty good push most of the way. We did have a few straight east runs which slowed us down and sucked up the fuel, but all in all the wind helped. It was not nice when we had to stop for fuel or "pit stops"...funny how 50 degrees (sorry, we are out of the metric zone) can seem cold. That temp in March would have us in tshirts!

We are just getting into the zone where the trees are starting to bud, and the grass in the ditches is showing up green. There is the odd field of winter wheat that is a couple inches high, making it look a little more like spring...mind you, the Black Hills and some points east of there had 14 inches of snow last night and the interstate was closed between Wall and Wyoming. Fortunately it isn't coming this way, although it was raining here until 4pm, according to the clerk at the motel...great for the crops.

We made Gettysburg, SD at 6:30pm, fueled up and hit the motel. Al went out to visit with one of the farmers we work for here and to check out the changes around town and Marilyn did laundry...some things never change.

Logged today 644 km/400 miles...total to date 845 km/525 miles.

Tomorrow...Kansas...