June 25, 2008

View of the day-Poised and ready on the street in Cherokee, OK...mere moments before the wheels could have fallen off...

We got up earlier than normal with the intention of being "AIS" (a$$ in seat) by 8am. Ahh..the best laid plans...

We were up until 2am rehashing the results of the Terrier elections...quite bizarre, but water under the bridge now. By the time we had breakfast and paid our tab and the...gulp...fuel bill, we were finally ready to go. Well, that was until Al discovered a wheel seal was gone when he made his morning circle check of his rig. We called the local mechanic to see if he could get the General in for repair. He said he could get to it right away, so we changed up our plans and took the header and Freight/Tractor load up with the header.

We unhooked the combine on the street and took the truck over to the shop and headed north to Great Bend, quite a bit behind schedule, but since we couldn't get both loads up this time, we weren't too worried. We would just come back, stay over in Cherokee another night and get everything up to Timken tomorrow.

We got out to the field at Timken around 1:30, parked the rigs, had a quick visit with the farmer and started back for Cherokee. Well...after we stopped for lunch at the Great Wall Super Buffet...had to get the Chinese food fix in.

Our usual fuel station is "restructuring", so we had to look for another source of Ag fuel. We went to the main office of the coop in Great Bend...they also own a few in the small centres around where we work...and Al had to fill out a credit application. It's been quite a while since we had to do one of these and it was like having a pop quiz thrown at us. We just kept looking at each other, wondering what the answers were supposed to be. The credit guy wasn't in, which was a shame since it is so much easier to sell yourself in person. It would make sense to just use a credit card at the Ag pump, but for some reason they have it kick out after every $50...is that insane?? What is that three and a half gallons?? Plus you get charged a credit card fee for every transaction...sheesh.

We were surprised at the number of fields that hadn't been combined, while a few miles north there would be miles and miles of fields that had been cut and already had the weeds taking over. There is still a lot of trucks rolling by the camper to the elevator here in Cherokee. The Cherokee paper says they brought in 2.5 million bushels, and the price at the Great Bend elevator was $8.78. A good year for everyone down here.

We made it back to Cherokee in time to pick up the General from the hospital and have a chat to find out a different way to get north of town...around the paving that is getting done. The machinery they were using was so wide they made Al back up and drive with his wheels off the edge of the new asphalt...an eight inch drop...very uncomfortable, not to mention chancy on those soft shoulders.

We hooked the trailer back up to the truck then decided to check out the back road we were told about about tonight rather than driving blind tomorrow and getting a surprise. If we don't meet anybody, we should be alright.

Famous last words...