July 29, 2010

View of the day-Al checks the cargo over at Carlyle, SK first thing in the morning before we leave and the weather hits.

We were up early to get coffee in with Kim, Marg and Gordie, who was mentally preparing himself for the braces he was getting on his teeth this morning. After we got all packed and loaded, we started back for Gettysburg, SD...but first we had to cross the border.

Marilyn called ahead to find out if we would fit through the scanner posts that they had set up and they assured us our 12ft wide headers should fit through..."but go slow just in case and can it be backed up?". We stopped in Alameda to pick up a couple of bolts to put the licence plate on the header trailer...the plate usually ends up getting broken off so we just keep it in the door of the pickup, but we figured we better have it on when they checked things over at the border. They were waiting for us and we fit through without any issues so they had us park to the side and come in to get our paperwork accepted.

Marilyn has been filling these forms out the same way for a LOT of years and they never change, so when the officer said she had the wrong amount in one of the blanks, she was surprised...but never said a word. Yes, you read that right. He did a search of the office for some white-out and entered in the new amount, gave us our copy and sent us on our way. After reading the form over carefully and checking on the other ones we have filled in, it did indeed say 110% of the applicable "duty" amount, not 110% of the total value as he had insisted...oh well, shut up and drive.

We stopped in Minot at the Happy Panda for Chinese buffet, then continued on fighting the wind pretty much all the way...no rain though. We got into South Dakota and had to slow down quite a bit because of the rough roads...REALLY rough roads...almost as bad as Saskatchewan roads. We finally pulled into Gettysburg around 6pm and noticed a lot of puddles everywhere...they had rain today, but no word on how much.

It was good to visit with everyone at home, but it felt great to be back in our camper at Gettysburg, even if we weren't going to be able to combine. Marilyn has a huge "rainy day" list that needs to get tackled...and speaking of tackling, Al gets to watch his CFL game tonight.

And maybe tomorrow if it rains tonight...