July 26, 2011

View of the day-Trouble brewing to the east of us.

It seemed like a short night with all the weather that had passed through. We didn't blow away, but there was probably just under an inch of rain that fell and we even had another sprinkle this morning. It did help to cool things off nicely...at least in Gettysburg.

We were up early to a knock at the door...Jeff had shown up early, the Lloyd Everett, a fellow harvester came over for a visit. We got lots of catching up done with both of them, then we took a short tour around town before going over to the Medicine Rock for lunch.

We had a road trip to Pierre on the day's agenda, so after lunch we were on our way...with one eye to the sky...there were bad things in the forecast. Clouds were building and the weather warnings were all over the radio...somebody was going to get it and by the look of the radar, it was going to be close to where we were.

We took a tour through the campground in Onida...it was full of harvest crews and all of them seemed to have "make work" projects on the go. Several semis, service trucks and even campers were getting the rainy day wash and polish.

On the way into Pierre, we stopped in at the CaseIH dealership and both the ProHarvest and the MacDon trailers were there. Jeff got his ProHarvest hat, Al got several questions answered by both companies and ended up buying a solenoid for the starter on the combine...it was getting temperamental and wouldn't always work as it should. This was a common problem...or so the story goes. The MacDon guys have promised to come out to the combine again to set the pressure on the knife drive...they agree that it should be reversing better.

We got to Pierre, then decided to take a tour over to the dam, to see the flow over there...it was unbelievable! We were able to get right down to the railing along the torrents...and to think it has been flowing like this for well over a month.

After the dam tour, we went into town and stopped at the Harley-Davidson dealership so Jeff could pick up some oil for his bike...and Al could browse for his "after harvesting career" ride. They had some nice bikes that were reasonably priced...Marilyn might have even gotten on the back of one for a ride...just a ride. Her idea of biking is driving the Dodge with the camper behind Al on the bike, or maybe taking a day trip on it...no tents or hotels with the Grand Canyon in the fleet. Once we got the oil, we were on our way to...WalMart, where else?

While Marilyn was getting her exercise, Al sat in Subway reading his Tractorhouse magazine and Jeff did some shopping. After the big shopping trip was over, we started back for Gettysburg...well, actually, Bob's Resort along the Missouri west of Gettysburg.

We had decided that we would take the scenic route along the Lewis and Clark trail that followed the Missouri up to Bob's Resort and it was a good thing that we did, because all the way up there, we could see to the east that someone was getting some nasty weather. Or was it just because the sun was shining against the high, dark clouds? Either way, there were tornado watches and thunder storm warnings. We passed over some highways that were wet from the rain that had passed over, but we never even had to put the wipers on.

We got to Bob's and ordered steaks...their specialty...they are massive and we had a good size doggie bag to bring home...but they were deeelicious! No dessert needed.

Back at the camper, we could see that there had been some rain in town, but the rain gauge didn't have a lot in it...perhaps the spot it is in near the camper is not conducive to collection. No matter, there will be no combining tomorrow.

But there will be fixing now that Jeff is here...