May 19, 2012

View of the day-Al's new load on the combine trailer...since the combine is waiting for us in Great Bend.

What a whirlwind week!  We got home on Tuesday and Al gave Marilyn one day to get the camper ready to go.  We did a lot of procrastinating while we waited to get our approval for the work visas, and it came back to bite us in the 'business' end.

Al spent Wednesday getting the header trailer locked and loaded for the big trip.  This was a 'crossed fingers' kind of a deal, since the trailer tires were too far apart to fit on the combine trailer beams, it was all blocks and chains to get it fit to roll.  
Marilyn was busy trying to get the camper organized and as usual, she starts out putting things away as they get carried into the camper, but as panic sets in, there are always 10 baskets of 'stuff' that end up getting put away at the first...second...and third nights on the trip down. Why would things be any different this year? 

We got a chance to visit with friends before we left...that probably didn't help the timeline much, but you never know what the summer will bring.  Marilyn was pretty thrilled with the Saturday Night Live thermal mug that Teresa brought back from New York City for her...coffee will taste sooo good in it.

Thursday was go day and Al wanted to be on the road with his load no later than 3pm...Marilyn, on the other hand, just had to get to Carlyle before the next morning.  We had to get the shop trailer loaded in the General, then get the trailer hooked up to the combine trailer.  The shop went in without a problem and it took no time at all to get everything flanged in so Al could hit the road. Marilyn was able to leave at 5pm...not so bad after all.

This year we didn't get a chance to run the water through the camper before we left, but we knew for the first couple of nights we would be able to shower in the house at Carlyle and at the shower house in Gettysburg, so it that job was set on low priority.

Al made it to Carlyle with only one problem...the shop trailer hitch broke in the same spot that we had fixed a few years back. It had looked weak and perhaps the new pressure washer weighed a bit more than the old one and the acetylene tanks that we had removed.  We decided to just forge on and deal with the breakdown when we got to Oklahoma.   Marilyn made Carlyle and the only issue was with the bugs through the Moose Mountain park...the camper didn't fair so well.

We were going to sleep in the house, so Marilyn only put out two of the slides to get a few of the boxes emptied out.  Apparently, while the slides were out at home, about 50 or so, big moths had taken up residence under the slide awning and had become trapped when the slide was pulled in.  As soon as Marilyn turned the light on in the camper, they all came to life and started dive bombing.  Those things are irritating and found more hiding places to avoid the Raid that Marilyn had sprayed several times.

We were up early on Friday and at the border, ready to cross for the last time this month.  Marilyn was ready with her import bond, when the border guard told her she could just shred it, because they were told we don't need to use them anymore...they were just going to assume that we would be taking everything back out when we were done. 

Shut up and drive...which is exactly what we did.

We got to Gettysburg Friday night and were just parking the General and its load in the lot behind the motel when someone drove up and asked us if we were staying in the motel and if not, why were we parking there? Al was on the other side of the General fueling up, so he didn't hear the conversation...good thing.  Marilyn said we stay at the hotel on a regular basis and figured he must be the owner...until she saw him drive away.  We were parking next to the conveyor where the elevator would pile wheat...it wasn't even the motel's lot-which was completely empty, by the way.  We left the rig there and went to the city park to camp for the night.  Marilyn got several of the boxes emptied out, in between trying to get the remaining moths out of the camper.

We could see lightning in the west and during the night it started to rain and continued to do so all through the night.  This made the fact that we didn't have any water rather uncomfortable...at least for the bathroom breaks during the night.


We were up and on the road by 8am today and it was a lot longer day than yesterday...over 525 miles.  We managed to make Great Bend, KS by 7pm, parked the General by the campground, then set up the camper for the night.  This time, however, we got the water hooked up and the system flushed and ready for the season...with no leaks, so far.  We even managed a couple of loads of laundry.  

Tomorrow we get to, somehow, get the pickup header trailer off the combine trailer and load the combine on, before heading to Cherokee, OK.

And maybe see the last of those ^&%($** moths...