May 30, 2012

View of the day-One of the locals with a problem, parked across from the elevator...


Are we having fun yet??


Al's favorite phrase when we are having one of "those" days. It started out good, we were up early,had a couple of visitors to settle up and get their Canadian beer...not to drink right away. All day long there were weather warnings and they were calling for severe storms. We went ahead with our plans to get loaded and moved to Great Bend.


Once our company was gone, Marilyn drove the combine over to where the trailer was parked, while Al got the General started so it could air up.  Al used the combine to get the trailer moved to a better spot to load,then we went back for the General which was at the Coop.  There was another crew working on their grain truck near wherever were loading...they were ready to move north too.

We got the combine on the trailer, then backed big Gen in to get hooked up.  This process doesn't go as easy as the Freight load, since we use the hydraulics on the truck to lift the trailer high enough to clear the pintle hitch.  Because of that,we have hook a chain over the truck box frame, raise the hoist, tighten the chain, then lower the box, which lifts the trailer high enough so that the hydraulics can take over.  Once it is high enough, Al backs under the hitch and we can start chaining the combine to the trailer.

We had to make a side trip over to Alva to do some banking and grab a quick lunch, then it was back to Cherokee, via John's farm.


We went out to John's farm get the pickup header and trailer to hook on behind the combine trailer. After parking it on the street behind the combine trailer, Al backed the right up and we got the whole unit hooked up and ready to go.

We had stopped at Sonic in Alva for one of their delicious shakes and Marilyn didn't have time to drink all of hers...a treat for the drive to Great Bend. We left Cherokee at 3pm and Marilyn had just made the curve north of town when she decided idea to have some of that tasty shake...the lid popped off and the cup turned upside down on the floor...on the XM radio, in the cup holders, on the mic cable.  You get the picture...a sticky mess.  We pulled over just past the 4 way stop so she could quickly clean up the mess. Should have been an omen.


We got rolling again, listening to the storm reports and watching the sky for trouble. We stopped just north of Medicine Lodge to check our loads and Marilyn noticed one of the back tires on the straight header trailer had some wire bands starting to show and the tire had been wobbling occasionally, but it seemed to be solid, so...shut up and drive.

That lasted until ten miles north of Pratt. Just rounding a curve, Marilyn heard a pop, then checked her mirror to see if it was the tire that had blown. Nope...it was still rolling...however, there was smoke and shrapnel coming from the rear tire on the other side of the trailer.  With no shoulder, she limped the trailer the nearest approach, checked out the mess, unhooked the trailer, then caught up to Al. The plan was to get into Great Bend, unhook the pickup header trailer so Marilyn could hook onto it with the Dodge, get the General and combine parked by the campground, steal a tire of the pickup header trailer and go back get the trailer...than bring it back to Great Bend.  Hmm...if only we had a bottle jack to lift the trailer...that's right...back in the Freightliner.


By this time, the skies were black ante radio station was constantly breaking away for severe weather reports.  They said 90% of Kansas was under storm watches. We managed to borrow a jack from Leo, the campground owner,and got the tire off the trailer before we got too wet.  We were on our way back to the trailer, some 40 miles south.

It started to pour as we headed out of town, but by the time we got out to the trailer,we had passed back through the front and the rain hadn't hit yet.  We raced to get the tire changed before the rain caught up with us...mission accomplished.  We hooked back up in a hurry, then dropped the hammer back to Great Bend. Right into the storm.


We got to the lot where the General was, parked the header and grabbed some supper at Arbys.  The weather was all but over...just some lingering showers...it had moved on south. Towards Oklahoma. Just where we were headed.


What a lightning show...