October 25, 2012

View of the day-A chilly wake up in Wakonda, SD...good thing the furnace is fixed.

Wow...one day missed, leads to one week missed, then almost a month...time to catch up.

We finally got everything put away for the winter, just as the weather warmed up for a while.  Al was getting his toy show wares ready for the first show of the season in Regina...Marilyn was working, so he enlisted his farm toy buddy, Roger, to help him out.  He stayed in Regina on Friday night, so he could take in another Rams football game, but drove home the 100 miles on Saturday so he could make the Terriers hockey game.  On the Sunday of the show, he brought another toy enthusiast from Yorkton...Mike, who seems to always be around at packing up time...a REALLY big help.  Al was pleased with how the show turned out...and now has the "Toy Show bug".

We had been happy to get the camper furnace fixed a while back, but when we went to use it...it was still doing the same thing...or not doing what it was supposed to, which was start a second time.  Back to D&R Auto, to get it looked at again.  This time Dennis, the tech, spent over four hours chasing down the list of possibilities that it wouldn't start running a second time...he finally discovered a small piece of styrofoam had lodged behind the sail switch and that was sending the signal that the unit was overloaded. Once that was removed and everything was reassembled...BINGO...we finally had heat.  Consistently.

It was a $500 bill this time, but since we had contacted Heartland RV last year before the warranty ran out, they honored the repair and are sending a cheque out to cover the costs. That was a big relief.

With the camper fixed, it was time to plan our road trip to Dyersville, IA for the National Farm Toy Show.  This year, we figured we would make an easy tour down and take the camper, so we could stop where ever we felt like. There were a couple of memorabilia/Farm Toy auctions that were being held in Wakonda, SD, but they were going to be the weekend before Dyersville, so we penciled them in on our tour.

Al had found a tractor that he wanted to check out in Alexandria, Minnesota, so we added another side trip to have a look at it.  It was a 1997 CaseIH 8920 with front wheel assist.  This is also a Magnum tractor, like the 7220 that Al had originally had his heart set on, but it was the next series newer...a plus for us.

So our trip started on Monday, October 22.  Right after Marilyn got off work at 4:30pm we hooked the camper up and headed for Carlyle for the night, so we could hit the border first thing in the morning.  We woke up to a skiff of snow on the ground...we were happy to get away from that. We stopped in Kenmare to visit with Pete at Gooseneck Implements, then stopped to pick up our mail from Mike at Jamestown...and to hit the Chinese Buffet with him for supper.

We kept rolling after supper and made it to Alexandria, where we found a campground with all the amenities and parked for the night.  This is where we discovered that we had left the remote controls for the TV's at home...and we had 65 over-the-air channels.  Marilyn really didn't feel like standing by the TV being the remote, but we were tired anyway, so TV watching was passed on.

In the morning, we drove north of town to Millerville, to take a look at some tractors we had found in a magazine...nothing we liked, so we went back to the camper, got it hooked up, then headed south to Glenwood.

After Al went through the tractor with a fine tooth comb, we finally decided that we had finally found the tractor that we wanted.  Now to figure out how to get it home. Jason, from Red Horizon Equipment, was very helpful, saying he could get it as far as Minot, ND for us...but we didn't know of anyplace to unload it, so we opted for Pingree.  Our second option was with Glen, from White's Ag in Yorkton, who had sprayers brought up past Alexandria and could pick it up as part of one of the loads.  That would be the best, since it would come all the way to Yorkton and we wouldn't have to pull the General out of retirement.  No final decision yet.

After leaving Alexandria, we drove back into South Dakota to get to Wakonda and get parked for a few days.  Now, here, there is no formal campground, so we are "boondocking".  We have power, but no water or sewer, other that what we have onboard, so we have to conserve...there isn't even a hydrant in the town park we are in.

So we made Wakonda on Wednesday and the first auction is Friday at 4pm, so we have some time to relax.  Not a chance...we made a road trip today to Chamberlain so Al could pick up a few tractors that he had seen when we were there this past summer.  Just a 300 mile round trip to add to the jaunt.

We stopped in Mitchell on the way back for a snack and to check out the new designs on the Corn Palace.  This year they were putting the finishing touches on what looked like a school activity theme...band, cheer leading, wrestling, hockey...all in grains and grasses.  There had been concerns earlier in the year, that there wouldn't be enough harvested to create a new theme.  Thank goodness that didn't happen.

While near a Walmart, Marilyn decided to pick up a couple of 5 gallon water cubes to fill with water for the camper.  She figured that we could top off the tank with a couple of jugs rather than hook up the trailer and find a water spigot somewhere.  We looked for a tap in every town we went through on the way back, but had no luck...then we remembered seeing a hose on the back of the gas station in Wakonda.  It was closed when we got to town, so we decided to help ourselves at the time and beg for forgiveness tomorrow, which was fine...until we got caught.  The lady working in the bar part of the gas station wasn't too pleased with us...hopefully we can fix that up tomorrow.

Back at the camper, we filled the tank with the jugs, then hunkered in for the night.  Marilyn picked up a $5 universal remote and got it working with the TV, so she wouldn't have to hang around the channel buttons all night.  While Al couldn't get the football game, he was able to watch a little baseball, so he got his fix.

Tomorrow, we only travel down to the auction hall...