May 19, 2013

View of the day-The doctor is in the house...Dana, the welderman does a bit of work on the cart trailer in Carlyle.

We were up early to get the last of the packing done before setting of on the first leg of our journey.  After picking up a few things in town, we were on the road by 10:30am...30 minutes ahead of schedule.  Marilyn was leading the way and that saved the day, when she went ahead to check on the parking out at Precision Ag.  We had called ahead to confirm there was room for us, but as Marilyn neared the corner to turn south, she could see flashing blue and red lights...the DOT had a random check stop set up.  After a call on the radio to Al, we went with "Plan B"...turn west and head out to Kim & Marg's yard to park. We had thought about taking the back road over to Precision Ag, but since it is on the main highway, we figured the DOT might drive by and do a check anyway, so it was back into the bin site at the farm.

After getting parked, we were working on setting the trailer brakes up and Marilyn noticed a crack in one of the frame pieces on the trailer.  When Al came back to inspect, he found another one on the other side...we needed to find a welder. Kim was able to find someone who was willing to come out and do the job...or at least, see if it was do-able...before he went back to work getting the lumps out of the fertilizer he was loading on his truck.

Dana made it out and after doing a bit of contortion work, managed to jam himself into position to do the fix job.  Marilyn had brought a case of beer for rent on the parking out at Precision Ag, but since we didn't park there and Dana was good enough to help us out, we gave him the beverage...just as he was closing his tailgate, with the stickered message "will weld for beer".  He did an excellent job on short notice, so we were only to happy to give him the tip.

After supper and hockey in the house, it was an early night to rest up for another day of driving...and the dreaded crapshoot at the border.

After a quick coffee in the morning, we got the header hooked up to the Dodge and were on our way.  It was overcast and there were the occasional sprinkles...just enough to make a mess of the windows...but at least we were lucky enough to have a brisk NE wind to help us along.  We got to the border and the regulars weren't working, so it took longer than usual, but by noon...ND time...we were rolling down the highway, once again.

We stopped in Kenmare to grab a quick lunch and check the trailer over again...still intact at the welds...then headed off into the fog.  It was so thick for the better part of the drive from Minot to Wilton, just north of Bismarck...good thing it is a divided highway. After another short stop for fuel in Sterling...nice to see that diesel in cheaper than gas, for a change...we kept right on driving.  There was a bit of construction just before the ND/SD border, but it looks like they take weekends off, so we didn't have to worry about any pilot vehicles...we must remember to time the second trip down the same way.

There were thunderstorm warnings for the area as we were arriving in Gettysburg, but we got parked, grabbed some pizza and went back to the room to watch some hockey and retire early.  We will see what the night weather brings us.  The weather channel was showing their main storm team near Larned, KS and there were shots of a few tornadoes...and we hope to make it that far tomorrow...

Over 400 miles today...likely the same tomorrow...