We got up early...for us, at least...and were on the road by 8:30am. We knew the day was going to be a hot one, even though we had a couple of thunderstorms, and shots of rain most of the night...not sure what it amounted to, because we don't have the rain gauge out.
We decided we were going to stop in Highmore to grab a snack and fuel up the Dodge. This was looking good until Marilyn looked in the rear view mirror and saw smoke coming from the back of the header trailer...and it was on the tire she couldn't see. After calling Al on the radio to let him know that we would likely be changing tires...again...she pulled over on the side of the road to inspect...and brought the water jug to put out the flames.
We stopped at the CaseH dealer to pick up some hand cleaner and wheel bearing grease, the checked to see if there was a "fixit" shop in town. No luck. We went back out to the trailer and started tearing it down to see what the damage was. A few people stopped to see if we needed any help, but we were doing okay...for a while. When we ran out of proper tools, we were lucky enough to have, Drew Cowan, a young man with at truck full of new tools stop and offer to help.
We got everything apart and cleaned up, then started putting the parts together...had a short "oops" moment when one of the pieces went in backwards. We were lucky to be a half mile from Drew's farm shop, so he ran back a couple of times to get tools and parts...what a saviour.
It's always amazing, the people we meet on the harvest run. Sometimes we learn we have someone we know in common, mostly we learn about life in the small communities...and usually in the most colorful way. There never seems to be a way to show our appreciation when someone goes out of their way to help out, but rest assured, when we pass by his shop tomorrow with the second load, there might be a couple of bottles of Canadian beer finding their way out there.
We finally got the tire back together after rearranging the brake shoes...they fit perfectly on the box of the Dodge. Then we loaded the hub up with grease, cleaned off Drew's tools and got him on his way, then went to town to get the General and start moving north again.
The rest of the trip seemed to take forever, but finally we got to Gettysburg, then continued on about 12 miles north to park the rigs out at one of the farmers we cut for occasionally. Once everything was parked and the General was unhooked, we started back for Hamill.
We stopped in Gettysburg to get fuel for the General, then stopped for supper at the Lode Star Casino at Ft. Thompson along the Missouri River. We don't gamble...well, not in the machines, at least...so we ate and ran. We had to get back to the camper, there were two more CFL football games on...and we were hot, dirty and tired.
Let's hope it's uneventful...
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