August 4, 2014

View of the month-Our shortest way into town became impassible after 8 inches of rain.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge...and over it...since the last post, but it's time to get caught up.

We took our three week road trip...not the one Marilyn had hoped for to the maritimes...this one was about, all things toys. We left Yorkton with the camper and made it to Jamestown, ND the first night. Day two got us to Albert Lea, MN, then on day three, we made it the rest of the way to Dyersville...or rather, the campground 10 miles east at Farley.

We had arrived early enough to check things out around the toy show...you know, see where the bargains were...and we took advantage of that, coming back to the camper with a few things. Actually, we got back with more than just a few things as we had gone to visit the ladies at Bossen Implement to pick up some toys that Al and Roger had ordered.

Good thing we were travelling a lot lighter that what we normally do in the camper...every bit of space was needed and we weren't even a couple days into the tour. Marilyn did manage to find a replica of the Freightliner that will be getting revamped just to look like it's old self.

Seeing the summer toy show was a lot different than the fall one in November. Al got a few boxes of treasures at the auction that was held thr first night. 

We thought with the great weather, there would be a lot more vendors on the street, but it was just as well there weren't...the purchases were already piling up.

After spending a couple of days checking things over, we had seen all we wanted of the toy show, so it was time for some touring.

Since we always miss out on the Mississippi riverboat cruise in the fall, we made a point of booking the Saturday sunset cruise before we left home.

This was a prime rib supper cruise which was supposed to be three hours long and included a trip through the locks. Unfortunately, due to the level of the river, that part was cut short...and it was raining, so we didn't spend a lot of time up on the deck. The supper area was glassed in and we were seated with a couple from Des Moines, IA celebrating their anniversary.

The meal was delicious and the cruise was relaxing, except for a table of noisy people who made it impossible to hear what the captain was telling us. We did get to go up to the wheelhouse and talk to the captain personally and got to find out a lot about the river and the paddle wheeler.

Our next stop was Wakonda, SD, where we stopped for the night...with another downpour. We had to pick up some more toys that Al had purchased over the internet and to drop off a couple of items that he was getting Girard's Auction to put in their next toy auction. Then we were on our way to Chamberlain, SD for a couple days.

Our main reason for stopping in Chamberlain, was the auction sale at the CaseIH dealer. We had purchased several toys over the years from this "old style" dealer.

We actually had to dig through a pile of boxes in the corner every time we went into the store...it was like Christmas. Now, the building had been sold and the owner was retiring...he was almost 90, so it was time.

They had called us to let us know about a couple of pieces of advertising that we had asked about every time we stopped in...they were good enough to leave them out of the auction so we could purchase them.

Was there STUFF at this auction!

Al came away with a few toys, but the way they had things grouped together,

he also became the owner of several huge banners, some posters and other advertising items, while Marilyn got a new cooler and lunch bag.

All CaseIH, of course. The camper was filling up.

With the auction out of the way, it was time to move north to LaMoure, ND for their big summer toy show. This time we were able to park right behind the school, which was where the show was held. We got there a day early...to sniff around...and just take it easy from the driving. More rain.

We didn't come away with a lot of stuff from the toy show, although what we did was quality...read that to mean "spendy". After three days there, we were off to Pingree, ND.

We were able to get a lot of visiting in while we were parked behind the 281 Stop and once again, we got caught in a wicked downpour, just getting missed by a tornado 5 miles north of us. After four days of relaxing, we headed east to Mahnomen, MN and the Shooting Star Casino campground.

We had seen a video of Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap Tour at the Yorkton Film Festival at the end of May and Al had mentioned that it would have been great to see that live. Marilyn got online to see where they were touring and ended up getting tickets to see Bachman & Turner at the casino. They rocked a lot of Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive tunes and for two guys in their 70's, they put on a hell of a show for 90 minutes without stopping.

That was the last stop on the big "Toy Tour" and now it was time to head back home. All the while we were on the road, we would be thinking about where we would be if we were still on the harvest run. We were both missing it...Marilyn more so...but when we thought about the loading in the heat, the driving, the DOT, we weren't missing it so much.

We made it back home safe and sound and we both went back to work...seemed odd to be doing that at this time of year. Al made a point of getting the toys on display in the camper so his friends could stop by and shop. Now we had to get used to the summertime things, like mowing the lawn and trying to escape the mosquitoes. Then, we had a few days of rain...HARD rain...almost 8 inches. Lots of flooding in town, we were alright on the top of our hill with no basement to worry about.

While we didn't need to worry about our house, we did have to worry about how we would be getting to town. By the time all the water had gotten into the creeks and streams, our main road into town was flooded out...not washed away, just cover with flowing water for quite a distance. What was usually a 6 mile run to town, was now a 15 mile run to town and as if that wasn't bad enough, that road was under water for a couple of days, so we were stranded out at the house, waiting for the water to subside.

Since we were spending the better part of the summer at home, Marilyn decided it was time to have a deck on the front of the house, so she could put up the bargain gazebo she bought last fall. After coming up with some basic plans, getting the lumber and doing the construction after work and on weekends, Marilyn and her theatre building buddy, Brenda got the deck done and the gazebo up. Too bad we still have to deal with the moquitos, although the dragonflies have finally showed up, which has thinned them out.

We are starting to think about getting in the "harvest zone". We have some winter wheat that is first on the list about 100 miles south of us...it is still a ways off, but no sense in leaving things until the last minute. We got the combine out, and serviced up all the items on the list from the "Uptime Inspection" we had done over the winter at the CaseIH dealership. We even made it to the CaseIH combine clinic at our local dealer...that was a first.

After a last minute decision, Al and Roger decided to set up a few tables at our Western Development Museum's annual Thresherman's Show.

They had a big tent set up for handicrafts and the like, so a few tables of farm toys were just what the doctor ordered.

They didn't have high expectations, but were pleasantly surprised by the interest in the toys and the sales made. Looks like next year will be a go.

The show was really interesting, with a lot of old time music right by our tent and demonstrations of the "old school" way of doing things.

Al had been approached to take his toys on the road to a "Red Power" show in North Battleford. This show is featuring International Harvester collectors and getting some red toys in there seemed like a good plan. In order to get set up for the show, we decided to take the camper, which meant we had to get a hitch put on the back to tow the toy trailer.

Now we are set up to go on the road with the toys and we even have our party tent to set up in...we even practiced putting it up in the yard so we wouldn't kill each other trying to set it up in public.

We'll see how that goes...