View of the day-The old and the new...wind power.
We were able to get pointed south for the border reasonably early and were thrilled to see "Mr. Happy" was not working at the crossing. This time we were through within 15 minutes after the officer crawled into the truck box to see the inside of the shop trailer.
We stopped at Kenmare for fuel and a quick snack...woo hoo..."Mrs. Happy" wasn't there either and Marilyn got her hot wings. We knew we were in for a tough day with the ESE winds huffing at high speeds, but..."shut up and drive".
Everything was running according to schedule, although the fuel was getting sucked up because of the drag from the wind and the hills. We stopped in Wilton for fuel again and then forged on to the South Dakota border.
About two miles from the South Dakota border, Marilyn felt the truck slow down while the engine was revving, so after dropping down to 4th gear, continued on at a slower speed. Now, most of the time it was 4th gear anyway due to the wind. Not wanting to give Al added pressure since the weigh scales were coming up, Marilyn, shut up and drove. We reached Herried, SD just a few miles into the state, and Marilyn broke the news to Al as we were pulling into the truck stop. As she down-shifted, the realization came that 4th gear was the only gear the truck had...a fact the old lady in the car she almost had to cut off probably didn't realize.
We were able to get down to a service shop around 5:30 and they said they would be able to help us out, but of course it was closing time, so we would have to come back in the morning. We unhooked the combine trailer from the General and put the pickup in low 4x4 and were able to get it across the highway with the camper to the RV park where we set up camp for the night...or nights...we weren't sure.
We got to the shop first thing in the morning and were told they would look at it and let us know before noon what the verdict was. We started looking through some of the local papers and though one of our options would be to bite the bullet and just buy and different truck. We actually found a 2006 Dodge 3500, and they were willing to deliver it to us!! It was almost a go until we ran into insurance issues...it would be fine if we took it home, but using it for the business caused all sorts of problems. They did find us a tranny in Billings, Montana and would have it Friday morning and would have us rolling by the afternoon.
Back at the camper, Marilyn got the rest of the stuff put away and it was a super do nothing day...heavy nappage going on. We think there was some kind of intervention going on since the area we would be scheduled to drive through in Nebraska and Kansas were under severe weather watches most of the day.
Maybe tomorrow...
We were able to get pointed south for the border reasonably early and were thrilled to see "Mr. Happy" was not working at the crossing. This time we were through within 15 minutes after the officer crawled into the truck box to see the inside of the shop trailer.
We stopped at Kenmare for fuel and a quick snack...woo hoo..."Mrs. Happy" wasn't there either and Marilyn got her hot wings. We knew we were in for a tough day with the ESE winds huffing at high speeds, but..."shut up and drive".
Everything was running according to schedule, although the fuel was getting sucked up because of the drag from the wind and the hills. We stopped in Wilton for fuel again and then forged on to the South Dakota border.
About two miles from the South Dakota border, Marilyn felt the truck slow down while the engine was revving, so after dropping down to 4th gear, continued on at a slower speed. Now, most of the time it was 4th gear anyway due to the wind. Not wanting to give Al added pressure since the weigh scales were coming up, Marilyn, shut up and drove. We reached Herried, SD just a few miles into the state, and Marilyn broke the news to Al as we were pulling into the truck stop. As she down-shifted, the realization came that 4th gear was the only gear the truck had...a fact the old lady in the car she almost had to cut off probably didn't realize.
We were able to get down to a service shop around 5:30 and they said they would be able to help us out, but of course it was closing time, so we would have to come back in the morning. We unhooked the combine trailer from the General and put the pickup in low 4x4 and were able to get it across the highway with the camper to the RV park where we set up camp for the night...or nights...we weren't sure.
We got to the shop first thing in the morning and were told they would look at it and let us know before noon what the verdict was. We started looking through some of the local papers and though one of our options would be to bite the bullet and just buy and different truck. We actually found a 2006 Dodge 3500, and they were willing to deliver it to us!! It was almost a go until we ran into insurance issues...it would be fine if we took it home, but using it for the business caused all sorts of problems. They did find us a tranny in Billings, Montana and would have it Friday morning and would have us rolling by the afternoon.
Back at the camper, Marilyn got the rest of the stuff put away and it was a super do nothing day...heavy nappage going on. We think there was some kind of intervention going on since the area we would be scheduled to drive through in Nebraska and Kansas were under severe weather watches most of the day.
Maybe tomorrow...
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