Tuesday, June 29, 2010

June 29, 2010


View of the day-Our camping spot in Atwood, KS...right by the elevator and apparently there is no jake brake law in this town.


We were up early to start battening down the hatches in the camper. We didn't even stop for breakfast, we just headed out to the bins to get settled up, hook up the shop trailer to the camper and head north.

Just as we got to the corner before the bins we could see there were a couple of high line trucks parked in the middle of the road. They had been putting new poles and wires up and were just in the middle of restringing them when we came along. We couldn't get the camper by them so there was no way we would be able to get the Freightliner and it's load anywhere near the corner. They move over long enough for us to get the camper by and they said they would be out of our way in 45 minutes which worked out good because we still had things to do before we left.

Ken and Kevin came up to see us and after we got everything organized the line men had moved on and we were able to leave. We made the tight corner and Marilyn decided to check the lights on the cart trailer...of course only one was working, so we spent and extra 30 minutes finding the splice that was causing the problem. We had everything operational, so we continued on our way.

We had another busy day on the highway and the high point came just south of Phillipsburg when Marilyn, who was in the lead came up behind a little white car and it was behind two older John Deere combines with their 30ft headers on and they didn't seem to be moving over. The little white car whipped around the first one and as he was passing Marilyn could see that it was the dreaded Department of Transportation enforcement. He pulled out and passed the second combine and they seemed to get the picture and let us pass. Just as Al got by the combines, the DOT car pulled over and put on his lights, so Al pulled over to the side and called to let Marilyn know he was going to be delayed. After sitting and waiting for the man to show up, he looked in his rear view mirror and saw that the man had been stopping the combines and not Al...needless to say Al just drove away and wasn't bothered again. Does that count as a stop by the DOT?

We made it to Atwood, pulled into the campground that we had booked a site in only to see that the spot that we had been promised was filled by another harvester. Marilyn went in to talk to the lady and she said that was the only place that the semi that had been turned into a camper could park. She let us chose another spot, where we parked, got the A/C working, then hooked the shop trailer up and took the rigs south of town to the farmers yard to unload.

We got out there, unloaded the tractor and cart in record time, left the shop trailer and came back to town for supper. We took a tour around the town before going back to the camper to see if we could get any local tv or internet. No to the first one and yes to the second...well, it's intermittent at best, but at least Marilyn doesn't have to drive anywhere for the upload.

Tomorrow we rescue the General and combine from Stockton...

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