View of the day-Something was brewing in the skies today…but all of it missed us.
Up early and ready to go after breakfast at McDonalds, and fuel for the trucks. The trip down was uneventful…lots of traffic, but at least the roads were smooth. The weather was really unsettled and you could just feel that something was brewing.
We made Cherokee around 1:30pm and after leaving the big rig parked on the street, we went to get the camper parked and flanged in. After some rearranging, we were able to park close enough to the 50amp hook-up…we have to be able to utilize both A/C and the washer/dryer…then we finished setting up before going back to get the combine rig unloaded.
Cherokee has had a HUGE influx of seismic activities and there are trailer houses being set up all over town…it would be a surprise if there was any spots open in the town park for harvesters once they show up. Where we usually park the equipment was no different, so we had a lot of bobbing and weaving to get back to where we had left a spot next to the cart trailer.
We got backed in, unhooked and unloaded, except for the shop trailer in the back of the General. We had been having issues with the straps breaking that we used to secure the shop trailer, so it had shifted around quite a bit on the rough roads that we had travelled over on the way down. Once we were able to squeak back into the unloading ramp, we did some manual shifting to get it back to centre, then pulled it out and upon inspection, discovered that not one of the wrenches had dropped off the hooks on the wall!
While unloading, we kept a close watch on the skies as the clouds had been building at an alarming rate, and there had been tornado watches all day. At one point while we were unloading, the wind picked up and the dust was flying, probably as the front went through. Marilyn made a mad dash back to the camper to pull the awning in…no damage…and by the time she got back to the lot, the temperature had dropped and the wind had disappeared.
And now to the phone issues. For some reason, as soon as we passed the Kansas/Oklahoma border, all we got was a recording telling us we could make a collect call or buy a pin card…WTF?? We called our home provider…no help, Marilyn went a bought a local Tracfone…same crap. We had used Tracfone on several occasions without incident and Marilyn was sure it would work, and it was only 9.99 for the phone, so it wouldn’t have been a loss…well, actually, it was in this area, at least. Marilyn looked into this so-called PIN card…$.25/minute, but ONLY OUTGOING CALLS! What a racket. So we go without phones for now…really…in this age of technology.
We missed all the weather, it hit further south and southeast…more reports as they come in. We had put an ad in the local paper and had gotten a call about doing some canola pick-up work, so we went out with the farmer to check his crop out and see whether we should bite the bullet and go home for the pick-up head. For all the drought in the area, the canola looked real good…even stand, long pods…Al’s unsubstantiated estimate is around 25bu/ac. There are about 300 acres and it is more than a few days off, but the interesting thing is that the first field he took us to was one that Al had combined in 1989…and he remembers it well…not fondly, but well. The interesting thing will be to see how it is swathed with all the terraces running through it…could be chaos…
We went out to the Smoke Shack for supper with John and Peggy, our main farmers, then called it a night. Back at the camper Marilyn tried out the washer and dryer, which received two thumbs up…even though it takes longer that the house models, it did a great job of cleaning the work clothes.
So the plan was to get up early and start the 1050 mile trek back to the Canadian border, where we hope Marilyn’s sister, Marg, will meet us with the pick-up head so we don’t have to go all the way back to Carlyle. We didn’t get as early a start as we had hoped, and we didn’t get to have eggs at the sale barn café, but we had miles to make, so off we went.
It was another unsettling day with warnings all around…with no phone or internet service, we were quite out of the loop as to what had happened in the central part of the state. We do get several local over-the-air stations…in digital, no less…fabulous picture, can’t wait for Canada to switch over. They had some coverage, at least regarding the warnings, but no totals or reports on damage.
We started north and listened to the weather reports, stopping to check the radar at the truck stops along the way and it seemed we had just gotten out of the way in time. There were warnings for Cherokee, then the next batch hit central Kansas with tornadoes on the ground right where we had passed through several hours earlier, then it was working up through northern Kansas and into Nebraska. As we got into South Dakota, we hit some rain, but not of the nasty kind and by the time we got to North Dakota, the skies were clear…that’s right…NORTH Dakota.
We had thought about finding a room in South Dakota, and when that didn’t pan out, we thought we would just get to Bismarck, ND and stay there which would make the next day a short run…except that there were no rooms in Bismarck. And by the way, is there any reason why hotels now refuse to put no vacancy signs up? We checked a few other towns along the way…same deal…so finally we decided to find a rest stop and snooze in the truck.
After 810 miles of driving today, it’s about time…
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