Changing Plans in Iowa

This is not the post I had planned for today.
This is not what we had planned for our weekend.

We loaded in eastern Ohio Friday morning and are delivering south of Rapid City, SD on Monday morning. It was roughly 1200 miles and we had almost 3 days. It was going to be a leisurely weekend. A long hot shower, real food instead of fast food, a stop at Cabelas for Malcolm and I was contemplating hitting the mall when we got to Rapid City.

We drove almost 600 miles Friday and stopped south of Waterloo, IA for the night. We woke up to rain. Still planned on a leisurely weekend, and yes I'd checked the weather, but the parts of Iowa and Minnesota we were traveling through were only forecast to get a couple inches of snow..

I didn't get the part of the weather forcast about the wind. And if you've been in the midwest, you know what wind can do to a couple inches of snow. Right before we got to Minnesota we ran into signs stating that I-90 was closed. It wasn't too bad really, just snowing and slushy. So we jumped off on an Iowa highway to cut across to South Dakota. But as you can see, things changed quickly.

We finally managed to get pulled off the road into the parking lot of a Pamida in Estherville, IA. Our friend who goes through there on occasion said there was a McDonalds across the road and room to park at the Pamida.

We think this was a bank, but who really knows. Its all we could make out from our parking spot, and only after the security lights came on that evening.

The only reason we had found the Pamida was because the snow cleared for a mini-second just as we were passing the sign by the road. We never did see the building, not once through the long afternoon and night. And we figured the McDonalds would be closed, but it was worth calling to see. And unfortunately we were right. So it was crackers and oranges for dinner, the only meal we had all day long. And my next Walmart stop will be to put in some winter food supplies!



The scenery is a little different this morning. For starters, we could see the Pamida when we unzipped the curtain. They have some digging to do before they can open this morning.

In fact, most of northwest Iowa has some digging to do this morning.

and its cold! Registering around zero, but the winds still blowing a bit, so you know its chillier than that!

The road is mostly clear, but there are still a few trouble spots, one or two where there's just the one lane open, and others where they've already been working with the snow plows. 

 And I keep thinking, if it was this bad here where they were just getting a few inches of snow, what was it like in the western side of Iowa and Minnesota, where they were supposed to get lots more?

We're 45 miles from Sioux Falls. Surveying the damages, on a personal level, in the middle of the blizzard, trying to find somewhere to stop, our truck suddenly dumped all the air out of our air supply and wouldn't rebuild pressure. After Malcolm stood outside looking under the hood and talked to Kenworth on the phone, it was decided that a part on the air compressor had gone out. We thought we were stranded out in no man's land. Then the truck suddenly decided that it didn't want to stop there, and miraculously started building pressure back up, allowing us to make it to the Pamida 10 miles away.

In attempting to get there, we were making a turn and Malcolm couldn't see out the mirrors, so I had to open my door and look back to make sure the trailer was making the corner and not sliding off. And then my door wouldn't latch closed. So for the next 10 miles I was holding my door closed against blizzard winds while snow sifted in around us coating me, the computer, and the floor. And then when we got parked, I had to take the girls out (a whole other issue) and when I got back in, the door closed like normal and latched. Needless to say, we're both using the driver side door till Malcolm can look at the other door and figure out the problem.

The girls...bless their hearts....braved the storm (under force) one at a time to potty. Ella had to go twice because she wouldn't do anything the first time. Ella thinks she can't go unless there is grass, and quite frankly I wasn't going to go hunting for some. She did finally take care of things the second time out and the rest of the night we stayed in and thankfully no accidents. They still were not thrilled this morning, but at least they weren't in danger of blowing away.

 

(thawing out)

And now, as if all that wasn't enough, there is something wrong with the suspension. Malcolm aired it up manually with the air hose, but it not a permanent fix. Another project for today, but for now its good enough to keep rolling.

Other than that we're still alive and we all have all our fingers and toes. So, no worse for wear, and we'll be in Rapid City in a few hours. as long as mother nature cooperates.

Covering Ground in the Mid-West

We have covered a lot of ground this week. Still, by tonight when we reach Burley, ID, we'll only have driven a little above the average we shoot for. We'll have almost 4300 miles under our belt since leaving Chattanooga last Sunday. But we've followed a diverse trail across the country, traveling from the most southern tip of Texas to the northern parts of the mid-west, and then across to the edge of the Rocky Mountains.

Tuesday we loaded sunflower seed in southern Texas, near Mccook. It was an all day process as they were dumping it on trucks straight out of the combine, there was a truck in front of us in line, and the combine kept having trouble. We didn't get out of the field and on the road till nearly 9:00 that evening. Sunflower fields aren't pretty once they are ready to harvest. They look pretty much like a bunch of dead weeds, like the crop has been lost, baked away in the sun. But truth is, the seeds have to dry out on the head of the sunflower. Still, though the idea of sitting in a sunflower field sounds like a wonderful way to spend the day, realistically, its kind of ugly scenery. The sunflowers seeds went to a mill in western Minnesota. On the way there, we ran into a rather nasty storm in northwest Iowa. Rained so hard I couldn't see anything, creeping along the roadway, hoping the other cars had the sense to turn on their lights. Lots of lightening, strong wind, and hard hard rain. When we finally came out the other side of it, the clouds were beautiful, though threatening. I used to know the proper name for these clouds. I've since forgotten, but I know as pretty and neat as they are, they are foreboding of dangerous weather.

Delivered the sunflower seed, and loaded barley nearby. That was delivered in Aurora, NE and then we loaded DDG (dried distilled grain) near Aurora. That's what we have now. DDG, if you've forgotten, is the bi-product of making ethanol. Its mostly used as cattle feed, and this load, as many do, is headed for a dairy.

Its not a great load. Nine hundred miles and three days to do it in. So needless to say, we're dragging our feet and looking for any bit of entertainment we can find. We stopped in Sidney, NE for a while yesterday morning and Malcolm went to Cabelas again. I've been in so many times I can't count them, so the girls and I stayed in the truck, fiddled on the computer, gave the girls pedicures and Ella a much needed haircut.

And enjoyed watching the very tame geese that make the Cabelas pond their home. There are probably a hundred or more, but I only saw one pair that had goslings, which I thought rather odd. I'd have expected more. Still, it was fun to watch these three and their mom and dad taking a stroll.

And then, since Cabelas had this really great grassy field that they keep mowed and its just behind the truck parking, I took the girls out to run. We've adopted this field as one of our favorite play grounds and we always go running when we're there.Well, the two run, and Paris as usual snoops from the comfort of the concrete. I discovered shortly after this picture that she was actually partaking of a Goose Poop Buffet. So we had to go back to the truck. Besides, the mosquitoes were eating me alive. After a week and a half in the southern states and only receiving one mosquito bite, I've been surprised to find that I'm apparently supplying the entire mosquito population of the mid-west with a blood bank. They've been after me from Texas all the way to Wyoming. Maybe I drank too much sweet tea down south?

We stopped at a scenic spot between Cheyenne and Laramie, WY so that I could share this with you. We've stopped here multiple times, but usually the wind is blasting this area so I keep the camera inside. This time it was unusually calm in eastern Wyoming, so we stopped to kill time and get these pictures. Between the east and west bound lanes of I-80 stands a tree that is growing out of a rock. Its been there a long time, since the railroad came through, and it was unique enough that they diverted the railroad to go by it, and then later the road went around it.The story has it that the trains use to stop here to show tourists, the workers getting out to water the tree from the trains water supply. For the full story, you can read the plaque below. I think you can click to enlarge it. Kind of interesting and proof of how the climate affects things in this part of the country. Its not very large for a tree that's over 100 years old. We just stopped in Evanston, WY. That's on the very western edge of the state, before crossing into Utah. We have less than 300 miles to drive today so I'm going to do a little Wal-mart shopping. Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend and have a great start to your week.