nebraska to montana – montana to nebraska

In my previous post, scenes from j & t’s excellent adventure parts 3 & 4 (cont.), I left you with the arrival at “home, home”.  This gets a little confusing with referring back to posts but if you need to be reminded where we are from this point with the pictures I posted, you can refer back to scenes from j & t’s excellent adventure parts 3 & 4. 

After we got home, we TRIED to turn on the water, went through mail and whatnot. The next morning, we packed for a week and headed to Grand Island for Husker Harvest Days. We ran into all kinds of people we knew – including the Miseners.

IMG_4600Entering Husker Harvest Days in Grand Island, NE.

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HHD and The Dirt Blizzard

The flags can attest to the strong winds as we entered. As it was, this was calm compared to what we endured later in the day.

The plan on Friday was for Jim and The Yellow Beast to get back to picking corn AFTER the trip to Husker Harvest Days on Wednesday. That plan was spoiled by the hot temps that made their way back into the region. It was 96 degrees on Tuesday. I tried to justify to him why it would be ok for his taking Wednesday off to make the  trip to Grand Island. “It’s still so early in the fall”. “What? Is it going to start raining now?” “It’s not like the weather’s going to drastically change”. However, because of his strong work ethic all my attempts were met with a strong NO!  I wanted to go. Mark, Candi and Jenna were still planning on the trip, so I decided what the heck?! (One more day to pretend like I have nothing better to do.)

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And I wonder why it takes me so long to get back in the groove!

The week’s recap:

“Home, home” on Saturday night.

Spent the entire day on Sunday reclaiming my house from the spiders and vacuuming up dead bugs.

Monday a.m., I’m on the school bus picking up kids and taking them to school. The afternoon was spent washing the outside of the trailer house. It was FILTHY from the road grime that had collected all summer. Thank goodness it was early enough in the “getting home” process that I was able to talk Jim into helping me. I’ve done that job by myself way too many times and appreciate the help when he can give it! Later that afternoon, I was back in the bus delivering kids to their homes. And the rest of the day was finishing the chore of washing the trailer house.

Tuesday was spent getting book work completed and important issues taken care of. Geesh…it’s amazing how much time that takes! You should have seen the box of mail I had to go through. Most of it was garbage and it wasn’t able to clutter the kitchen table very long. Late Tuesday afternoon, I headed to Elmwood to watch Callie play volleyball. She’s a pretty doggone good little player and didn’t even get to participate in any of the summer “camps”. It’s really too bad the coaches put such an emphasis on the summer time participation! Our high school coach told me when Jenna was in high school that her playing time would depend on her summer time. “Well”, I said, “She’s not going to be able to participate because she’ll be with us NOT because she doesn’t want to be there”. He stuck to his statement. However, Jenna LOVED the sport and continued to work hard even though she didn’t get to play very often. She stuck with it her entire high school career. By the time she was a senior, though, the parents from the stands were yelling, “put Jenna in”. I was so proud of her for not quitting – I probably would have! I hope it’s not like that for Callie, but it probably will be. Do these coaches REALLY think every kid on their team is going to go on to college as recruits??? Let the kids play and have fun!

We got up bright and early on Wednesday morning and loaded in Mark’s truck. Everyone went except Candi (she got sick the night before), Taylor and Callie. We spent the entire day walking the Husker Harvest Days’ grounds and it literally takes ALL DAY! Saw some familiar faces and enjoyed being together. Actually, it seemed like we were on the phone most of the day trying to find Jim (he likes to talk). However, they did have to look for me once. I stopped to chat with someone, turned around and everyone was gone. Then, I went the wrong way looking for them and ended up getting farther away. If you haven’t been, you should go! There’s something for everyone. That evening, we were invited to a supper put on by New Holland. It happened to be in the same place our USCHI convention was last March and will be again next March. It was fun standing in the same place we had previously been in and remembering the good times. “Chances R” (York, NE restaurant) served the food and it was OUTSTANDING!! Thank you New Holland!

Thursday was spent doing more paperwork items in the morning and a few things did get put away. Then, it was back on the bus driving the cross country team to an event. I got home shortly after 9:00 last night.  Another wasted day!

Jim left early this a.m. to head from some town on the Iowa/Illinois border to pick up a corn head. Maybe I can get something started with the unpacking process today – or at least get our bed made in the house. It’s chilly today so I won’t have to worry about sweating too much 🙂

Pictures are from Husker Harvest Days:

Entering the grounds.

 

Showing off their New Holland clothing. Jamie had on a shirt like Jenna’s but was too cold to show it off.

Jenna meeting a couple of the guys she had interviews with this summer for The High Plains Journal.

I took this picture for Callie. The prior owner of this bus was Justin Bieber.

One more picture of the grounds before we left.

Before leaving Grand Island, Mark had to make a quick visit to the New Holland Support truck.

Jenna found a picture of our combine hanging up inside the truck.