“go time”

Nebraska Wheatie

5 years ago

It’s 11:30 p.m. The night before “go time”.

The past few days have felt like they’ve been both a year long and just an hour long. I don’t know if you can understand what I mean…but I bet you can.

The first load to Kansas went about as well as it could have. Except for the heat. And except for the lack of air conditioning. Frank doesn’t have air. We’ve tried to make it work but it just can’t hold the gas. We didn’t expect the car and the Pete to give us issues. But they did. However, I’m pleased to tell you Jim got both of them fixed and they’re cooling down quite nicely now. Thank goodness!

*First load getting ready to head south.*

*Pete and the “job” trailer waiting patiently.*

*The header needed some warranty work done on it so we just left it at the dealership. We stopped and picked it up as we were headed south with the first load.*

Ahhhhhh….the sweet, sweet smell of wheat country!

Left Frank and the Pete at our farmer’s yard near Chase. The mosquitoes were HORRIBLE! Once we got everything parked for the night, we jumped in the car and headed for Great Bend for the night. The next morning we headed for Medicine Lodge.

*A memory. Grandma insisted I go through this house with her in 1974. I will be going through it again – if we have a rain day. I’m SURE I’ll appreciate it much more the second go-round!*

*Main Street of Sharon, Kansas. Anyone know who in the entertainment industry grew up near Sharon?*

*Back to the farmer’s yard. We parked the car, jumped in the Pete and headed northward.*

*So, I took over and drove for about an hour. (Don’t worry, we weren’t moving when I took these pictures.)*

*The best part of a very hot 100 degree day – dusk.*

We made it back home, home Saturday evening about 10:00. The next morning began more packing and getting things ready to be gone for the next several months.

When I say “things ready”, I mean like the yard mowed, tree limbs trimmed, a few weeds pulled (a dumb action, really), Cottage on Wheels packed, house cleaned, combine loaded, last minute items thrown in wherever they can go, etc. etc. It always feels like such an overwhelming amount of work that needs to be done. But, somehow it all manages to get done. And things start falling together as they should. And then it’s time to take off.

That’s where we are right now. It’s time to do those last minute things that need to be done and then the dreadful goodbyes said and down the highway we will head, once again.

All the while we have been working at getting to the point we are, Mother Nature decided to crank up the heat a little on all of us. We thought we could make it through the few days we had here without putting the window air in the house. Bad decision. The days and nights of no relief from the heat seemed to wear on us way more than we imagined. Maybe it has something to do with being one year older, too. Maybe?

Yes, another nap. This time he told me, “I just need a little nap and it’s cool down here on the floor”. We really should have put the air conditioner in the window! Yep, that’s his shoe he’s using for a pillow.

*It was a beautiful morning to load the combine!*

Taylor and Layne came over to hang out with me this afternoon. After I emptied the refrigerator, I left the doors open so it could defrost and be cleaned. Taylor sat there to cool off because, yes, it was that hot in the house!

We had a storm roll through this evening which dropped the temperature 25 degrees in about ten minutes. The cooler air never felt so good. The wind blew like crazy and the rain came down in sheets. We’ll be sleeping in the trailer house tonight as the bed in the house has been stripped and washed. And we’ll be taking our last “real” shower for quite some time.

The worst part of all of this is having to say our goodbyes.

It never gets any easier!

Ever.

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