We encountered many blessings in dealing with our blown starter. Wade, our tow truck driver, was super helpful. He recommended a garage where he was able to get the truck INSIDE because it was Sunday and no one could look at it until Monday morning. We did not then have to worry about the contents stored in the cab or the back. Our motel was very nice and they gave us a real good deal. It also included a continental breakfast. The Dakota Inn is part of a larger complex and there was a very nice restaurant, a mini Casino and a bowling alley. Plus the world’s largest ring-necked pheasant up on top of the building…
When John called the garage at 8:30 a.m. to see what the score was, they were about a half hour from being finished installing the new starter. He could barely believe his ears. They came and picked us up and the bill was extremely reasonable. Wade had advised the owner of our circumstances and I am sure he gave us a special deal.
We were back out on Highway 81 heading south by 10:30 a.m. and stopped in Salina, Kansas, at 7:30 for the night. This Baymont Inn and Suites looked like it was going to be expensive, but the Super 8 next door was over $10 a night more and this one has a pool, a hot tub and a little water slide. I enjoyed a swim and hot tub for about ¾ hour.
Tomorrow we hope to get to Texarcana.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Stranded in Huron, S.D.
My Mom’s excitement for this week was to watch the building movers dismantle and move the building beside her - it left for Arcola, Sk. this morning. They were just jackhammering the foundation and raising it up for moving when we were there Thursday night.
We are presently “stranded” in Huron, South Dakota. We stayed over night in Redfield, S.D. and were just on the road for an hour. We stopped at a gas station in Huron to get diesel, and when John tried to start the truck up, it would not start. Rats. We believe it is the starter (the second one in 6 months). We bought this 1997 GMC diesel in May to pull our fifth wheel trailer which we have stored down south. We had taken the truck down to Sandpoint Idaho this June and the first starter went down there! Anyway, the Good Lord provided a very nice tow truck driver to tow the truck to a service station and have it inside to prevent any theft or damage until tomorrow morning. Nobody is working on Sunday of course. Also, we were able to get a deal on a motel room so we are thankful for that. Not happy to be delayed at least one full day on our trip, but it is VERY windy outside and perhaps we are just not supposed to be out on the road!?! At least we are not short on time to get there. Have to be at Sulphur, LA, to pick up our trailer by the 31st and at Newton by Nov. 3rd. We are looking forward to taking a drive down to where we worked last year and see what damage this year’s hurricane have done…
It is presently pheasant hunting season down here, and obviously pheasant hunting is VERY big in this area. The motel “hunter’s special” appears to be $99.99, which is way over our budget for accommodation! Thankfully this Dakota Inn saw fit to find us a room for $47.00!! Unfortunately, we did not foresee the Canadian dollar falling through the floor and did not avail ourselves of the opportunity to open a U.S. bank account at our bank as was suggested to us about 4 months ago, when Canadian money was at par. Of course, we are booting ourselves now!! Oh well, that’s life…
We ended up with a motel in Redfield for $38.00 (when all the others were the hunter’s special rate) but it didn’t have internet. I wasn’t prepared to pay an extra $60.00 per night for internet!! The room was very nice and the telephone worked, so I phoned home with our card instead of e-mailing.
It is sure windy here today – gusts up to 60 mph. I’m sure the hunters aren’t very happy about that either. We are observing that the hunters here are not very considerate with their dogs. Every truck has one or two big dogs and the hunters don’t pick up after them when they dump. At this motel, they allow dogs in the room stating they have to be kenneled when their owners are out. The room cleaner said that on the second floor, they don’t even bring their dogs down to have them crap. There are big dumps right on the walkways outside the motel room. And she said the other day, one of the dogs on the top level lifted his leg against the railing when she was walking below, and she got all wet. Can you imagine???
We saw on TV that it is 81 at Houston. Sure wish we were down there already!!!
We are presently “stranded” in Huron, South Dakota. We stayed over night in Redfield, S.D. and were just on the road for an hour. We stopped at a gas station in Huron to get diesel, and when John tried to start the truck up, it would not start. Rats. We believe it is the starter (the second one in 6 months). We bought this 1997 GMC diesel in May to pull our fifth wheel trailer which we have stored down south. We had taken the truck down to Sandpoint Idaho this June and the first starter went down there! Anyway, the Good Lord provided a very nice tow truck driver to tow the truck to a service station and have it inside to prevent any theft or damage until tomorrow morning. Nobody is working on Sunday of course. Also, we were able to get a deal on a motel room so we are thankful for that. Not happy to be delayed at least one full day on our trip, but it is VERY windy outside and perhaps we are just not supposed to be out on the road!?! At least we are not short on time to get there. Have to be at Sulphur, LA, to pick up our trailer by the 31st and at Newton by Nov. 3rd. We are looking forward to taking a drive down to where we worked last year and see what damage this year’s hurricane have done…
It is presently pheasant hunting season down here, and obviously pheasant hunting is VERY big in this area. The motel “hunter’s special” appears to be $99.99, which is way over our budget for accommodation! Thankfully this Dakota Inn saw fit to find us a room for $47.00!! Unfortunately, we did not foresee the Canadian dollar falling through the floor and did not avail ourselves of the opportunity to open a U.S. bank account at our bank as was suggested to us about 4 months ago, when Canadian money was at par. Of course, we are booting ourselves now!! Oh well, that’s life…
We ended up with a motel in Redfield for $38.00 (when all the others were the hunter’s special rate) but it didn’t have internet. I wasn’t prepared to pay an extra $60.00 per night for internet!! The room was very nice and the telephone worked, so I phoned home with our card instead of e-mailing.
It is sure windy here today – gusts up to 60 mph. I’m sure the hunters aren’t very happy about that either. We are observing that the hunters here are not very considerate with their dogs. Every truck has one or two big dogs and the hunters don’t pick up after them when they dump. At this motel, they allow dogs in the room stating they have to be kenneled when their owners are out. The room cleaner said that on the second floor, they don’t even bring their dogs down to have them crap. There are big dumps right on the walkways outside the motel room. And she said the other day, one of the dogs on the top level lifted his leg against the railing when she was walking below, and she got all wet. Can you imagine???
We saw on TV that it is 81 at Houston. Sure wish we were down there already!!!
On the road again
Blog for October 25, 2008
We are on our way to Texas!
After a very nice over night visit with Jake and Rita at Brandon, we started out at 10:30 a.m. The border crossing is always very traumatic for Linda ever since the bad experience the first MDS trip. However, there was nothing to it this trip and soon we were enjoying the fall view of the Dakotas. It was a nice, sunny day, perfect for driving. We didn’t realize hunting was so popular in this area. The fields (and motels) are full of hunters, camoflauge outfits, blaze orange vests, rifles, and hunting dogs! We found they must have a “special” on motel rooms for hunting season, as the first three inquiries were: $99.99!!! Way above our budget! Last year the same room at the same motel in Aberdeen (the last week in Dec.) cost $43.00! We arrived in Aberdeen at 6:00 p.m. and it was still light out, so we kept traveling on down to Redfield. Here they had the same $99. “hunter’s special” at the Super 8. However, we did manage to find a little privately owned motel for $38.00. Lovely room, but no continental breakfast, nor high speed internet. No problem… We found a very nice friendly place to have supper and were told there was probably high speed available at the One-Stop on Main Street, so we drove over there and pulled out the laptop in the parking lot. Sure enough, I was able to retrieve our messages and get back to Shari. The phone in the room works just fine for calling with the calling card.
We are on our way to Texas!
After a very nice over night visit with Jake and Rita at Brandon, we started out at 10:30 a.m. The border crossing is always very traumatic for Linda ever since the bad experience the first MDS trip. However, there was nothing to it this trip and soon we were enjoying the fall view of the Dakotas. It was a nice, sunny day, perfect for driving. We didn’t realize hunting was so popular in this area. The fields (and motels) are full of hunters, camoflauge outfits, blaze orange vests, rifles, and hunting dogs! We found they must have a “special” on motel rooms for hunting season, as the first three inquiries were: $99.99!!! Way above our budget! Last year the same room at the same motel in Aberdeen (the last week in Dec.) cost $43.00! We arrived in Aberdeen at 6:00 p.m. and it was still light out, so we kept traveling on down to Redfield. Here they had the same $99. “hunter’s special” at the Super 8. However, we did manage to find a little privately owned motel for $38.00. Lovely room, but no continental breakfast, nor high speed internet. No problem… We found a very nice friendly place to have supper and were told there was probably high speed available at the One-Stop on Main Street, so we drove over there and pulled out the laptop in the parking lot. Sure enough, I was able to retrieve our messages and get back to Shari. The phone in the room works just fine for calling with the calling card.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
GETTING READY TO LEAVE FOR TEXAS
Well, it's been a long time since my last entry.
We did have a safe trip home, but we were both so (flu/cold) sick that we just drove straight through, only stopping at a motel for one night. All we wanted to do was get home and BE SICK in comfort!
Although Peggy and Steve's house was not totally closed in (some of the metal on the gable ends was not completed), the goal was achieved to have the walls up and the roof on.
We applied again to MDS to go down South and have been accepted for November of this year into Newton, Texas, where we will be volunteering with Walt and Pat from California, and Art and Judy both of whom were with us in Alabama. We are anxious to see what damage was done by Hurricanes Gustav an Ike in the Johnson Bayou area, and see how our fifth wheel weathered the storms. We have been assured by the storage facility that they did not sustain any damage at Sulphur, for which we are extremely grateful.
We have had a GREAT summer. Although there were periods of rain, there was plenty of sunshine and warm weather that made it feel like we did HAVE a summer for a change. We enjoyed our gazebo and lawn swing on our sun deck, and put our plans to build an addition on hold for an indefinite period of time. We spent an enjoyable few weeks visiting Portage La Prairie, Brandon and Langenburg. My Mom also spent a week with us around my birthday in September and got in some bonding with her great grandchildren. We really enjoyed having her here. I also enjoyed our dogs for the summer months and am lamenting having to leave them again.
We are presently planning to volunteer for November and fly home from Houston for the month of December, returning to help in Marble Falls, Texas for January and February, 2009. Hopefully that will lessen the shock of an extended time away from home, and will enable us to brighten our family's Christmas and help out with babysitting, etc. The kids are growing up so fast!
There are many things to do in the four days remaining before we leave. Tomorrow we are having five neighbourhood couples over for a chili supper. Should be fun.
So long for now. I will have to advise everyone that our blog is "back in business".
We did have a safe trip home, but we were both so (flu/cold) sick that we just drove straight through, only stopping at a motel for one night. All we wanted to do was get home and BE SICK in comfort!
Although Peggy and Steve's house was not totally closed in (some of the metal on the gable ends was not completed), the goal was achieved to have the walls up and the roof on.
We applied again to MDS to go down South and have been accepted for November of this year into Newton, Texas, where we will be volunteering with Walt and Pat from California, and Art and Judy both of whom were with us in Alabama. We are anxious to see what damage was done by Hurricanes Gustav an Ike in the Johnson Bayou area, and see how our fifth wheel weathered the storms. We have been assured by the storage facility that they did not sustain any damage at Sulphur, for which we are extremely grateful.
We have had a GREAT summer. Although there were periods of rain, there was plenty of sunshine and warm weather that made it feel like we did HAVE a summer for a change. We enjoyed our gazebo and lawn swing on our sun deck, and put our plans to build an addition on hold for an indefinite period of time. We spent an enjoyable few weeks visiting Portage La Prairie, Brandon and Langenburg. My Mom also spent a week with us around my birthday in September and got in some bonding with her great grandchildren. We really enjoyed having her here. I also enjoyed our dogs for the summer months and am lamenting having to leave them again.
We are presently planning to volunteer for November and fly home from Houston for the month of December, returning to help in Marble Falls, Texas for January and February, 2009. Hopefully that will lessen the shock of an extended time away from home, and will enable us to brighten our family's Christmas and help out with babysitting, etc. The kids are growing up so fast!
There are many things to do in the four days remaining before we leave. Tomorrow we are having five neighbourhood couples over for a chili supper. Should be fun.
So long for now. I will have to advise everyone that our blog is "back in business".
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