STARS

Yep, we has done went and done it ! We is television stars now ! While having lunch at the Midway Truck stop in Columbia Missouri, they were filming their Halloween episode for the History Channel’s Truck stop Missouri series.

While in the Men’s room washing up for lunch, I noted a cast member putting on zombie makeup.

Cool hand carved cedar bench at entry way.

The daily lunch special was meatloaf, one of my favorites.

Truck Stop Missouri cast at the table.

During our meal, we were asked to sign releases to be background extra’s during a scene. You know that we jumped on a very cool thing like that. Here is Betty getting her photo taken by a staffer for the TV series.

 

The meal was great, and the dessert excellent. I had the pie al la mode.

As we were leaving the star and staffers let us interrupt a meeting long enough for a quick photo and hand shakes all around. Here is a look.

Even if our TV debut  winds up on the cutting room floor, it was a lunch that we will never forget !

Here is a short video of the back lot where all of the trucks park.

Woo Hoo we is gona’ be on television !

ROUGH

When we got ready to depart the overnighting site beside the Bass Pro Shop in Independence Missouri this morning, only one leg of the fifth wheel’s landing gear would raise up. Here is where we were parked.

It turned out to be a simple fix though.

The rough interstate highway 29, was the culprit.

Each year we say, “I hope that the construction on I-29 is finished”. Well, this year, it was mostly completed all right. However the new part was ever bit as rough as the old damaged part !

It was plumb crazy ! Beautiful new interstate highway, that would nearly shake the fillings out of your teeth !

We tried everything to smooth it out a bit. Finally, we dropped our speed down to more than ten MPH below the speed limit, and just gritted our teeth, toughing it out. Stopping on a regular basis to take a break.

That constant shaking worked a bolt loose on the landing gear jacks. We replaced the bolt, flat washer, lock washer and nut, then cut off the excess length with a hacksaw.

Here is a look at the replacement bolt.

After sleeping in, having breakfast and making the repair, it was mid morning before we hit the road to Columbia Mo., where we planned to have lunch.

It would be a late lunch , but quite a unique and very cool one ! We is now TV starz !! 

BLADES

We see them out on the highways.

We see them way off in the distance.

We could tell that they must be large.

So when we got a chance to get up close and personal with a yard full of the fiberglass blades, we jumped on it !

Yep, they are very large. We didn’t measure them, but the size comparison with Betty and our Nissan 4x4 gives a good idea of it’s real world size.

There are three of these on each of those wind  generators that we see more and more of every year.

Click on a photo to enlarge it for a better look.

HEAVIER

ST 225/75 R 15 E, is the size that we replaced our original equipment tires that had blown out, with.

Load range E, 10 ply tires that carry 85 PSI of air pressure in them. Our old tires were ST 225/75 R 15 D, 8 ply tires that held 65 PSI.

Made in China by TRANSMASTER.

Here is a look at the tread pattern.

I asked the tire guy at Sam’s Club about the blue and white stripe on the tread, he said it was a warehouse marking. They looked pretty good for a heavier 10 ply tire, here is a look.

A look at the new valve stems.

And here is a look at them sitting on the ground in place.

Don’t know how they will pull yet, but they sure sit up better than the old 8 ply tires with 65 PSI in them did.

WIND

Roaring up into the Red River valley of the North, winds coming from a Southerly direction have brought high temperatures and have shut down the sugar beet harvest for several days in a row.

The National Weather service forecast was for gusts of wind up to 60 plus miles per hour.

Denned up in our fifth wheeler, we caught up on sleep, laundry and eating out. Regular gusts of wind would shake us around.

The wind let up for awhile this morning and we went to town for a few groceries. On the way we came upon a 18 wheeler that had been blown over as it traveled down the highway. Here is a look. The date on the camera was off, again, from changing batteries, again.

Click on the photo to make it larger and you can see where the rescue squad cut the windowshield and the steering wheel out, to remove the driver.

Here is a look at the other side of the truck.

As you can see, by the extreme steering axle angle,  the driver was trying to “get back under” his trailer as it was being blown over. It slid on it’s side for quite some distance in the highway before going into the ditch.

Two 18 wheeler wreckers arrived while we were there.

Here is a short video clip of the skid marks and over view of the area.

High wind blows semi off of the road

SEWING

Stitching or sewing up the belly skin is a protracted process that must be done in stages. Here is a “before” the start of repairs on a previous area where I had taken a short cut that didn’t pan out.

I had stitched the skin with ty wraps that were widely spaced, then covered the seam with gorilla tape. It looked good and worked well for the first few months. However the skin flexes and eventually that caused the tape that covered the seam, to turn loose.

In the next photo, I have removed the tape, and put in more closely spaced ty wraps. The next steps will be to cut off the excess on the ty wraps, wipe down with alcohol, then seal the seam up with silicone. Here is a “during” the repair look with the ty wraps not cut off just yet.

Here is a photo with the ty wraps cut off.

Here is the final result, with the seam sealed off with silicone.

The result is a tougher, more flexible, wind and water tight seam.

SLIDE

Our office slide out had  some of the wiring ripped out from the tires that blew out. It took awhile to trace out and repair the various circuits.

After getting Betty’s kitchen back in working order and her propane leak repaired, I started to work on my little hideout in the office slide.

The sugar beet harvest is on hold for a few days because of high temperatures, so, I’ll start making repairs to the last of the damages.

As I spent so much time under the trailer I noted that the gorilla tape that covered the belly skin access, from a heat tape modification that I made, wasn’t holding up well. Today I will remove the tape and do a ty wrap and silicone repair.  Here is a “before” look.

I will remove the tape, clean the area with alcohol, then add many more ty wraps before closing the seam with silicone.