LAUNDROMAT

After getting our trailer hooked up, one of the first order of business items was a trip to town to do laundry. A staff member here at the lake, recommended the TIDY WHITIES LAUNDROMAT on West Main Street in Independence. Were we in for a supprise when we got there ! Clean, very clean ! And the most modern and efficient machines we could imagins. The old addage about the whites being whiter was absolutely true at the Tidy Whites Laundry. Here is a few pix:






The friendly and most helpful staff:
It was a new experience for us to load a special credit card to use in each of the machines. The Card could be purchased and loaded right on site. There were no machines marked out of order and every thing not only worked well, but the clothes came out clean, very clean.
It was a cool thing, such a high tech laundry in such a Historic old town. As we loaded our super clean laundry into our Jeep we noted this example of Independence's Old West History:

1.9Mb

One point nine megabytes per second ! With 3G signal showing five, yes that's right, I said five full bars of cellular service. Wow ! With 1.9 megabyte, up load speeds to the internet, we are gona' be spoiled when we leave the Elk City Lake State Park, located just outside of Independence Kansas. We arrived here late yesterday evening and spent the night down by the lake. It was windy and chilly with a stiff wind coming off of the water. This morning early we were at the Express Employment Professionals office in Independence. Signed the doccuments we had sent in to them last week, submitted a urine sample and were back in camp by 0930hrs. Express will reimburse our camping and other miscellaneous fees with our payday on the 25th of the month. Otherwise it would have cost us in total, $442.20 for a month. Now that includes a Kansas State Parks camping and vehicle pass that is good for a year. A Barred Owl is calling out side of the window across the meadow from our campsite, and we are beginning to settle in quite well as I return his call, prompting a territorial response from him.Here is a video look at our camp site and loop:

SUNBLOCKERS

We ran late lastnite, arriving in Council Bluffs Iowa around midnight. Though we had slept in on anchor day, we still covered 450 miles. The temperature this morning was 32* AT SUNRISE. HE, HE, IT AIN'T ENOUGH YET ! We should make Independence Ks today. Then, HELLO, AMAZON.COM ! Here is a quick video of our overnite stop at Camping World:

ANCHORDAY

Today is up-anchor day ! It was a slow night on the piler and there was plenty of help, so, Betty and I turned in our personal protective equipment, and told every one good bye. It was the end of a grand adventure for us. We look forward to seeing all of our friends when we return next year.
We slept in a bit this morning, waiting for the overnight freeze to abate a little, then we started the final up anchor chores. Eight hundred miles to the South in Coffeeville Kansas a new adventure awaits us. That and warmer temperatures. We have absolutely and totally enjoyed our time and experience here, but, warmer temps will be pleasant.
We will run long today, stopping late tonite in warmer climes !
In the photo above, things may look a bit "helter-skelter", but in 45 minutes it will look like we were never here !
Next blog update either on the road, or at the lake in Independence Kansas.
Hey, Pete, note the MilSpec camelback hydration pack hanging on the wall of Ollie. I found it at a thrift store in Grand Forks North Dakota for eight dollars. It still had the quality assurance stickers on it and was like new ! It wil come in handy on our next Rocky Mountain Continental Divide adventure !

PILES

Here is a look at the beet piles from Google Earth's lofty perch.

Here is a ground level look at the piles. Click the arrow in the lower left corner to play the video drive around.

COFFEEVILLE

The sugar beet harvest is winding down, and as the end draws near, we began to hear of a inside, out of the weather job, eight hundred miles to the South, in Coffeeville Kansas. After a bit of internet research and a phone call or two, we have it hooked up. Eight hundred miles South means milder weather, which sounds pretty good about now, since we have worked some 19* nights on the beet pile.
All of the paperwork is done, the interviews completed, and we are now officially Amazon dot com associates !
All of the employment forms arrived minutes after our first contact with the prospective employer and we quickly filled them out and sent them back. The end of the work day was at hand so the first thing the next morning, upon checking our email, we had the job.
All that remains is a 800 mile drive, after we finish up the beet pile here, and the orientation at the new site.
We will be seasonal workers at Amazon.com's large shipping facility in Coffeeville Kansas.
GREAT SHADES OF RUBY RED SLIPPERS, TOTO ! WE R' GONA' BE IN KANSAS AGAIN !
Camping fees will be paid at this location also, and we will be staying at the Elk City State Park, a U.S. Corps of Engineers Lakeside campground. After talking with the host there we learned that the new shower house is completed, but the laundry is still under construction.
We will be working four ten hour days, which will give us more time to explore the old historic areas there. The job will be from November the 8th. to December the 23rd. Which means we will have to day trip it home for Thanksgiving, and the back seat will be full of CHRISTmas presents for the trip home at the end of the assignment.
We are excited about this new assignment and are looking forward to working inside as Winter draws nearer.
A nearby Geocache that we will be sure to look up is DALTON'S REST STOP. Here is a snip from the geocache log page:
I thought this rest stop needed a cache. I am sure there is a reason there hasn't been one placed here so far but I don't know of one. You are looking for a cammoed pill bottle that is located approximately half way between the graves of Frank Dalton and his Brothers' Gang grave including Bob and Grat Dalton and Bill Powers.

If you have heard of the Dalton Gang and know the history of them then you know you are looking in a very historic place in the real American Wild West. Enjoy finding this cache as much as I did placing it.

ULTIMATE

You don't have to be around me for very long to figure out that those that have served our Country hold a special place in my heart.
While researching geocaches in the area where we are working the sugar beet harvest, I noted a travel bug that was circulating in caches of the area. It was a special travel bug. A ULTIMATE SACRIFICE travel bug. These special travel bugs recognise those that have given their lives while in the service of their fellow man. This one is in memory of Flight Lt. Paul Martin Pardoel of 47 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
We soon got a rain day off from piling beets and Betty and I went to Fargo to the Texas Roadhouse for a late lunch. After lunch and a ice cream cone, we needed to walk a bit and I remembered that I had sent the coordinates of several likely caches for the Ultimate Sacrifice travel bug to be in, to our Garmin Colorado GPSr.
"Off the wall" is the name of the geocache and it is located North of Moorhead Minnesota. After a brief search with our Garmin Colorado GPSr, we found the cache. Paydirt ! The very first cache we went to just happened to have the Ultimate Sacrifice travel bug inside of it !
We have logged it and will carry it to a cache we have in mind, back home in the beautiful Ouachita Mountains. A little over eleven hundred miles to the South.