Man what a day!!  62 mph winds.. 

I got both trucks loaded by noon.. wolfed down a sandwich.while slapping Tara around on NAT (again) hopped in the trucks and We.."headed west."

Right INTO the winds.. Yal baby.. lean into it.. bucking to make the 4 pm closing time.  The truck is rocking in the wind.. "man it's STRONG today.." 
Roll through Dodge.. hit the stop light at the bottom of the hill (well at least something is going right..) round the by-pass.. stop at the stop sign.. and start the climb..  shoving the pedal to the floor.. noticing that the wind is PICKING UP.. and the haze on the horizon.  Man it's getting worse...  Fight the hills and the wind to Ensign.. Wonder HOW am I gonna roll the tarp over in this...???


Through Monty.. Getting worse.. visibility is now down to 1/4 of a mile.. truck is really rocking now...   I'm watching guys drilling wheat along the way.. some are filling drills.. pulling fert trailers.. some are harvesting high moisture corn.. more trucks on the road today.. by Monty it is FLAT OUT NASTY..  too late to go home.


Make 144.. pull across the tracks.. down the hill.. and pull back up the other side.. onto the high plains now.. didn't know it at the time but they recorded 62 mph winds in Ulysses..  Hold on DOGGIES!!  Come on a cloud of dust.. within a cloud of dust.. it's a no-till drill.. fogging away..slicing HRW into the soil.. "this is nuts."

Pull into Empire.. hop out of my truck and run back to pops..

He rolls down his window halfway.. "I ain't getting out in this.." 

"I ain't doing it alone.." (If I try.. i'll be in Oklahoma before I come back down..)

So he reluctantly climbs up on the front.. I hold the crank.. (man I hope this works..) waiting for a break.. heck with it.. GO!!

.. the tarp.. flutters.. but rolls.. One down.. We move back to mine.. repeat.. fill out paperwork.. crawl back into the cab..and pull onto the scales.. it's so dark out it feels like a snow storm.. only with dust.. 


"Hey I'm gonna send you down the road.. the next lot is almost out of corn.. It's.. x miles.. then go.. east.."

"sure.."  (Great.. can this day get any better..??)


Climb back into the cab.. and THIS SONG is playing on the radio..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NQ48j8Fu5Q

EXACTLY as I was feeling...


"Can you hear when we call..

"There when we fall..

"standing our backs against the wall..

"At the top of our lungs..  

"how far we've come..

"When pain and love.. bleed into one..

"When all we see is darkness..      


I can't even see the horizon.. dust from the truck mixing with the dust from the lot.. DANG WIND... almost run over some cowboys.. wearing scarf's to block the dust.. (sorry man.. well at least don't have that job today..)  Miss the corner.. have to circle around on a tank farm.. make the lot.. dump the load.. and BREEZE home.

"what a day."