2024 Estelline Trip

[JEBar]

last Thursday my 8 or so year old Lenovo Yoga had a shower and promptly died ..... without going into detail, we had several commitments and extenuating circumstances that made it impossible for us to replace it until yesterday .... the biggest issue was we usually purchase our electronics from Best Buy because he have a maintenance and service program with them .... the complication was, our nearest Best Buy to where we are staying in east central South Dakota is almost 80 miles away in Sioux Falls .... that translates to about a 160 mile round trip and in our Sportchassis that ain't a cheap drive .... we now have a replacement, an HP Envy Laptop .... it is taking some getting used to and to get it programed to where it is comfortable for me to work with

[JEBar]

83 right now with a very humid (for this area) 65% giving it a RealFeel of 90 .... today's high predicted to be 89 .... 91% chance of "heavy to severe" afternoon and evening thunderstorms .... weather radar does show some active storm cells popping up around the state but, so far, none near us .... first up this morning was removing an empty 40lb propane tank from its storage arour camper, loading it onto the back of our Sportchassis, strapping it down, idling up to the local Co-Op, having it filled, bringing it back and loading it back into the camper .... that tank full weighs just over 70 lbs which the older I get, the heavier that seems to be .... during that process I also rotated the tank we've been running on to the front and installing the newly refilled tank to the back .... with relatives rolling in for Maureen's annual wine tasting on Saturday and our annual Frogmore (picture below) scheduled for Sunday we will be burning a good bit of propane

[JEBar]

first picture below was taken yesterday shortly below dark ... it shows Estelline with one heck of a thunderstorm rolling it .... its still hard to believe that literally fifteen minutes earlier it didn't appear on weather radar .... we rode it out in our camper ... over the years we've been in it through 3 hurricanes and countless numbers of other storms .... that one last evening was one to remember .... this morning the city guys were busy hauling truck loads of down limbs ... so far as I know, no serious damage was done .... Maureen's pup is a trooper when it comes to lightening, thunder, firecrackers and other such loud sounds ... no clue how strong the wind gust were but they were powerful enough to shake our camper .... that shaking unnerved her pup who road out it out wrapped in her blanket laying on the couch as close to Maureen as she could get .... unsure how much rain we got, do know that except for puddles on pavement, it had soaked in by this morning .... relatives have started arriving for this weekend's gathering .... right after breakfast in the morning we have to make final supply run to Brookings to pickup the last of the supplies we need for the weekend .... no rain today, hopefully that will prove to be true through the Sunday evening

[Hatchdog]

^^^^^^^^^^

That’s one ugly storm front.

[JEBar]

that it was and it very much lived up to its looks

[JEBar]

Maureen's yearly wine tasting party for ladies in the family went well ... they sat out under the shade from massive elm trees on a beautiful day in east central South Dakota .... our cold smoked cheeses were a big hit .... our smoked Swiss, one of my favorites that really sounds a bit weird, was a big hit .... we now need to pickup some 2lb blocks and smoke it for some of them .... its supposed to get up to 93 later today with strong thunderstorms so we need to get some things taken care of this morning .... with our annual Frogmore (comments/pictures in a post above) scheduled for tomorrow, thankfully, it is supposed to me much cooler (80) with a much smaller storm risk .... in looking back home, it looks like a Tropical Storm forming south of Florida, could bring 15 or so inches to our area late this coming week

[JEBar]

heck of a good day .... yep, one heck of a good day .... our morning got off to a less than stellar weather day but, as predicted, a brief shower was followed by broken clouds and very pleasant temperature .... over 40 folks showed up and to our surprise they had decided to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary a bit earlier .... the actual date is October 12th and since none of the folks out here would be able to come to NC, they decided today was a good day to celebrate ... one of her nephews brought his girlfriend, their wedding is scheduled for this coming October 12th .... I told them that we'd try but I doubt we'll be able to make their 50th ....

[markiver54]

I will join them in the early anniversary wishes. Congratulations to both of you.

[Hatchdog]

They sure did a nice job with the decorations and the cake. Congratulations on the pending awesome milestone.

[JEBar]

I will join them in the early anniversary wishes. Congratulations to both of you.

thank you, they really surprised us but knowing them, we should have figured they would do something

[JEBar]

They sure did a nice job with the decorations and the cake. Congratulations on the pending awesome milestone.

they had it all planned out .... the first two carloads that arrived went to work and had the decorations up in a matter of a few minutes

[JEBar]

another step in getting ready to pull out for home in a couple of weeks .... even though a steady wind has been blowing at well over 20 mph most all day, the fellow who we prefer to work on our camper came by to clean and service both AC's .... its been at least 4 years since we were able to have them taken care of .... even back when I was much younger and had two good knees, there is no way I'd of gotten up on the roof with it being so windy .... today that's even more the case .... as expected, they both were very much in need of cleaning .... exposure to years of "cottonwood snows" that are so common out here most certainly contributed heavily to the mess he took out of both AC's .... naturally, with them back in top shape, the forecast is for a cooling trend over the next week ...

[JEBar]

biggest event of today was a supply (meds and food) to the Walmart in Brookings .... we will probably need to make one or possibly two more such trips .... with us due to head home two weeks from tomorrow we have no big events left on our list for this trip .... do have a couple of special meals on tap, I'm particularly looking forward to a "Salt and Fresh" water menu ---- saltwater shrimp and scallops with fresh water walleye fillets .... its been a beautiful day in the neighborhood with mostly clear sky, 72 degrees and gentle 5 mph breeze

[daytime dave]

Jim, that was nice of the family to do that for you two. Your boil meal looked delicious.

I hope you enjoy all your time there still.

[JEBar]

it certainly was .... Maureen has a large family out here and our Frogmore has become the yearly event where most of them gather for a meal and a visit .... we are having a fairly rapid warmup following a very cool 51 degree low over night .... currently 61 with Accuweather saying rain and a thunderstorm are minutes away .... after this weather moves out, the forecast calls for really nice weather for the rest of today .... nothing major scheduled for today, looks like Maureen's pup is in for a good scrubbing .... we are closely following Hurricane Debby's movement up the east coast .... looks like our home area is likely to suffer significant flooding .... on the one hand, we badly need rain .... on the other, it looks like we are in store for tooooo much ran falling tooooo rapidly

[Hatchdog]

^^^^^^^^^^

Hoping for the best for the home front Jim.

[JEBar]

51 overnight, already up to 59 on its way to 67 later today before dropping down to 47 tonight .... 0% chance of rain .... back home in central NC, the results of heavy rain from Hurricane Debby can be seen below .... they show our front yard and that of our daughter who lives next door .... we've been there since 1978 and have seen many hurricanes and other storms come and go .... this isn't the most standing water I've seen .... they are calling for another 5" of rain today .... when the standing water shown at our driveway goes up about another inch it will begin flowing out of our yard and cross the road .... from there it will run down hill into a very low area ....

[JEBar]

weather concerns settling down both back home in central NC and where we are in east central SD .... Hurricane Debby is history but its aftereffects linger on .... rivers are still rising down east so flooding remains a concern in some areas .... no major storm fronts on the radar anywhere close to where we are .... closest rain cell is about 10 hours west of us .... 54 overnight .... already up to 65 with a predicted high of 75 .... the chance for rain goes up after 6PM so far, not much on tap for today .... some family members will be stopping by for coffee both during the morning and afternoon .... we do plan to cold smoke some cheese for one of Maureen's nieces ....

[JEBar]

with us due to pull out and head home a week from tomorrow morning, I've escalated moving through checking things .... today, that included measuring the air pressure in all 10 tires .... all are a few PSI apart .... its supposed to warm up over the weekend so I plan to equalize them then .... I've gotten a bit paranoid about the motor that runs our camper's largest slide out .... it still moves the slide out but it does so very slowly .... I've had a new spare one for many years and have decided that now is the time to install it .... a local mobile tech who has done some other work for us this summer will be here day after tomorrow .... sometimes it pays to be paranoid, hopefully this is one of them .... currently 73, the forecasted low tonight is 64 which is much better than the mid 40's we had recently .... with a 98% chance of heavy rain and thunderstorms tomorrow they predict our high will only reach 69 ....

[JEBar]

we've had a cool, rainy morning .... our temp has climbed to 69 and is only forecasted to get up to 70 later today .... its still overcast but according to the weather radar, there ain't a cloud anywhere close .... they do say we will get more rain around 6PM .... we've just returned from a supply run to Brookings .... while down there we filled our truck in preparation to heading home one week from today .... we'd driven just under 700 miles since taking on fuel and were very pleased with getting 11.5 mpg .... we are still very happy with our diesel discount program which saved us 40 some cents a gallon