Combining Goodbye and Hello

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

We bid farewell to our Polar Bear friends with a “going away” breakfast. There were lots of hugs and  goodbyes. What a wonderful experience, with a great group of people--This trip has been fantastic!  15 days went by so quickly, but still, there was enough time to explore a new part of the country, make new memories, and make new friends.  It was strange leaving the campground without a trip log to the next destination!  We’ve travelled about 2900 miles since we left home.  The Polar Bear trip was 1160 miles from start to finish.

But, we didn’t have far to go for our next adventure….we traveled to Morden, Manitoba, about 60 miles away, to say hello to some friends we met 6 or 7 years ago in Arizona.  Morden is a farming community with rich fertile land, that was under the same lake as the one that covered Winnipeg thousands of years ago.  We were struck by the acres and acres of farmland surrounding the area.  We thought there were big farms in Indiana, but they’re small compared to these.  John and Myrna were there to greet us when we arrived at their farm.  This is harvest time, so we joined them in the fields and experienced something totally new.  They are completing the harvest of their 3000 acres of bean, corn and canola.   We got to ride the combine to watch the amazing process of bringing the corn in from the field.   The combine travels along the rows of corn, plucks the corn from the stalks, threshes (separates) the kernels from the cob, deposits it in the hopper, and cuts the stalk off at the bottom, leaving the field flattened after the combine rolls through. The machine had interesting technology that gave an indication of moisture content (18%) and provided a notification when the hopper was 70% full.  It also measures the amount of land that has been harvested.  One trip down and back filled the hopper with the harvested corn.   The corn was then transferred through a big tube to a large truck to haul it to the silo where it is weighed and dumped.  Fully loaded, the truck weighed over 140,000 lbs!  What a fascinating process, and a great learning experience.  Farming is much more of a science than I ever realized.   The guys worked  past dark to get in as much as they could.  What a day—combining great adventures and great friends!