Day 6 (I may have to start liking people again)

What a great day.  

Even though we were on the road at 5:00 AM today (and of course, I was awake before 4:00 because, why would I sleep?) we had many highlights today,

Let's start with driving through Clear Lake, IA.  If that town doesn't ring a bell, you're either A.) too young to remember or B.) not a fan of rock music or C.) you never paid any attention to TV game shows that focus on trivia ("I'll take dead rock stars of the 50's for $500 please Alex).  Clear Lake, IA is the town Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper crashed near.  Ever hear of "the day the music died"?  Or the song "American Pie" by Don McLean?  OK, if you still don't know, fire up your Google machine and do a search. 



We stopped for coffee in southwestern Minnesota around 7:00 AM...

And as we approached Sioux Falls, actually, as we approached our destination IN Sioux Falls, This happened...

Yup.  One of the engines ran out of fuel.  If you've never run a diesel motor out of fuel, I don't recommend it.  It's very time consuming to get it back up and running.  Especially when you're new in town...

But after a little bit, Dave sent John and Grant on to the event and he and I waited with the truck til the Fire Department mechanics came and helped us out.  Along with Jodi's Dad.  Jodi stopped to see why we had pink fire trucks and Dave started talking to her about what we do.  She told us her Dad was a retired diesel mechanic and she then called him and told him to come and help us.

We finally got to join the rest of the guys at our first event at the Sioux Falls FD.  Nice people, not a huge crowd though, unless they all came and left before we got there.  The FD fed us, sloppy joes and chips (no comment)  and we were able (it was fine) to sit and chat with the crew (no really, it was fine) for a little bit.  While this was going on the mechanics tried to fix a short in the wiring of our trailer.

We headed north to Baltic, SD after lunch.  Arriving in town, we went to the local school and the grade school kids came out and looked at the pink fire trucks for about 30 minutes.  The next event, also set for the school, didn't start until 5:30 so we were left with some down time.  There's not much to do in a town of around 1,000 people.  However, the reason we were in town, a wonderful force of nature named Willette, took care of everything.  

Willette, a three time cancer survivor and the 77 year-old aunt of a dear friend of Dave's, introduced herself to a couple of guys by telling them she was up til 12:30 drinking Scotch.  This woman organized the event and, bless her heart, drew probably 600 people to it.  In a town of 1,000 people that's enormous!

Of course it wasn't a huge crowd, but it was steady all evening long.  And the folks up here are ridiculously nice.  

Especially Donna Lee and Betty Jean.  I met them in Sioux Falls, but they said they were originally from Baltic and would be there also.  They teased me that I wouldn't remember their names, so when I saw them in Baltic, I made a point of calling them each by name.  They got a huge kick out of that.  A little later, I saw them sitting in their car and I came over to scold them for not saying good-bye before they left.  Donna said "oh we're not leaving yet, just taking a break".  So when the time came for them to leave, they came up to tell me goodbye, to thank me for remembering their names and to thank us for coming to Baltic.  Dave offered to be their "boy toy" and after considering it, they told him no.  Donna did however have no qualms about resting her hand on my butt for this photo...

Finally, as we were driving convoy style back to Sioux Falls for the night, Leonard (last in the convoy and driving Karen) came on the radio and told us to watch the woman approaching us on the back of the motorcycle.  As the bike came alongside me, I immediately recognized them as a husband and wife I'd spoken to in Baltic.  Theresa was a 12 year cancer survivor and she and her husband were both as nice as could be and seemed to enjoy the evening and seeing the fire trucks immensely.  

That was proven by the piece of paper Theresa held in her hand as they passed us, southbound on I-29.

It said, simply, handwritten in big block letters...

THANK
YOU

I almost started crying on the spot.

Tomorrow we're off to Watertown, SD.

Pink Heals!

Peace