RV Travels with Dakota Duo: October 2015

The sugar beet harvest has begun. We worked nights this year, 8:00 pm to 8:00 am. Those who had worked the night shift before said it was easier - we weren't sure. Both of our pilers start inside a building, so that was not different - we still had all the building lights to work under. The good part about working nights was that the first night after we had picked our ground crews, we had time to talk with them about the machine, about their jobs and truck safety. Then we turned the machine on at midnight and the trucks started coming.

Piling beets in the buildings

To prepare for being up all night, we had tried to stay up later the nights before we began and tried to sleep in longer. That was hard to do, but probably helped a little. I covered all the bedroom windows with foil to block out the daylight and used earplugs every night to block out the noise. (Gary had no problem with that) Every morning we came home, showered and ate supper before bed and then ate breakfast before we went to work each night. It just seemed to work better that way, then we had our coffee/caffeine before we were staying up all night. We usually went to bed about 9:30 a.m. and tried to sleep until 5:30 pm. After a few nights of twelve hour shifts, that was not difficult to do.

The weather was dry and cool - perfect for the harvest for the first six shifts. The beets coming out of the fields were dry, hardly any mud sticking on them, so our machines ran very well. We kept so busy with trucks coming throughout the night - the time went by quickly. The seventh night we were shut down - it had rained during the day and so we were off. The Lord is good, I had been battling allergies or a cold making me all congested and miserable, so I welcomed the chance to sleep extra hours and heal. Gary wanted to try and stay up all night to keep on schedule, so he went out for breakfast at 10:00 pm with the McLain's and then stayed up to watch movies during the night. Then we both slept on Thursday before we went in that night. Our machines were outside by then, so our crews had mud puddles to clean up while we waited for the trucks to begin coming again. We worked Friday night and then we were totally done with harvest at 8:00 a.m. Saturday. They shut the yard down again for the weekend because the temps were too warm (80's) and those who stayed finished the last trucks on Tuesday and Wednesday after a Monday night rain.

Night shift piling beets

We were tired so we slept some Saturday, then went to a laundromat and washed everything that had beet smell. We slept regular time Saturday night, Mass on Sunday morning, rested and then drove back to Sioux Falls on Monday. There were high wind gusts on Monday, but the wind was from the north so the Captain sailed our motorhome back with the wind behind us.

Back in Sioux Falls, we had three weeks to sit because we wanted to go to Duluth, MN on Oct. 30 to see Ben perform in his opera. (The Minnesota Opera had a single matinee performance in Duluth) We spent our time visiting friends and family. Gary had an RV inspection appointment in Mitchell, we attended Jared Ostermann's organ recital at Cathedral, baked football and Halloween cookies with the grandsons and had them overnight again in the motorhome. Thank you everyone for your hospitality, we enjoyed seeing so many of you.

Oct. 30 we packed up the car and headed north to Duluth. We drove all day and arrived late afternoon. We checked in to our motel and went out for a drive before we met Ben. We drove the Skyline Drive, which takes you through the upper part of the town, giving you great views of Lake Superior and the harbor. We met Ben for supper and had a great time visiting and drinking good craft beer.

View of Duluth Harbor from Skyline Drive

Oct. 31 - Halloween. After breakfast we went down to see the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center and watch the large ships in the harbor. We watched the Aerial Lift Bridge raise and lower for the ships to come and go. After lunch, we went to the opera matinee, held at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center Symphony Hall. We met Kelsey before in the lobby and then went in to our seats. This opera was "The Magic Flute", a comedy written by Mozart. We had seen parts of the opera before, but the Minnesota Opera production presented this in a unique way. They had a huge wall set up with doors that swung open. The singers were harnessed onto chairs that hung on the wall doors - most of them sang their parts seated and strapped on. A few of the singers did walk on the stage below. It was very well done and very entertaining. Afterward, we got to greet many of the singers and Ben. We had supper with Ben and Kelsey and then they went to a cast party.

Aerial Lift Bridge

From the Visitor's Center

The William Irvin Ship Museum

Nov. 1 - after breakfast and Mass, we picked up Ben and Kelsey and drove up to explore the North Shore of Lake Superior. The tree leaves were changing and we saw beautiful colors as we drove along the shoreline. It was cool and overcast so we were not able to get out and take the hiking trails. We ended up at Split Rock Lighthouse and enjoyed exploring there, reading about the history of the lighthouse and area. We went down the outdoor steps to the beach below and stuck our hands in the lake. We got some great pictures there. Driving back, we stopped for lunch at lunch in Castle Danger at the Rustic Inn Cafe. Good soup, sandwiches, pie and we discovered how good the Castle Danger Cream Ale is. We also stopped and watched a large ship from the beach at Two Harbors. Back in town, Ben & Kelsey loaded up their car and drove back to Minneapolis. Gary and I went and visited the Bent Paddle Brewery, had supper and then bed. Monday morning, we packed up and headed to Sioux Falls.