Day 63 - Sunday, July 25

After Chris and I sprinted away from Sedan last night, we boon-docked in Davenport at the city park which was right next to the RR tracks. Thus a restless night of sleep as trains came by what seemed every 30 minutes. Chris was up at 3:30am with me, both of us anxious to get back to where we stopped and move on. Weather forecast was for 97 degrees but as we moved out we noticed lightening in the distance and the early morning temperature while 72 degrees, it was also 94% humidity. As we approached the Sedan which is basically a grain depot, we looked for the trailer which was the scene of yesterdays excitement. No cars or vans outside the trailer, the entire towering depot is silent….but there are two lights on in the trailer. Chris pulls up to the abandoned house he waited in yesterday and told me to get a move on and the second i go by it, he will be out of here as quickly as possible. I approached the trailer because Google Maps had me make a left after the tracks and as I approached the trailer I noticed that while 2 windows had lights and what looked like normal gear, the entrance on the right side where I entered was windowless…

Some of you have asked why I would have entered the trailer in the first place. I must point out that at the end of the day’s run, I am usually the one to ask someone if we can boon-dock the rig overnight. This has been the case with the police, residents, city officials and in this case it looks like a supervisors trailer in the middle of the grain operation. And, having worked with construction, it looked like a supervisors trailer of which I have been in many times. When I knocked and no one answered, I waited and then opened the door.

I spent the day thinking about what else it could have been and came up with the counter theory that they were working with seeds, i.e. packaging seeds, weighing seeds, etc. Chris points out that he saw the 2 guys come out when I left and they were very young, no masks, no lab coats, no signs and i still can’t get away from the fact that they didn’t ask me about why I was there which everyone does and had the look of panic as they came towards me - enough on this.

Lucky and I launched going North and West from Sedan on a windy early morning with lightning and thunder and then rain shortly thereafter. While GMaps showed a route, we soon found ourselves moving around parked rail cars. After a few miles on the tracks I realized that when the sun came up this would definitely be an active railway and knew we had to find a road. I saw on GMap a parallel dirt road about a quarter of a mile away and so Lucky and I jumped off the rail and into waste high weeds before scrambling through some soybean farmland. In the dark with just a headlamp it was terrifying to be closed out in the field but thankfully we managed to get to the dirt road we were looking for, soaked, muddy and only 3 miles into the day!

We met Chris in Fairfield and then on the road before arriving in Grenvil totally water logged. Chris was filling water and gas so I went into the VFW which coincidentally was being used by a family for the Thanksgiving Reunion which was postponed due to COVID…what luck! I walked in and met Daniel behind the bar who asked me if I wanted anything and told him, “A Bud”. I learned from him that he is the mayor and we chatted a bit about the town which was a navy base during WWII as munitions supplies and today is farming and livestock - beef & hogs.

After we left the VFW we met a wonderful couple - Brittany and Matt and there 3 cute kids. They escorted us to the fire station where we could tap wifi since we didn’t have any cell signal and park for the night. Both are native Nebraskan’s and offered us anything we could possibly want - meat, vegetables, shower, etc. Thank you for your kindness!

All for today - I appreciate your support!

Cheers,

David.

The nondescript trailer in Sedan - the 2 lit windows look normal enough - they even have equipment inside…but I entered the trailer on the right side where there is a windowless room…

The massive silos that are filled from trucks bringing in and then silos fill the rail cars to haul off

Google Map shows a reasonable route on the side of the rail tracks

Which quickly becomes a grassy patch between rail cars and corn fields

And then it was just a very small area to get by…

So Lucky and I danced our way through moving as quickly as possible for fear that at any minute they might start up

We reached a sign and ran out of real estate

At the switch light we jumped to the right where there were soybean fields

And scrambled through to make it to a parallel dirt road

The town of Edgar under rainy skies but in the distance we could see the sun rising someplace

Corner market that sells groceries and guns

Edgar Post Office

Lucky is full of energy and so happy to be on the trail again

Fairfield Post Office

Meet up with Chris as he came out of the cocoon and into the rain which he commented felt like Ireland weather

Glenvil Post Office

Daniel, Chris and I at the VFW

Brittany & Matt w kids helping us get situated at the fire station