Today, I shocked Lovely by asking if she wanted to take a ride. “Yes,” she replied instantly; “where?”
“It’ll be a surprise.” She left to get into her touring clothes, and I went to put on a pair of shoes. I didn’t have a plan, but she suggested that we sit at home too much and that we should go to a park for some fresh air. Her favorite place in Illinois is Starved Rock State Park. Her deceased son, Freddie, often took her there. In the back of my mind, I thought Starved Rock would be a good destination.
I fired up the Death Star, and she said we must go to Walmart to return some clothing I bought that doesn’t fit, and then to PetSmart to get kitty litter for Jerry’s cat. “That’s not a ride,” I said, “it’s a shopping trip.”
“Oh,” she replied in a tone that suggested dissatisfaction. “Okay, okay, I’ll take you to PetSmart.”
“And Walmart too.” I put it in gear and left town by the back door to get her into a different mood. “Isn’t Walmart on Lincoln Highway?” she asked. My ploy to get her mind off of kitty litter didn’t work for a single second. We continued along my path. “I promise we will get kitty litter.” She lectured me on how, when she promises somebody something, it is the first thing she does. My intention was to check out the countryside while we had a sunny bright day and to then kill the remainder of time shopping before we returned.
We finally got onto Interstate 80 at Joliet and sped onward to Morris. I needed gas, so I pulled into a truck stop and filled up with the lowest-cost gas I have used in the past four years, $2.89/gal; that same gallon costs $3.29/ gal in Frankfort. Back on the highway, I enjoyed seeing that the farmers had harvested at least 90% of the corn and soybean crop. The small irregular fields still left with corn were probably left for last because it is a big pain in the ass to break down and set up so often for the little output. It is Sunday and not many fields were being worked. I did see one old combine chugging along taking down about ten rows of corn. The machine was so old, all the paint was worn off and I couldn’t tell what color it was. The predominant color of Illinois tractors, combines, trailers, conveyers is John Deere Green.
Back in the day when I was still in college and not yet certified as a Mechanical Engineer I worked during summers at International Harvester as a Gofer. The only color farm equipment in all of Illinois was red. Thanks to the same UAW union that nearly bankrupted the car companies, IH, combined with its poor management, went out of business. They sold off profitable products to competing farm equipment manufacturers, so there is still a smattering of red left in the agricultural world.
I enjoyed the ride, inspecting the harvest status, while Lovely mumbled about not seeing any trees. She expected a fall color tour.
Eventually, I made left turns at two junctions, and we were pointed back toward home. We exited I-80 at New Lenox and pulled into the mall to shop PetSmart and Walmart. From there, I stopped at the Rising Sun Chinese restaurant and ordered takeout to polish off the day.
Filed under: Biography, Food | Tagged: Farming, Harvest, John Deere | 1 Comment »
