Has anyone checked the price of petrol lately....it is $3.79 per US gallon(3.7litres) in Missouri as of this morning. The only place any cheaper is China where the government subsidizes the cost of petrol.
What does one do when you volunteer for 10 days at sea with a laboratory that is a front for moonshine whiskey for the state of Missouri. Wellllll, as any god fearing male at an undisclosed age bracket can tell you, drink and be merry.
Getting back to this volunteer job which when I checked in, the project had dropped to 5 days at sea. Good enough as I can handle this. You leave Missouri and travel 9 hours via truck to South Haven, Michigan. This is my first trip to this part of the USA ever but as I had a room to myself and cable TV, can life get any better.
Next morning it was loading out the ship with gear. Underway shortly there after, on site within an hour and the port engine(for you land lubbers, its the left engine looking at the pointy end of the boat)breaks down. Needless to say we did finish with the sampling for the day. Back into port and diesel mechanic was scheduled for the next morning.
Mechanic is there bright and early next morning and it will be 2-3 days before the repair part will be available.It seems that the part is manufactured in Nepal and has to come across the desert by camel. Off load all of the gear and its another 9 hours travel back to the USGS laboratory in Missouri.
If anyone out there thinks that trucks don't move the bulk of the freight in the US, don't ever travel the roads from Chicago south.
While in Columbia, MO I stayed at a couples farm in the outback. The husband is consider a "Gentleman's Farmer", short for someone that has just tooooo much time on his hands. The wife works at the laboratory on a part time schedule as one of the many cleaning ladies. Her other occupation is working nights at Walmart as the Welcome Lady at the door.
I am back on the road tomorrow heading north-west to the Badlands National Park in South Dakota
Norm Garon
The Grey Nomad
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