   Early Thursday morning I and a friend took off for NW Kansas on a combine trip.The plan was to haul home a 123 McCormick SP combine from WC Kansas. We stopped in NC Kansas to look at a dandy 1954 JD 55 combine which I ended up buying.Then it was on out to Colby,KS to look at a 1952 JD 55 and a 1955 JD 55 combines for $250 each.It starting raining just as we got there. Then we drove all the way back to WaKeeney,KS in a pouring rain to spend the night.We about drowned fueling the truck up there.We called the owner of the 123 at Ransom,KS and he said it would be too muddy to load the 123 Friday afternoon.Its on a mud road in the middle of nowhere in rattlesnake country. So early Friday morning we dollied off the trailer and headed over 100 miles SW to pick up a bunch of NOS AC 100 SP combine parts that I won on ebay.What a treat it was to see all the stuff this guy has.On the way down we went thru areas that had 4" of rain with baseball size hail on Thurs eve.Some places had 10" of rain in 7 days and the water was rolling out of the normally dry fields At noon we were back in Ransom,KS and took a 4WD pickup to see the 123 that I had bought sight unseen.We could have loaded it later that evening but had already made plans to load the nice 1954 JD 55 in NC KS.So we made a beeline to Beloit,KS and started loading the 55 1 hour before dark.On the way up we went by a huge windmill farm on I-70.At least 100 plus are already up with lots more being built.They run for miles. Early Sat morning we were out to the farm by 7:30 and had the 55 loaded by 11 am.It almost rained several times. The top picture is where the 55 had set unused since 1990.It had last been started in 1998 but the owners had it running when we looked at it at 1 pm on Thursday.In 1970 it had replaced a 1928 Baldwin pull type combine.In 1990 a slick 95 JD replaced the 55 and later a slick 6620 replaced the 95.Both the 95 and the 1800 hour 6620 were in the shed. The middle picture is one of the bachelor brother owners Alfred E. The bottom picture was taken just before we left for home.The guy on the right is Eugene E,next is Alfred E,next is their neice,and last is her Mom and the brothers sister.They were absolutely the nicest people you could ever meet and offered to let us spend the night there. The 55 JD is basically field ready.It has been modified some and has a Farrar sickle drive,later style 55 operators ladder,extra ladder on the back,has larger access holes,modified air intake etc. I got extra parts including a brand new feeder chain,new platform bottom sheet metal,used belts,etc. We drove 1300 miles and burnt alot of high priced diesel ranging from $4.06 here at home to $4.42 at Iola,KS.We had lots of fun and saw lots of stuff.We got safely home a little after 7 pm Sat eve.There were storms to the east and south on the way home.We were saddened to find that they had killer tornadoes in them with 14 dead in SWMO and 6 dead at Picher,OK.
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