Illinois it is.

[scruffy]

Well, I guess the cards have all been sent to Tallahasse, and the recount is completed. Belleville, (Scott AFB) Illinois it is. Date is still up in the air, but appears to be Jan 2 for the first day at work. Beats the 18th of this month that they were demanding.
Anybody know anything about that area? Flatland? Rolling hills? Trees? With an AFB there, I can assume flatland, but that don't mean I'm right.
At least we get to sit in one spot for awhile. This one year here, and one year there has gotten old.

 

[gordon]

How long did you get that contract for Scruffy?
Good luck with your move and relocation keep us posted and most of all good luck with your new position. Hope you like ILL.
Gordon

 

[MChalkley]

Cool! Congratulations! Hey, IL is tractor country, buddy! It won't be long before you're back in the saddle.

MarkC

 

[Bird]

Scruffy, the last time I drove up to Chicago via St. Louis was 19 years ago and there's an awful lot of flat farm land going up that way, but I just don't remember what it was like that close to St. Louis.

At any rate, I wish you luck; hope you like the job and family likes the location.

Bird

 

[scruffy]

Gordon,MarkC,Bird, the contract is a five year deal! A little less bucks per annum than this past year, but full bennies, and 5 years in one spot. Worthwhile to me. It's still beating the average for the job.
The job is Sys. Admin on a test and developement platform...actually three of them. Regular hours (no after hours, no weekends), not a production system, more ability to try out new ideas/hardware/software. Interesting job from my viewpoint.
Location? Well, let it suffice to say, the wife is NOT happy with that situation, but immenantly grateful its not N.Y., or N.J., etc.
Would rather have stayed on the west coast, but sometimes things just don't work the way we want.
Tractor country! Oh Boy! I'll be looking for a good deal along about summertime! Take me that long to get caught up and figure out what kinda old critter I want to tackle next!
Still kinda thinking along the CUB lines, but just depends on what Kubota gets in the way of the sights!

 

[ronjhall]

Welcome to the Mid West. Isn't Bellevile a suburb of St.Louis?

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[bpence]

One of the guys that works for me is from the Southern IL. area - little town called Wood River, I think. Anyway, he says most folks down there like the song "John Deere Green". That wouldn't necessarily be all bad I suppose. Congratulations on securing a solid long term commitment in one spot. The midwest ain't a bad place to live....just duck when you hear the tornadoes coming.

Bob Pence

 

[scruffy]

Ron, Bob, I am familiar with the mid west tornados. We spent two years in Oklahoma, and a year in Kansas, so they aren't anything new. Even the 1.5 years in Georgia was not free of tornado's or (something new to us) hurricanes.
Ron, yeah Belleville is on the far eastern edge of East St. Louis, but we are thinking more of looking for a residence NE, SE, or East of there. We want rural, not city or suburbs. Understand there are several smaller communities out a short distance...maybe we'll be lucky.

 

[ronjhall]

Scruffy
We don't just have Tornado's here. We get four seasons of weather. Sometimes we get to enjoy the beauty of it all even after having to fight traffic on snow covered freeways for 5 day now. See attached photo. Winter dosn't arrive until next Wednesday.
Welcome again.


ronh/w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

 

[scruffy]

Ron, Snow I ain't worried about! Been around/under/in it in Oregon, Montana, Oklahoma and Kansas. You can do something about snow, or freezing rain (stay home!) but tornados and hurricanes kinda leave your backsides hanging in the breeze so to speak. They're so unpredictable.
Maybe I am wrong, but it seems as the SE corner of IL doesn't get near the snow your picture shows. Am I wrong?
P.S. - I guess we will be finding out at the end of the month. Movers are packing and loading out on the 26th-27th, and we will be on the road the morning of the 28th. Tight schedule, but what the heck, at least we will be home for christmas...such as it will be, no tree, or festivities planned. We will wait until the Illinois end to celebrate with immediate family presents.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by scruffy on 12/15/00 10:15 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[ERNIEB]

Scruffy, Man that is a tight schedule. I like your Cub idea, or how about a Farmall A. They really restore nice.
Best of luck to you.


ErnieB
"We were surrounded by some gross, proud, and victorious men. Anyone who knows the character of the North Americans can judge what our situation must have been."
Jose Juan Sanchez Navarro

 

[scruffy]

Ernie, Thank you!
I will have to research the differance on the CUBS to figure out a preference! I haven't (at this time) the foggiest on the differance between the models. I think that I will see if anybody wants to start a string with photos of the differant models and what IS differant about them, but it will have to wait until we find a home and get set up at the other end.
Somewhere in the early fifties, didn't they come out with a 3pt hitch? How about rear PTO? Or was that a belt drive type of setup?

 

[ronjhall]

I don't think its as bad as further north. Seem to remember that southern IL was hilly. If you survived OK and Kansas, you should see less action in that area.

ronh/w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

 

[scruffy]

Sounds good!
The first week in OK, we saw a plastic K-Mart bag flying north about 6' off the ground. A week later, saw another (or same) K-Mart bag headed south about the same heighth off the ground, figured it had gone to Canada and back, being that I had been told the one fence in between Canada and Oklahoma was down. That place was windy, and flat. The snow was dry powder, and would blow into nice 3 or 4 foot drifts between home and work (10 miles on back roads), it got interesting at times. Particularly when I had to travel 3 days a week down to OKC (Tinker AFB), which was 103 miles, door step to door step. The highways weren't as bad as the back roads by any means.