It’s on the auction block.
After trucking himself since 1978 and with his wife, Kathy, the past 18 years, Larry and Kathy Baty are ready for retirement and the truck they’ve called home for much of the week is up for bid in an online auction.
Flandreau-based Dakota Layers, which the couple had hauled for most recently, held a party for the two as they returned from delivering their last load of eggs to California late last month. For the past eight years, Larry would load eggs at the company’s farm in Flandreau on Saturdays and the two would take off for Dakota Layers Distribution Center in Santa Maria, California. They would then grab primarily fresh organic produce from nearby Paramount Logistics and run it straight back to Midwest Fresh in Dell Rapids, returning by Thursday.

“We would load in Flandreau, go to California and come back to Dell Rapids, which is seven miles from our house and Dakota Layers was 15-20 miles from the house. We live right in the middle of it. It was perfect for us,” said Kathy. “And being together — we knew what we were doing every week from week to week, we knew where we were going and who we were going to be with, where we were unloading and where we were loading. Working for Dakota Layers was probably the best people we ever worked for along with Paramount. Everyone was so easy to work with and they were so loyal to us and we were to them.”
Dakota Layers spokesperson Tracy Ramsdell said they couldn’t have had more reliable partners.
“During all the years they hauled for us, they never missed one load, which we are beyond grateful for. Their dedication to getting our eggs promptly and safely across the states is definitely going to be missed.”
The Batys though, are ready for this next stage of their lives.  
“There are a lot of things we won’t miss, mainly the idiots on the road, you might say. So far we haven’t missed it at all. There’s no courtesy out there like there used to be and the drivers are more rude than they’ve ever been before,” she said.
The two have traded time in their 18-wheeler for something more fun and perhaps a little less stressful that will take them back and forth to the Black Hills where they plan to retire. The Batys are currently building a new home, they plan to sell their Moody County residence as soon as that is complete.