Here we are, on the road: We’re in Columbia Falls, MT

Saturday, July 07, 2012 Lorraine’s report

Has it ever been busy in our lives, and we have come far it feels like since I wrote the last time. Hello from Columbia Falls RV Park in Columbia Falls, MT. It is hot today 94 degrees, sunny, clear but it’s a dry heat, with lows down to 54 tonight.

We left the nice campground there in Prior Lake MN on Monday, June 25th morning to get the engine leak fixed at a big truck shop just a short distance from where we were staying. The good news is that the shop did fix the dip stick leak in the engine and they were able to find a part so that it wouldn’t happen again; bad news is that it took from 8:30 until 4 pm and it cost way more that we had expected; also sitting in our coach at the shop since it was so hot that day wasn’t fun, but at least we stayed cool and they got it done.

Once they got it all back together, we left at 4 pm into Minneapolis rush hour traffic. We headed straight through Minneapolis to a KOA by Osseo, MN, (white knuckle time). Chuck’s Aunt Lila has lived there in Osseo for many years, and the last time we were by her area, she had made other plans before she knew we were going to be through there and we didn’t get to see her.

Chuck had called her to let her know we were going to be longer than the 15 minutes to an hour at the shop; and I think we called when we left the shop. We made it into Osseo without any problems, set up and went to find Aunt Lila’s home. We had no trouble finding her home; it was wonderful to see her and she made us feel very welcome.

Aunt Lila had made us a wonderful dinner and the evening went by extremely fast. We got to meet Karla, her daughter and Wayne, her son, whom we hadn’t met before and Chuck’s uncle Keith came over and we had a nice family visit. Thank you Aunt Lila and Karla, we loved the visit!

There are only two uncles and one aunt left from his mother’s family of eleven and even though it was a short visit we learned a lot of Chuck’s family history.

After that we went south along the eastern side of Iowa to Moscow to have our jacks fixed at HWH. It was hot-96 and very humid; went into Muscantine, IO to eat dinner and we toured the town and the locks on the Missouri River. We drove over a bridge and found ourselves in Illinois, turned around and went home for the evening.

The next day we went into the HWH shop and had the jacks fixed; leaving at 1 pm.

We stopped at an Indian Casino-Winna Vegas in Sloan, Iowa at 7 pm, set up went into the casino to eat, came back out and found that a big truck had parked right by us and had left its generator running to keep her load of ice cream frozen. The gal was coming out of it when we got to the motor home and Chuck asked her if she was going to leave it running all night and if she was going to move it. She said she was going to leave it running and she wasn’t going to move it.

We went into our coach and I went into the bedroom to find you couldn’t hear anything except the noise from the truck. We pulled up the jacks and moved to another spot. We don’t know why, but the jacks wouldn’t go down after we moved, but they did the following evening, sure scared us.

We were the only ones in that parking area when we arrived. After we came out, there was one other rig with live pigs in a carrier, us and she had to park right next to us. She could have chosen any of the other 15 or so places to park her noisy rig. Some people#!

The Winna Vegas casino gave each of us $10 for being new members and $10 more dollars if we played for an hour, which we did; and we both walked away with $ in our pockets, and the spot was $15 for night, no water or sewer.

The following day we continued our trip west, driving into head winds of a big storm until we ran out of the storm front. Sure glad we kept on driving as the skies turned black behind us and the heavens opened up with heavy rain/hail and it was very windy.

Our destination was Rapid City, SD to get our mail and see friends, Connie and Manuel whom we had met a few years ago at Quartzsite, AZ. That was another long day of driving from 9:30 until 5 pm, central time, which was 4 pm mountain time. Only one more hour to get back to Pacific Time zone, yea!

We did our usual routine when arrived and when we finished we called Connie and agreed to get together for dinner. We spent several hours with them that night and then the next evening, even teaching them how to play 10,000. Thank you both for the fun times.

All too soon it was time to leave, which we did on 7-1, next stop Garryowen, MT. This area is in the Little Big Horn area of southeastern Montana. Two years ago we were here and the car was in tow but the water pump had blown so we couldn’t drive it, so we missed Custer’s Last Stand Battlefield.

We pulled in at 3:45 pm to the 7^th Calvary Campground, did the usual set up and took off to drive into the Last Stand Battlefield and Museum. Once again it was extremely hot, 107 degrees when we stopped to set up, but that didn’t stop us.

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the visit and it was very interesting and informative. The rangers gave us a very thorough talk as to how the battle took place. I didn’t realize that there were 14 Indian chiefs from the various Indian nations that took part in that battle. It was to be the last great effort to push the whites out of their lands.

The following morning July 1, found us headed west again, next stop, Anaconda, MT, where the temperature was only 82 degrees in the daytime, dropping to 48 for the night. We crossed the continental divide again at 6363 feet. It’s been getting cooler as we head west and not much humidity either.

From there we drove on through to here, Columbia Falls, MT where we spent the 4^th of July. Patriotism and belief in God is big here in Montana. The parade, banners/flags, people and the signs up all over about God’s 10 Commandments are a clear sign, gives me hope.

Driving to see the fireworks in Big Fork, the sun on the green fields of grass and alfalfa was incredible. We sat on a dock at Big Fork Lake in the Wayfarers State Park and watched all the fireworks going off all along the entire lake, a beautiful end to our country’s birthday. This reminded me of all the 4^th of July parties we had at our home in Bellingham over the years, with all the fireworks being shot off on the Lummi Indian Reservation and all around on the bay; it was fun!!

Yesterday we went into Glacier National Park for the first time. I must say I was impressed by all the mountains, the snow, glaciers, fast flowing streams, lakes and the majesty of it all. We drove the Road to the Sun without any construction delays, something unheard of this time of the year. It was beautiful!! I don’t know how many pictures I took, as well as Chuck, who climbed down river banks & along side the lakes to take the pictures.

We ended up at the eastern entrance to Glacier Park and went south to Browning, looking for the Plains Indian Museum. It turned out to be closed, so we went into to Glacier Peaks Casino. For being new members of their club, they gave us a $5.00 ticket each. Chuck and I both were winners, him more so than me . We arrived back home by 6:30 another long day.

I know this is long, but it has been two weeks and we have come far- 6 states, Minnesota, Iowa, into Illinois, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. We’ve had our jacks fixed, the engine leak fixed, and the Hydro Hot heater serviced. We’ve seen incredible things, beautiful country, and met up with family and friends. What more can you ask for?

Until next time,

Lorraine

7/8/12 Chuck’s Report

This will be a two week report as we didn’t write our blog last Sunday. So you might want to run to the bathroom first, grab a beer on the way back and enjoy.

We left Prior Lake on Monday earlier than our normal leaving time due to the fact we were going to a repair place to get our dip stick tube replaced. The tube is about 3’ long so it can be accessed from the rear of the engine and it’s a pressed fitting into the lower engine block. We arrived at the place about 8:30 and were told it should take less than an hour. We’ll, after getting the old one out, they wanted to find a fix to keep it from melting again which meant they needed to develop some sort of heat shield. They ordered one from a local place who had to order it from their warehouse and we waited. Long story short, we didn’t get out of there until about 4:00, just in time to hit rush hour traffic thru Minneapolis on our way to Osseo.

We got to Osseo where my Aunt Lila lives, checked into the local KOA and gave her a call. She told us she had made dinner for us and wanted us to come right over. We had a very nice time getting caught up with her and the family in the area. Later her daughter, my cousin Karla came by to see us too and we had a good time visiting with her until it was time to head back to our coach.

Next morning we once again went to Lila’s place and once again she had food ready for us. Later her son. my cousin Wayne, came over and we had a good time visiting with him. That afternoon my Uncle Keith came by to see us too, he kept us entertained for a couple of hours. All in all, we had a great time with them and next time we are in the area we will have to do it again. I have more family in the area too, sorry we couldn’t stay longer and meet everyone.

Next morning we were back on the road, South this time to Moscow, Iowa to have a leak on our leveling jack system repaired. We got to the plant just after they closed but they have power hookups for customers so we unhooked, backed into a site and hooked up. We then took off exploring some and came across a great little town, Muscantine, Iowa. This is just a small town on the Mississippi river with lots of old houses and an actual downtown. We really enjoyed this place and both of us agreed it would be the type of town we would like to settle in when we get off the road. The only problem with this one is it’s location and the weather, we don’t want to live in Iowa and don’t want to live in cold winter or hot summer and this place has both. But still it’s a very nice town, wish we could have spent more time there.

We also took a trip to the nearby Lock and Dam on the Mississippi River. We got to watch them move a string of barges that was going upstream through the locks. They were built in 1930s, I think, but still was interesting to see. But it was hot and humid, must have been just over 100F and humidity was in the high 80s, to hot for us. So we went back to town for some more touring then back to the coach to wait for our appointment the next morning.

We got in the shop early, they had a tech on it right away. He searched everything he could get to and could not find the leak, of course. I told them I had been there before and had the same result and I wanted them to find and repair the leak this time. Finally the boss came over and suggested he pull the pump and check the pressure adjustment screw. Yea, success, it was loose and when the pump was running there was a slight leak, but only when the pump was running. No wonder I couldn’t find it, the space is too small for me and I never checked when the pump was running, only after we were set up. They finished about 1:00 and only charged us for an hour, good deal. We could have spent the night there but decided to hit the road and try to get a bit farther West and maybe get out of the heat.

We drove West until about 7 and found an Indian Casino near Slone, Iowa that had RV hookups. It was about 5 miles off the highway and looked new so we stopped, picked out a spot, we had our choice as there was no one else there. We got hooked up then went inside to eat, and of course try out luck on the slots. The meal wasn’t anything to write home about but both of us won a few, enough to pay for the hookup and dinner anyway. We were inside about 2 hours and we we got back we found a truck driver had parked their rig right next to us, they didn’t need power, just a place to park. As luck would have it, about two minutes after we got back, here comes the truck driver, she had been inside the casino. I asked her if she would move to a different spot as she wasn’t hooked up or anything but she said, no, I’m staying right here, nice huh. Her generator was running, like I said, right next to us, so loud we decided we had to move. By this time there was one more rig in the place, a pickup pulling a trailer of pigs. While I was unhooking and getting ready to move, I happened to see the “lady” truck driver and may have called her a witch *or something that rhymes with that) but she didn’t care, it must have fit. Anyway, after moving, our leveling jacks wouldn’t work. I never could figure out why but we were really level without them so we went ahead and put the slides out and went to bed, a long day finished.

Next morning we could see storm clouds forming to the West of us, luckily we were heading North. But it wasn’t but a couple of hours later until the big storm caught up with us. We had a couple hours of rain and some winds but once again we didn’t get any hail. I heard the winds were really bad back in Slone where we were the night before, glad we decided to leave early.

We made it to Rapid City, our stop for the next two days. We usually don’t travel as many miles or days in a row as we did but we wanted to get here to see our friends from Texas who were staying at the nearby Air Force Base RV Park. We met Manuel and Connie our second year in Quartzsite and have met up with them a few time since, even stayed at their place in Texas a couple of years ago when we were traveling though. Anyway, we ended up visiting with them a couple of times, played some dice games and of course went to dinner too. There are lots of roadside signs coming into Rapid City about The Firehouse Restaurant, the signs all have an old fire truck near them too. There must have been five signs coming in from the East and Manuel said they saw a bunch coming in from the South too. Anyway, it caught our attention enough that we decided to give it a try, a good decision. The restaurant is located inside an old fire house, decorated to the gills with fire memorabilia plus the food and service was good too. After dinner, Manuel and Connie stopped by our place and we once again played dice. We have played this game lots of times with lots of different folks but we’ve never seen anyone roll 6 aces before but Manuel did that one game. That was 4,000 points in one roll and we were playing to 10,000 so guess who won that one. Because we were leaving the next morning, we said our “so longs” to them and they headed out to their coach.

Next morning we were on the road, destination Garryowen, Mt., just outside Little Bighorn National Park, or Custer’s Last Stand. We haven’t been able to tour this place before, just a museum nearby. This time we got to the park, toured the visitor’s center, saw a ranger’s presentation, drove through the park and returned to walk the area too. We had a good overview of the two days before and the day of the battle. There is a marker at were each soldier was killed and lots of them where Custer made his last stand. We both enjoyed our time but were saddened of the way it all came about. The Indians really just wanted to be left alone, they were in a area where they were allowed to be too but Custer wanted to move them back to a Reservation. Of course we all know what happened, Custer and all his men were killed. There is still controversy about the actions of a couple of his officers and whether they could have saved Custer as they were only a couple miles away and knew he was under attack. But seeing as how this was about 140 years ago and there was an investigation two years later that acquitted them, guess that was the final, official answer.

Next morning, Monday, we left Garryowen and continued our way West. We made it to Anaconda, Mt. for the night to a RV park we’ve stayed at before. It is listed as a Passport America park, one where we get half off the listed price. But once we got there, they told us they were no longer associated with Passport America but gave us 10% off anyway. We decided to not tour anywhere but just stay close to home for the rest of the day. Lorraine made a good dinner, I washed the bugs off the front and we just rested.

Tuesday we got ready to leave, hooked up the car and took off. We only stopped once for a quick break and got here to Columbia Falls a bit after 2. This park was recommended by our friend Tim, who stayed here a couple of years ago. It is a nice place, well kept up and only about 15 miles from the West entrance to Glacier National Park. We got set up and decided to tour some of the area before dark. They told us its been very rainy here for the past month, in fact, they set an all time record for rain fall for the month of June. We must have brought the sun with us as it’s been nice here except for one storm the first night we were here.

Since we were here over the 4th, Lorraine found a parade in nearby Kalispell and fireworks in Big Fork. So we made the parade and drove up to Whitefish after. They also were having a fireworks display here but we decided it would be a nightmare to get to/from the city beach for us to watch the fireworks here. So we returned back to the coach for awhile then headed out to Big Fork to find a spot to watch the fireworks here. We found a State park that had a good viewing area, found a parking spot and put our chairs on the boat dock and watched the fireworks. Lorraine was happy, said it was a bit like back home, fireworks going off everywhere around the lake and two big areas in town.

Since we’ve been here, we’ve toured Glacier Park twice, drove to Browning, a Flathead Indian town with a museum that was unfortunately closed (but the casino was opened and we both won), drove to Goat Lick to see the Mountain Goats and toured the area a bit. If you get a chance, I would recommend a trip through Glacier National Park, especially if the Road to the Sun is opened. This place is scenic to say the least.

The weather has been anywhere from 107F in Garryowen to high 80s here, we like the 80s better, ha. We’ve only had the one storm since we’ve been here and the forecast is for the highs in the 90s for the next three days.

Our plans are to leave here on Tuesday, heading to Washington by the weekend. Our son-in-law’s brother is getting married so Mark and Kaitlyn will be coming up to Seattle and we have been promised a chance to have Kaitlyn spend a couple of days with us while they are up there. Looking forward to that!

We don’t know where we will be staying once we get back there, still working on a couple of possibilities but always have 1000 Trails as a fall back. We are discussing going to a FMCA Chapter, Lewis and Clark, rally in La Connor just over a week after we get back there. And of course, we have to do our annual doctor visits while back there too.

So that brings us up-to-date with our lives. I’ll now add what will probably be too many pictures too but Lorraine has taken a lot and it will be tough to decide which ones to add to this post.

The hydraulic leak on the leveling jack system.