Saturday, September 22
We left this morning on what will be a new experience for us. We plan to be gone for seven months! Without going home for the holidays?! Yikes! Are we really ready to do that? We’ll see how it goes. Arrangements are not cast in concrete yet. :-)
The first challenge presented itself as we were descending a hill by our house. The engine on the truck died - yep, freakin' died! With 12 or 13 tons rolling down a hill, it was quite an experience. Hmmm, wonder why that happened. The engine was redlining in compression trying to slow the rig down. That had to have something to do with it. A new chip was recently added to give us better pulling power going uphill, but we haven't had a chance to test it before we took off. So, here we are rolling along with no engine and, subsequently, nothing else worked either. Great! Luckily, the truck started before anything major happened. Whew! Off we go then!
Since we got a late start to our trip, we won't be able to stop and see our friends along the way, and that makes us sad. We'll have to catch up with them on another trip, but fall colors are coming soon on the east coast and we don't want to miss that! Our first night out was spent at Blackwell Island RV Park in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Easy six-hour drive from home and a nice, relatively quiet park.
Sunday, September 23
The drive to Butte, Montana was one of the wettest we could remember. It rained on us almost all day long. In fact, we got snowed on! Well, it was snow mixed with rain, but the closer we got to Butte, the more snow was in the mixture. Outside of town, the temp was 36 degrees with this slop falling out of the sky. Say what?! Our license plate says sun seekers. What's up with this?! We set up for the night at the KOA in Butte and could look out the trailer windows at snow on the hills about a hundred feet above us. Okay, so we’re going to see the fall colors and we should expect cold weather, right? HA! Did we mention that we don't like cold? Sure hope the sun decides to grace us with its presence again in the very near future.
Wet wasn't our only challenge on this day. Going down the east side of the Continental Divide, the engine died again. Again?! No kidding - died, as in dead, caput, gone! Don't know whether you've been down that side, but it's freakin' steep and curvy! No power. Great! Well, high revs in compression has to be what's doing this. We were redlining again well over 4,000 rpms using compression to hold the unit back. This is going to be a long trip! We came safely to a stop on the shoulder, let the engine cool down a bit and tried starting it. While the engine did start up again, it didn't run right. The engine light was on and the fuel gauge wasn't working. We're having fun now! We'll find the Chevy dealer in Butte and see what they have to say, we thought. While stopped at the closest truck stop to analyze the problem, Bruce looked in the owners' manual and found that anytime one messes with the fuel mix, which the chip does under stress, it sends a signal to the computer that shuts it down. When one has restarted the engine three or four times, the manual said, it should be okay. Should be? How about will be! That'd make us feel a whole lot better. As it turned out, the manual was right and everything went fine after we left the truck stop. Whew! Okay, keep the revs down. Harder on the brakes but not as hard as crashing into something 'cause the engine dies!
Though the KOA at Butte is rundown and in need of updating, their sign said chicken dinner was being served at their deli. Did someone say Geri doesn’t have to cook tonight? Woo hoo! Bonus! For $8.25, we had a four-piece fried chicken dinner that would do the Colonel justice and it was served up with jo-jos, dinner rolls and baked beans. Yum! Top that off with some Double-Stuff Oreos and milk for dessert, and we settled in for the night.
Monday, September 24
The truck put up a good fight, but we managed to keep the steering wheel headed east as we passed Livingston, Montana and the turn we normally take to Yellowstone. "Not this trip, big guy," we told him. We're headed for different places to see this time. Fall colors on the east coast are calling us, and there are a couple of national parks to visit along the way. Yellowstone is saved for another time. Promise!
There were more deer and antelope on both sides of I-90 than we had ever seen. Fun to see critters as we pound over the pavement. The weather cleared, and we had a decent day for the drive. We spent the night at Miles City, Montana. This was new territory for us. It's always interesting to see what's in store for us on roads we haven't traveled before.
The real fun starts here!