Montana: Billings to Butte

Friday, June 07, 2013

We had a wonderful dinner last night with Eric and Connie, we grilled hamburgers and the weather was so nice that we were able to eat outside. The food was delicious and the company was great!!

We left Billings about 11:00 this morning (John had to return something to Best Buy, so it wasn’t our fault that we left late…for those of you wondering). We headed west on I-90 towards Butte.

We weren’t on the road more than an hour and the engine warning light came on again!! This is so very frustrating!! We assumed it was connected to the turbo, so we stopped in Bozeman and bought some fuel additive and that seemed to help, the light went off and Phil could hear the turbo running.

We had some pretty hefty mountain passes to go over today, with long grades. We did pretty good until the last one, Elk Park Pass (6368’), which is also pretty close to the Continental Divide.

As we started up that grade, we were right behind John, and since he was leading today, we tried to stay there. It’s a little harder for him to get up the steep grades than it is for us, and by staying behind him, we were starting to overheat, and the damn engine light came back on. So, we had to pass them, and as soon as we did, the temperature gauge started back down to normal. So, we went on into Butte, got settled in the campground and Phil left to take the truck to the Dodge dealer here. After running all the tests, it was determined that it was the turbo and that it needed to be replaced! Should have had that done in Billings instead of just trying to clean it. Anyway, they have one in stock, but they can’t put it in until Monday, so we will have to stay an extra day here in Butte, and adjust the future reservations accordingly.  

Aside of the truck problems, the drive today was beautiful! Because of the recent rains, the pastures were all green and in the distance were higher mountain ranges still covered in snow.

So, every time we went around a bend in the road, there were more mountains covered in snow. It was just beautiful!!

We crossed and followed lots of rivers, all flowing at a good clip, complete with rapids, but not even one canoe to be found!!

We are camped at the 2 Bar Lazy H RV Park, just west of Butte, nothing fancy, but the views from our rig are fantastic. They call Montana the “Big Sky Country” and it fits! It really does seem like the sky is bigger, the views better and more dramatic. I have only been through Montana a couple of times, but I love it here. If it weren’t for the freezing temperatures in the winter, I could live here!