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!

Billings, Montana

Thursday, June 6, 2013

It’s been a hectic few days!! Phil tried to find someone to replace the springs on the trailer, but everyone was to busy, so he ended up doing it himself, with John’s help. I guess it was a good thing they had to get under there and have a good look, as they found 5 welds that had cracks in them, fortunately, he did find someone to come out and fix the welds.

Otherwise, we have spent the last couple of days shopping, seems that we all needed a bunch of different things, requiring stops at several different stores. Hopefully we have purchased most everything we will need!

Last night we met friends, Connie and Eric Johnson, at the Billings Petroleum Club for dinner. The club is on the 22^nd floor of the Crown Plaza and boy what a view!! Billings is nearly surrounded by bluffs, giving it a dramatic feeling. Most of the bluffs have been carved by the Yellowstone River. Our dinner table was right next to a window, facing west, so we had a bird’s eye view of a very lovely sunset. Tonight we are going to Eric and Connie’s house for dinner.

Fran got her eye injection today, and seems to have come through that with flying colors.

Tomorrow we head for Butte, where we will spend the week end.

Medora, ND to Billings, MT

Monday, June 3, 2013

Traveled today, we left North Dakota at 9:00 this morning and didn’t get into Billings, Montana until around 5:00. Should not have taken that long, but old Murphy was sitting heavily on Phil’s shoulder today.

It was raining when we got up this morning, and it rained nearly all day. Pushing the rain showers was a super strong headwind (is there any other kind??). A headwind of any kind kills your gas mileage!! Added to the mix were some really long steep climbs. Do you see where I’m going with this?? Yep…it happened again!! We ran out of fuel!! Only difference was, this time we were paying attention to it. The engine warning light is going off again, and I truly think that it has something to do with the computer. When Phil noticed that we might have a problem with fuel, the readout said we had enough fuel to go 71 miles and we only had about 55 miles to go to reach the RV Park. Then the available miles started to rapidly fall and damn, we are on the side of the interstate again!! Fortunately, this time John and Fran were behind us!! John drove up to the next town, picked up fuel and brought it back to us. When we finally got the truck going again, the computer said we had 71 miles of fuel left!! On five (5) gallons of fuel!!! Yeah, right!! Lesson learned…don’t trust the computer, trust the gauge!!

But, wait…there’s more! When we pulled off of the interstate to get fuel, Phil noticed that the trailer is leaning a little bit. I didn’t see it, but when we got to the gas station, he got under and looked, sure enough, we have a busted spring on the passenger side of the rig, and we are in the middle of nowhere in Montana! Our destination for today was Billings, MT, so our only choice was to try to make it. At least we have a full tank of fuel, but the wind is still blowing a gale, and now the trailer is going down the road at a slight angle. We are only going 50 miles per hour on the interstate trying to keep the tires from blowing with the added stress of the broken spring.

A very stressful 45 minutes later, we pulled into the RV park that will be our base camp for the next four nights, that is, provided we can get the spring replaced and get the truck looked at for the engine warning light.

After we got settled in and relaxed a bit, our friends, Eric and Connie Johnson came over and we followed them to the Red Lobster for dinner. We had a great dinner and really enjoyed our time with Eric and Connie! After dinner we found the local Wal-Mart and did some grocery shopping. So, it was late when we got home and got everything put away. Been a long day, glad it’s about over!!

Rain and the Theordore Roosevelt National Park

Friday, May 31, 2013

Woke up to more rain this morning and cool temperatures, so we decided to stay in today, get some wash done and just rest. We watched a couple of movies this afternoon, and then played some cards.

So far, we have had over 3” of rain with this storm and we are under a flood watch.

Saturday, June 01, 2013

The sun was shining today!! So, we decided to see some sights. When we got out to the car, we had a big surprise. On top of the driver’s front tire was a bird nest, with long strands of string hanging from it.

The time frame that the car sat there was from late Thursday afternoon through this morning. We felt so bad to have to move the nest, but better that it be done now, before there are eggs in it. So, we put it on a limb of the tree next to the rig, hoping for the best.

Bird nest taken care of, we headed back to the National Park, driving the southern loop. This park is beautiful; there are so many different types of landscapes.

Grassy hills that drop suddenly to form cliffs showing the different levels of sediment, making it look like they are painted with different colors. The erosion of the different clays leaves huge boulders sitting on top of pedestals, ready to topple at any moment. The recent rains have caused mudslides, rearranging the landscape again.

The park is full of Prairie Dog Villages and we stopped to watch their antics many times.

Today we even saw several babies, under the watchful eyes of adults, as they played and rolled in the dirt. We also saw a few lone buffalo on the grassy slopes, and some wild horses.

After the completion of the park loop, we drove east on I-94, backtracking a little, to the visitor’s center for the painted hills of the North Dakota Badlands.

Before we even got all the way into the parking lot, we find a small herd of Bison resting in the grass. These were older males, I think, they had the full beards of a more mature bull. It is easy to forget that these are wild animals and that they can be very dangerous.

They are use to people and seem to take our presence with a grain of salt. But, the biggest bull can weigh up to 2000 pounds, turn on a dime and charge at 35 miles per hour! Phil got really close to take pictures, made me really nervous!

To finish off the day, we went back to the ice cream shop and finally got our ice cream, it was really good!

Rainy day in Medora, North Dakota

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Still raining this morning, this is a pretty steady rain, the type that will soak in and not just run off. That is, if there is soil and not clay. The roads in the campground are developing small red pools.

We braved the rain and went to explore the Visitor’s Center at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We started to go on the loop around the southern edge of the park, but because of the rain, any pictures we might have taken would not have turned out well, so we turned around and headed for Medora.

Medora is where the blue dot is

Medora is a very small town that caters to the tourist industry, and is only open during the tourist season. There is no grocery store, only a convenience store where you can buy bread and milk, but that’s it without going 35 miles east or west. There are only 42 regular residents here in the winter time, and everyone who works here during the tourist season comes from somewhere else. There is a lot of history here and several museums, including a Cowboy Hall of Fame.  We tried to get an ice cream cone at the ice cream and fudge shop, but we were a couple of days to early and were asked to come back on Saturday.

With no ice cream available, we gave up and came back to the campground, where we spent the afternoon playing cards.