I want to tell you about our “tune-up” from Dr. Steve and our 4th of July celebrations….but first I have to tell you about yesterday, the first day of our 4th year. We got everything stowed, ready to leave Missoula, and the engine would not start. Slide would not come in. Step would not go down. Is this the next adventure?
After several tries to start the coach, including an unsuccessful jump from the car, Jim called our Good Sam Emergency Road Service and within 10 minutes they located someone who would come within the hour to help us out. Meanwhile Jim is calling other resources to develop a backup plan. Then, after thinking about it, he decided to crawl under the coach and check out the starter. He pushed a connector, tried the engine and …it started π Happy Day! But we have some kind of mysterious problem or two. Is it the starter or is something draining the battery or is it both?
We got the slide in, turned the engine off, waited a few minutes while we finished preparing to leave and then started up again. It worked. By this time, my nervous nellie stomach was aching. Jim wanted to forge ahead. I could see us stopping for gas in the middle of nowhere and not being able to start again.
We cancelled the emergency service and hit the road about an hour late, headed for Billings, MT. It was a great travel day but I was really too tense to enjoy the unfolding IMax view. We hit four major patches of road repair and wouldn’t you know I got the worst one again…ten miles of concrete dividers on the right and orange cones on the left. I don’t know why I worry about driving this rig after the cr$% I’ve driven through this month π Actually Jim probably got the worst section–fourteen miles, 6% grade, curving, 25mph, concrete dividers and orange cones! But we made it through.
We actually maintained our 50mph average and arrived at the Billings KOA about 5 PM. They’d saved a nice satellite friendly patio site for us so after parking we opted for a beer (or two). This is a lovely destination park, the orginal KOA on the bank of the Yellowstone River. The upgraded sites are pricey–ours is a $49 backin and the patio pull thrus are $59–but you could have a really nice vacation here.
Our day ended with a late steak dinner and a DJ night. After a couple of glasses of wine and a few hours of music hosted by my resident DJ playing selections from our Musicmatch library I felt very relaxed. And I’m happy to report that Mr. Blue (in a test) started up just fine this morning. Now I can relax and enjoy the day.
