If You Have To Break Down

Well, we are back home at the Boggy Thicket a few weeks early.  I didn’t get to post from the road but once – mostly due to really slow wi-fi in campgrounds – so today’s post is a synopsis of the trip.  We had to cancel the last half of our trip due to mechanical problems, but more on that later.

We left home on July 10, and our first stop was at Westcliff Park, a COE campground on Lake Belton.

The park offers full-hookup, pull-through sites on the lake shore – each with its own covered picnic table – and with my “Geezer Pass” (America the Beautiful Senior Pass) it was only 10 bucks for the night!

A couple more days of triple-digit temps- stops in Abilene and Amarillo – before we found blessed relief at the top of Raton Pass.  A great little campground with shade and a high in the upper 70’s.

Our next stop was Cheyenne Mountain State Park at Colorado Springs, maybe one of the best kept secrets of the Colorado park system.  Yes, it is that Cheyenne Mountain - the Air Force runs NORAD and does other secret stuff inside the mountain while we camp on top.  The entrance to the park is directly across from the main gate at Ft. Carson, and we had a panoramic view of the fort from our campsite.

This was also the first of several stops where we dodged a weather bullet.  Thunderstorms falling on areas where there had been recent forest fires caused mudslides and minor flooding on the other side of Colorado Springs, near Garden of the Gods, while we only got some light rain.

A couple stops in Wyoming as we worked our way to Missoula, Montana, and Jim and Mary’s RV Park – Honey’s all-time favorite campground.

The campground is shady and filled with flower beds, and  they grow all their flowers from seed in their own greenhouse.  It makes for a really pleasant atmosphere. 

Next stop, Hungry Horse, Montana near the entrance to Glacier National Park.  Our campsite was hilly and heavily wooded, with huckleberries ready to pick on a bush right by our picnic table.  Somehow, we were able to find the one tiny gap that would let us use our satellite dish.  I doubt if we would have been able to get an unobstructed signal from either of the campsites closest to us.

The purpose of staying in Hungry Horse was to access Glacier, but we did take a side trip of the Hungry Horse Dam and Reservoir.  At the top of a dead tree on the banks of the lake we saw an eagle’s nest.

In and around Glacier N.P. we saw lots of wildlife and lots of beautiful scenery.  Here are a few examples:

Can you see the Snow Dragon on the mountainside?

Or the Mountain Goat at the top of the cliff?

The view from Two Medicine Lake.

White water on the Flathead River.

For our trip on the Going to the Sun Highway, we chose to take one of the famous Red Bus tours.  I drove it the last time we were there, and hoped to be able to see more with somebody else behind the wheel.  I’m not sure it was any better for me, and Honey couldn’t see over the seat in front of her (and had a fat lady who kept scooting over into her lap) so for her it was definitely worse!  Still, we did see some beautiful sights.

Bird Woman Falls.

Haystack Falls.

No Name Falls.

Mountain Goats near the Visitor Center.

Waterton National Park adjoins Glacier on the Canadian side of the border, and we spent a couple days up there.  It is a beautiful park and the campground in Waterton Township offers large, full-hookup campsites – something most US National Parks do not.  It is located on Waterton Lake, and the boat ride down to the US end of the lake is spectacular.

It is common to see deer wandering through the campground and the little town.

 

And this time of year, it stays daylight almost forever. This unretouched shot was taken at 9:25 p.m.

On the drive to Red Rock Canyon, we got to watch a Grizzly for about 15 minutes.

We also saw a few black bears, but I didn’t get any good pictures.

Here are a few shots from the trip on the lake:

One interesting note about the Waterton campground.  When we first pulled in, I couldn’t find a sewer connection.  Several hours later, I noticed a small trailer with its sewer hose running directly behind it.  I got down and looked, and – sure enough – our sewer was in the center of the driveway just below my rear axle!  I’d never seen a setup like that before!

Coming back into the US from Waterton, the ICE agent decided to inspect our trailer.  He confiscated two tomatoes and a lemon – told us that even though it was obvious to him that we had bought them in the US, it was illegal to bring them back in to the country.  He said he could have fined us $300 for each of them if he wasn’t in a good mood!

We thought “Whew, if that’s the worst thing that happens, were OK.”  Little did we know…..

The plan was to spend one more night at Jim and Mary’s, then head for Idaho and work our way over to the Oregon coast.  Friday morning, after spending the night in Missoula, I was getting ready to hook up when I discovered that we had sustained some major damage.

The entire suspension on our 5th wheel had shifted to the left, and the equalizer bracket was digging into both left side tires.  A mobile mechanic sent by Good Sam Road Service was able to bend things back enough that it would be safe to drive a mile up the hill to Hagan’s Welding. 

About one week and $4000 later, we were back on the road with a trailer that is actually better (certainly sturdier) than when it left the factory.  In the meantime, we had cancelled all reservations for the rest of the trip, camped two nights inside a welding shop, and pretty much lost our zest for travel.  The good news is that our extended warranty covered most of the cost of the repairs.

We decided to head for home, and got back yesterday.  The trip home was uneventful, although in Limon, Colorado, we did watch storm clouds just to our west that spawned a tornado about 12 miles away from the campsite, and there were flood warnings for Salina, Kansas the day we left.

Not sure when we will head out again, or which direction we will go.  Right now, we are just grateful to be home.