Ridiculous Road Trip #1, Part 23 - Miracle of America Museum, National Bison Range, Overnighting.

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June 16-17
We had two day to drive to Yellowstone National Park. As we made our way, Doug was fascinated with billboards for the Miracle of America Museum. As we drove through Polson, MT, we drove right by it. And decided that it was too good to pass up, so we turned back. We needed to wait 30 minutes for it to open, so we restocked our pantry at the nearby grocery store while we waited. Then we entered the awesome weirdness of this museum.

Look for me in the UFO!

Please note the cauldron of legs

From there we headed to the National Bison Range. We dropped the camper in the visitor center parking lot, and took the long winding road through the range. It was great-- we saw bison, mule deer, elk, pronghorns, and meadowlarks.

Then we headed on to Butte, MT. Since these were just quick stops on the way to Yellowstone, we were doing free overnights in parking lots. In Butte, we stayed at the Walmart. We had a quiet, uneventful night.

The next morning, we took in the sights of Butte. We went to the World Museum of Mining, we got some much needed haircuts, and then we hiked along the Continental Divide trail at the Pipestone Pass.

Then we headed closer to Yellowstone, ending up at a truckstop for the night in Three Forks, MT.

Doug wanted to note, that there is something surreal about starting a morning by jogging down a farm road, and having a hill full of cows all giving him the side-eye.

Then we headed into Yellowstone and what turned out to be our favorite National Park of this trip.

Up next, Part 24

Ridiculous Road Trip #1, Part 22 - Hot Springs, Glacier NP

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June 13-15
When we were in Seattle at the beginning of the month, we managed to get reservations for 5 days at Yellowstone National Park. We had 5 days until we could check in. So we added some extra miles by heading north to Glacier National Park!

We crossed into Montana and stopped in a little town called Hot Springs. Our breakfast had been pretty sparse and we were starving, so we stopped at a little diner called PJs. While we ate, we were highly entertained by the local old gents who were holding court in the corner of the restaurant. There were stories about getting caught without their "shorts", and I was very sad that I had missed the beginning of that story. Then there was a convoluted tale about demolition derbies and the how the derbies had been ruined by the cheaters in the next county over. It was awesome.

As we started to drive out of town, we were lured by the chance at trying out the local hot springs, and on the advice of a local, we ended up at "Rose's Plunge".

After a nice relaxing soak (and thankfully the sulfur smell went away as we dried off). And then the skies opened up and it poured all the rest of the way to Glacier Park. 

As usual, we managed to snag one of the last spots available in the campground. And with the rain, I wanted to put up our awning/canopy. Doug wasn't sure it would fit on our site, but I was convinced it would. It did, but just barely. Then it rained for the rest of the day, so we played board games all night.

The next morning, Doug took a shot at hiking up a mountain, braving stern warning signs about bears and big cats. When he returned back to camp, he sai that this particular trail judged the weak and unworthy...and Doug was judged unworthy. He came back to camp in time for a nap and lunch. After a nice relaxing afternoon, we opted for a different hike around Lake MacDonald. It was sunny and gorgeous.

And the bear grass was in full bloom. 

The next day was a little damp and overcast. We decided to drive out to Goat Lick Overlook at the south edge of the park. It was sadly lacking in goats. 

Goat(less) Lick Overlook

We stopped for lunch in Hungry Horse, and finally got some Huckleberry ice cream.

After lunch, we decided to drive up to Going-to-the-Sun road, at least to the point were it was still open to traffic. We hiked along the road for a bit, then hiked the Giant Cedars trail. Doug decided to take the uphill hike Avalanche Falls, as I finished the Cedars trail.

Glacier National Park was lovely, even with all the rain.

Up next, Part 23

Ridiculous Road Trip #1, Part 21 - Beauty Creek, Refrigerator Repair

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June 11-12
That Sunday morning, just before we left the most northwestern state of our trip, we stopped for coffee, and found this odd roadside attraction.

Then we crossed the Washington border and made our way into Idaho, where we stopped for two nights near Coeur d'Alene, at the Beauty Creek Campground in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. It's a lovely primitive campground, along a creek and just a half mile from Lake Coeur d'Alene.

We set up camp in the nearly empty campground, Doug chopped through a huge tree that was blocking the trail that ran along the creek next to our site, then went to find some good fishing, while I worried about the camper's refrigerator. Another one of the gadget we had shipped from Amazon to Andrew's house was a weather station. This nifty weather station came with 3 outdoor sensors, plus the base station. I set things up so the base station could read the temperature inside the camper. I attached one of the sensors in a secure place under the camper, so we could know the outside temp. But the real reason for this purchase was that I was worried about the temperature of our refrigerator. Since Yosemite (mid-May), the refrigerator just didn't seem to be cold enough despite being on its coldest setting. So, I put the remaining sensors inside, one in the fridge and the other in the freezer. Now I was really concerned. It was only getting down to 50 degrees in the fridge, not food safe at all. So I shifted all the food the cooler, along with one of the temperature sensors.

We had just enough cell signal for me to to start searching the web about our refrigerator model. Weirdly enough, I actually had the manual for the fridge stashed away in camper. The troubleshooting section of the manual was no help. But there was one notation in the LP operation section that mentioned that the gas burner should be cleaned annually, but there was no instruction for how to do that. About the same time I was reading this in the manual, the rPod Facebook group folks had responded to my post about my refrigerator woes--and they had the same advice. With their help, plus a YouTube video, I figured out how to disassemble most of the burner assembly. Unfortunately, one important nut could not be loosened. Between Doug and I, we pretty much had stripped the nut. And at this point, night had really fallen. And I was grumpy and worried that we had REALLY broken things. Doug had loosened a different nut to remove a larger section of the gas line, but that meant that now we couldn't use our gas stove either. Sigh.

So, I cooked over the fire that night instead, and had nightmares about refrigerators and gas leaks all night.

The next morning, there were a few more messages from the rPod Facebook group. It seems the nut that we couldn't loosen was common with at least one other person, so I decided to figure out how to clean the burner anyway. I finally succeeded with a bobby pin, an alcohol wipe, and our battery operated air compressor. Crossing our fingers, we reassembled all the parts, and turned the gas back on. Unbelievably, it worked. We stared at the temperature gauge for a while, a breathed a sigh of relief when the temperature in the fridge started dropping. Ahhhh...the excitement of full-timing in an RV.

Igniter, burner, and flue of the refrigerator.

That's probably more than anyone ever wanted to know about an RV refrigerator. Other good things did happen at this stop. We gave our neighbors a tour of our rPod and they loved it. Doug got in an early hike up into the hills. And after I stopped worrying about the fridge, we did another hike together. Then Doug did a bit more fishing and I enjoyed watching the fridge get TOO cold and read my book for the rest of the afternoon. As we drove out on our last morning, we saw wild turkeys and elk along the road.

Up next, Part 22