Yesterday we had a leisurely morning. I posted to the blog before breakfast. After breakfast I unloaded the scooter from the trailer. I reset the passenger side view mirror on the coach to a forward position like the driver’s side. This reduced the overall width of our rig by a few inches.

Donna ran a couple of loads of laundry through our Splendide washer/dryer and changed sheets on our bed.  She packed a picnic lunch and started our dinner in the crock pot.

We studied the map of East Glacier and decided to ride up to Logan Pass. I’m usually pretty good with maps and directions, however,  when we left the campground I went the wrong way. I turned left on highway 89. After about a mile I saw a sign indicating Babb was 8 miles ahead.  I knew this wasn’t our planned route and turned around.

In the village of St. Mary, we turned right and entered Glacier National Park. When we entered the gate the attendant looked at my National Parks pass and asked me for identification. This was the first time that happened, but it’s what they’re supposed to do.

The pass is actually called America the Beautiful – the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass. It’s an interagency pass that is honored by the Bureau of Land Management,  the Bureau of Reclamation, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the USDA Forest Service and the National Park Service.

This pass will admit vehicles (one car or up to two motorcycles) into areas that charge a per vehicle fee or will admit up to four adults in areas that charge a per person fee. Two people can be listed as owners of the pass. Donna and I are listed as owners on our pass. We received our pass as parting gift from my colleagues when I retired. It was a great gift and we’ll make good use of it.

We rode the scooter up the Going to the Sun Road. We stopped at a picnic area at Sun Point and ate the lunch Donna prepared. We had roasted chicken with avocado, bell pepper and lettuce wrapped in whole wheat tortilla. We also had hard boiled eggs, carrots and homemade sweet pickles we purchased from the Amish in Wisconsin.

The view across St. Mary Lake we stunning. We saw a couple pulling their canoe from the lake. They said the water was really choppy today. We continued our ride up the road. The views were incredible. The scooter is an excellent mode of transportation in the park. We could pull off most anywhere we wished to take in the scenery.

There were a few sections where road work was being done. The road was single lane at a couple of points, controlled by flag men. There are a few rough spots and even a mile or so of gravel.

On the way up, we decided to limit our stops. We figured we could take it all in, then make stops on the way back down. When we reached the visitor center at Logan Pass we found motorcycle parking areas and had no problem parking. The visitor center there is mainly a gift shop.

From the visitor center, we hiked up the Hidden Lake Trial. This trail takes you up from behind the visitor center to spectacular view points. Much of the trail is boardwalk. The park service tries to keep people from wandering off of the trail in order to preserve the natural flora. Nonetheless, we saw people ignoring the signs and going off of the trail. We also saw people feeding bread to ground squirrels. It’s hard for me to understand why rules don’t apply to some people.

When we were getting ready to depart from the parking lot, a guy standing in a group of motorcyclists noticed our South Dakota plate. He asked me if we rode the scooter here from South Dakota! I should have pulled one over on him, but I admitted that we trailered it here.

We made several stops on the trip back down. At one stop, as I got off of the scooter, it slipped off of the side stand. I didn’t realize how much of a slope we were on. I grabbed the bars as it was falling and saved it from crashing onto the pavement. In doing so, I wrenched my back and left hip. This getting old stuff is not for sissies. Sometimes it hurts.

There are two campgrounds in this section of the park. We rode through them to check out the sites. The campground near Sun Point is definitely not big rig friendly. The sites are small and the road is narrow and twisty. Also the trees overhead could be a problem.

The other campground is near the park entrance. This campground was comprised of three loops. One loop has possibilities, we saw a couple of class A motorhomes shoehorned in there. I’m not so sure if I would chance it though. There were one or two sites that could accommodate us, but it would require some tight maneuvering.

We returned to our coach and were greeted with the aroma of country style ribs cooking in the crock pot. We visited the hot tub. It was soothing to my back and hip. We returned and enjoyed a great meal.

There’s one technical issue in our current location that I find a bit puzzling. Verizon has 4G coverage here for data only. I cannot use my smartphone as a telephone here. I wonder what’s up with that. The first night here, our neighbors from Texas mentioned they have no coverage at all with AT&T. They were worried because they usually check in with their daughter every night.

I had them send her a text message from my phone to let her know they were okay and would be out of touch for a few days. Last night I received an urgent message from her asking me to tell her folks to call as soon as possible.

In today’s world, not being connected is bothersome for sure.

 

 

My last post left off with us sleeping Sunday night in a Walmart parking lot crowded with RVs.

Monday we were up around 7:30am. We had breakfast, showered and hit the road at 8:30am. We were on a northwesterly course on I-90 with the wind blowing us down the road. We faced another 300+ mile day, but I was optimistic. We had the wind at our back and a fairly easy drive ahead.

I thought about a couple of maintenance items I needed to do on our coach and figured I might have time to do some of them while were camped at Glacier National Park. One thing is a strut that pulled loose from a overhead cabinet door in the bedroom. The strut holds the door up when you open the cabinet and because of its geometry it also holds the door closed when you shut it. This door is equipped with two such struts and is working fine, so it’s not a high priority task.

The other thing is a large dresser drawer that holds some of my clothes. I overloaded the drawer. One of the roller guides broke loose. Things like this happen when your house is rolling down the road a few thousand miles. Things like this can happen when  your house on a solid foundation for that matter. It’s my own fault for over loading the drawer.

We decided to go to East Glacier and booked a site at the KOA in St. Mary. Our route had us leave I-90  and follow route 287 through Townsend to the state capitol, Helena. This route had us cross the Missouri river again. The Missouri River originates in the Centennial Mountains in western Montana. The official starting point of the river is near Three Forks, Montana.

The Missouri is the longest river in the USA. The Missouri empties into the Mississippi just north of St. Louis. Where the Missouri flows between Helena and Townsend, a dam was built in 1954. This created a reservoir called Canyon Ferry Lake. It also covered the site of an old town called Canton.

I’ve driven past Canyon Ferry Lake many times but have never stopped there. We decided to stop and stretch our legs. We parked near a boat ramp at the Broadwater County campground. We walked to the shore and had a snack.

From Helena, Route 287 joins I-15 for about 35 miles before it splits off and passes through the towns of Augusta and Choteau. I-15 had a few steep grades. Once we were back on 287 there were steep grades and sharp curves. The favorable wind shifted and became a cross wind. My day of easy driving was not so easy after all.

We stopped in Augusta. The main street is wide and we found easy parking. There were several combination bar/cafe/casinos in this small town. There also was a market. We strolled over for a look. Donna asked the store clerk for a lunch recommendation. She directed us to The Buckhorn. Donna also asked if it was smoky in there from cigarette smokers. We were happy to hear Montana banned smoking in buildings open to the public.

Wyoming hasn’t enacted such a ban. The cafes there smell like an ashtray. I think I’ll have to download an app developed by the folks at Technomadia called State Lines for iPhone and Android. It gives vital information for each state. We wouldn’t have to ask so many questions or figure out how to buy beer, wine or liquor. It’s all in the app.

We tried The Buckhorn. The people were friendly, but I can’t recommend the food. I had a burger and Donna ordered chicken. My burger came with greasy fries and Donna’s chicken was deep-fried and also came with greasy fries.

Once we were back on the road, the cross winds became gusty. It made the drive tiring. There was an eight-mile detour on dirt where they had removed the tarmac and were rebuilding the roadbed. After we were back on pavement,  we were able to get up to a reasonable speed.

Donna was snoozing in her co-pilot’s seat while I was fighting strong wind gusts. At one point on the narrow two-lane highway, an oncoming tractor-trailer rig blew by us at high speed. The strength of his wake in the atmosphere combined with the cross wind from the left really slammed our coach.

The driver’s side view mirror was knocked out of adjustment by the blast. A few miles later, the arm holding the large mirror swung around towards the side of the coach! There was no shoulder, so I had to continue driving on for a few miles before I found a place to pull off. I was concerned about losing the mirror. After I stopped, I found the mirror mounting arm bolt had loosened.

I opened the trailer and found a 19mm socket and ratchet. I repositioned the mirror and tightened the mount. I made a discovery in the process. The previous owner had positioned the mirror mounting arms away from the center of the coach. They could be positioned in a more forward fashion thus reducing the overall width of the coach. I put the driver side mirror in this position before I tightened the mounting bolt.

In hindsight it seems crazy to me that the mirrors we”re so far outboard. Many times when a large semi or RV passed in the oncoming lane, our mirrors would barely clear each other. When we’re stopped in the campground, I’ll reset the passenger side as well.

We resumed driving. The wind continued to blow unabated. Shortly before we reached Browning, Montana, another big truck blew by in the oncoming lane. This one had a load of uncovered gravel. Just as we were passing by each other he hit a bump. Gravel flew out and of course the cross wind blew it right into the front of our coach. Crack!  I can add windshield repair or replacement to my “things to do” list.

We checked into the St. Mary KOA around 4:30pm. I got things set up. The last thing was to put the slides out. The front went into place as always. The bedroom slide was going out when I heard a noise, it cocked to one side and I heard a bang. Oh no!

Before I put the slides out, I always make sure nothing has fallen behind them. I make sure the driver’s seat is in position and won’t interfere with the front slide. This time I missed something. My camera bag had slid out from its place on the shelf slightly. The right side of the bedroom slide got caught on it. That’s what caused the slide to cock sideways a bit.

The bang I heard was the welds on the aluminum stanchions supporting the bed breaking. The hydraulic ram that moves the slide is very powerful. I was able to reset the stanchions to support the bed and get the slide out. I need to have someone weld them in place in the future though. I was not a happy camper and wondered what else could go wrong.

I turned on both roof A/C units and decided it was cocktail hour. I poured a martini and tried to get happy again.

As I said, these things can happen. I learned a couple of lessons. I’ll get everything fixed and be more diligent about checking fasteners to make sure things aren’t working loose. I’ll check more carefully before I operate a slide. The windshield I can’t do anything about other than chalk it up to bad luck.

(Click on photos to enlarge)

 

It’s 7am Tuesday morning as I write this. We’re at the KOA campground near St. Mary, Montana. It’s at the east entrance to Glacier National Park. It’s a bit chilly this morning, 47 degrees. The elevation here is 4,500 feet above sea level. The sun just rose over the eastern ridgeline across the St. Mary River. I expect the day to warm up quickly.

The past few days we covered a lot of ground. I’ll have to break this up into two posts as the tale will get too long.

Sunday morning we left the Walmart in Sheridan, Wyoming. I topped up the fuel tank with 44 gallons of gas. We left I-90 and headed west on WY14. This route took us over the Big Horn Mountains. It has several long, steep grades and finally tops out over 9,000 feet above sea level at Granite Pass. It was slow going. Compounding the effort of the steep grade was a stiff head wind from the west.

In a situation like this, it’s tempting to just mash down on the pedal and give her all she’s got. I’m more sympathetic to machinery than that. In my opinion, running at wide open throttle for extended periods of time is not conducive to long-term durability. So, on long, steep climbs I gear down, allow the vehicle speed to drop and maintain a reasonable load on the powertrain.

In the Big Horn Mountains and later in the Absoroka Range, it meant dropping to second gear and slowing to 35-40 mph or less at times. Our rig is powered by an 8.1 liter (496 cubic inch) GM Vortec gasoline engine. Normally aspirated gasoline engines suffer from a double whammy when traveling through high mountains.

Climbing up in the atmosphere, I’m requesting enough torque to propel a rig weighing over 25,000 lbs upward against gravity. We also have the drag coefficient of a barn door to overcome against a headwind in this case. The real issue that becomes a factor though is called density altitude . As we climb higher, the air becomes thinner.

Internal combustion engines work by combining fuel with oxygen in the air and burning it. As the atmosphere becomes thinner, there are fewer oxygen molecules to combine with the fuel. The fuel injection system senses this though the exhaust content and regulates the amount of fuel injected to maintain the proper air/fuel ratio. The ambient temperature rose into the 90s, further thinning the air. Bottom line is less fuel equals less power.

So here we are, climbing over a 9,000-foot pass with a heavily loaded RV and our engine isn’t capable of producing maximum power. That’s why I’m in second gear and plodding along. I was wishing for a turbo diesel engine at that point. Turbo chargers were originally developed for aircraft. Turbochargers negate the effect of altitude as they force air into the engine.

Alright, back to our story. Once we crested the summit, we had to contend with steep downhill grades. When I say steep grades, WY14 has grades as steep as 9%! I used second or third gear on the down grades to utilize engine compression to retard the pull of gravity. Engine compression alone isn’t enough to stop us from speeding down the mountain. I would stab the brake pedal hard enough to quickly reduce our speed by 5 mph, then release the brakes and allow them to cool.

I repeated this procedure as necessary to maintain my desired speed. Riding the brake to keep a steady downhill speed results in over-heated brakes which become ineffective. Scary thought.

We stopped in a little town called Graybull. I parked on the street and took a stroll while Donna made our lunch. The town was quiet; all of the shops were closed on Sunday. After lunch we continued west. The terrain was mostly flat. It had the appearance of badlands at times. Other parts were agricultural. The headwind became even stronger as the day wore on.

Bicyclists know headwinds can be demoralizing. This is also the case in a big vehicle with poor aerodynamic qualities. The slightest uphill grade required me to de-activate the overdrive and run higher rpms for power.

Eventually we began the climb up the Absorokas into Yellowstone. This climb is every bit as hard as the climb through the Big Horns. We were in second gear through much of the ascent. The viscous coupling on the radiator fan was fully engaged most of the time, drawing air through the engine coolant radiator and transmission cooler. When it’s fully engaged, the fan makes a roaring sound. Normally the speed of the vehicle passes enough air through the radiator and the fan is not engaged.

While climbing in second gear at 30-35 mph, the engine and transmission are heating up and the normal airflow through the radiator isn’t able to keep the temperature under control. The fan does a good job though. Our coolant temperature would quickly drop to 195 degrees with the fan engaged.

At the entrance to Yellowstone National Park, we pulled in behind a car at the toll gate.  As we sat there idling with A/C keeping us cool, I was mindful of how narrow the gate was. I was concerned about catching a side view mirror as we passed though. The car in front of us must have been playing 20 questions with the park ranger.

We sat for several minutes before they pulled away and we could enter. I showed the ranger our National Parks annual pass and was given some literature and waved through. I pressed the accelerator and felt the engine start to pull, then I felt a loss of power. The engine rpms went down to 300, fluttered a bit and then the engine died.

This never happened before. I restarted the engine. When I put it in gear, the rpms went down again and it stalled. Uh oh. I cranked it over again and it started. I revved the engine once it started and it seemed okay. I put it in gear and it was fine as we pulled away.

The east entrance to Yellowstone is a steep uphill grind. Here we go again in second gear with the radiator fan roaring. The speed limit was 45 mph but at times, I couldn’t maintain that without running pedal to the metal. At one point I pulled into a turn out to let a few cars following me go past.

I sat there idling for couple of minutes as more cars appeared from below. Finally there was a break in the traffic and I started to accelerate out of the turn out. I felt the engine lose power, the rpms dropped to 300 and then it stalled. This time it wouldn’t start when I cranked it over.

I got out and looked in the engine compartment. The under hood temperature was quite high. I thought about the series of events. It wasn’t a misfire that would suggest an ignition problem. It felt like a fuel delivery problem. Donna asked me what I was going to do. I said we do nothing. We wait a bit and the let wind cool the engine compartment.

My theory was that we had fuel boiling in the fuel rail. The fan was pulling hot air through the A/C condenser, the transmission cooler and the engine radiator. This was creating high under hood temperature when we were stationary or moving slowly. Boiling fuel in the line is known as vapor lock.

After ten minutes or so, the engine fired up and we were on our way. I was pretty confident in my diagnosis. We climbed to the summit in second gear. As we crested the summit, I put the transmission selector into drive and released the pressure on the accelerator pedal so it would upshift. When I did that, something didn’t feel right. I watched the tachometer drop to 300 rpms, flutter, then fall to zero as we coasted down the other side of the summit.

I told Donna the engine quit. I said we can coast down hill and it will quickly cool. I also told her I no longer had power steering without the engine running. She wasn’t thrilled about coasting down a steep grade without power steering. She asked if we had brakes. The ABS brake system on our chassis has a back-up electric motor on the ABS pump. I told her brakes were not a problem and concentrated on steering.

We picked up speed and were coasting down the hill at about 40 mph. At that speed, the steering effort wasn’t too high. There was an incline ahead. The incline would slow us down, possibly even to a stop in the middle of the road. There wasn’t a shoulder to pull off of the narrow roadway. At the bottom of the grade I spotted a turn out on the left side of the road that looked just big enough for us to fit. I muscled our rig into it as I braked to a stop. If my vapor lock theory was correct, coasting down the hill should have cooled the engine compartment. I started the engine. It fired up and we drove away.

At this point, I smartened up and turned off the dash A/C. Air conditioners convert refrigerant from liquid to gas (thus cooling) and back to liquid in the condenser. To convert back to liquid the condenser must remove heat from the refrigerant into the air. How stupid could I be? Running the dash A/C in these conditions was adding heat to air pulled by the fan into the engine compartment. We quit using the dash A/C and had no further stalling episodes.

We found suitable parking at Lake Junction and walked to the information center. The information center had taxidermy displays of a variety of birds found in the park. I like to identify birds and enjoyed the displays.

Behind the center is Yellowstone Lake. The lake is large and we found sandy beaches here. A couple asked if I would take their picture with their camera. I did, then I realized I didn’t have a camera with me. I left everything back in the motorhome. Doh!

We dove through the park to Mammoth Junction. Driving through Yellowstone National Park in a large RV is not ideal. With our cargo trailer,our overall length is about 50 feet. We couldn’t stop in most of the pull outs. There were cars in them and not enough room for us to stop without having the trailer in the road. We cruised along and took in the scenery. There was a six-mile stretch where stopping was prohibited. There were fire crews working. We didn’t see the fire though.

The roads were narrow with no shoulder. If you’re planning to visit Yellowstone in a class A motorhome,I recommend staying in a RV park nearby and entering the park in a smaller vehicle.

We saw several bison. It was a novelty at first, but it became a nuisance. Anytime buffalo were near the road, cars would stop. People would hang out the window to take a picture or shoot video. Traffic jams formed as the scene was repeated. I can understand stopping your car when buffalo are in the road, but to come to a stop in the roadway because you want to take a picture of a buffalo nearby makes no sense to me. . Maybe I was just getting tired and cranky.

While we were stopped in traffic Donna snapped a couple of pictures through the windshield

We exited the park and entered Montana at Gardiner. Outside Gardiner, we stopped and had a snack while we stretched our legs. From there highway 89 follows the Yellowstone River north to I-90. We drove to Bozeman and stopped at Walmart there.

I’d read tales of Walmart RV parking in parts of Montana. So many RVers pass through the area during vacation season, the Walmart parking lots fill with RVs. We found quite the assortment in Bozeman. To be continued…

(Click on photos to enlarge)