Daily Archives: July 15, 2011
Black Angus and Jagz . . .
This morning started VERY early, 6 am early, as it were. But we wanted to stop and get diesel on the way out of town, and we were going to lose an hour moving into Mountain Daylight time, so we wanted to try and leave by 8.
In yesterday’s blog I mentioned that when we got home last night our water was off. Thinking that this was connected to the water problem day before yesterday when a water main broke in the park, I didn’t think anything about it, and we just used the pump and our internal fresh water tank.
But when I went outside this morning to disconnect the hoses and start putting things away, I found our water faucet had been turned off.
Thinking it was a prank by kids or something, I turned it back on . . . and immediately got soaked from the knees down. Apparently what happened is that our water filter ruptured sometime yesterday and started spraying water everywhere. And I guess someone came along, saw it, and turned it off.
The filter seems to have ruptured right at the bottom of the cylinder.
After getting everything packed up, I pulled out of the park a few minutes before 8 am with Jan following me in the toad.
10 miles later we stopped at an Exxon station on the way into Newport to top off our diesel tank. I put in a little over 75 gallons at $3.99 a gallon. Last time I filled up in Long Beach, WA, it was $4.29, so I thought this was a good deal.
Little did I know.
While we were fueling up, Jan watched the pump while I hitched the toad to the back of the rig, and about 8:40 we were back on the road, a few minutes later crossing the Pend Oreille River into Idaho.
90 miles later, we crossed into Montana, and suddenly it was 11:30 instead of 10:30, as we entered the Mountain Time Zone.
And now in Montana, my great buy on diesel came back to haunt me. We passed several stations showing $3.69, and even one at $3.66 a gallon. Bummer!
And if I’d known, I had plenty of diesel to make it that far. Oh, well. It’s only money. (sob!)
We did have some great scenery here along US-2. Much of the time we had rivers or lakes beside the highway, and a lot of mountains in the distance.
The road was good, with no real climbs or descents to worry about, and not a lot of curves either. Although mostly two lane, the road surface was smooth, with plenty of places to pull over for breaks.
All in all, a nice trip and a nice day of driving.
After passing through Kalispell, we pulled into the Columbia Falls RV Park about 2:30, and were quickly led to our site. This is a beautiful park, with full 50 amp hookups, WiFi, and a great 60 channel cable TV system. And of course, the great view too.
And my new satellite antenna worked great, getting a signal in less than 5 minutes. As welI, I have 5 bars of 3G on my phone, too.
After relaxing for a while, we headed out about 4 to check out the area and have dinner.
We were both in the mood for a good steak, and ended up at Jagz, a really nice restaurant we passed coming in between Kalispell and Columbia Falls.
After a really, really good meal, with Jan having a 12 oz. Strip, and I had a 20 oz. Ribeye, both Black Angus Beef, we got back to the rig about 6:30, stopping off at the office to drop off some copies of the Gypsy Journal, and also buy a new water filter.
A little after 8 pm, our friends Al and Adrienne Cox called to talk over our visit with them in Cody, WY next week. We haven’t seen them since this past March in Tucson so it will be good to catch up.
Then, in a wealth of hearing from good friends, Nick Russell called about 9 pm to check in and get some more info on the US-2 route. He’s thinking about taking it, and I’m his guinea pig travel advisor.
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Thought for the Day:
"Do something you like. Forget about the pay, for Christ’s sakes. Regulate your style of living to fit your income. Just have fun in your job, that’s the main thing." ~ General Chuck Yeager
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