So, How Was Your Day? Trip Report to Yellowstone N.P. Long

[4x4Bob]

Howdy, This Posting is submitted as Humor and is not a bid for Sympathy. It will be very long because I am submitting more detail then normal to show how Mother Nature kept slapping at me. Grab your favorite drink and read on.

Our story started last December when our Son advised us that he would have 2 weeks leave in 2014 and would like us to take him to Yellowstone N.P. in our Travel Trailer. Great will do.

January I start making reservations at 8 different RV Parks starting with Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone. Going to be there over the 4th of July and since we have been there 4 other times know it is busy.

Then stuff started to happen. April Son gets Jury Duty notice and Judge states it is a capital case and should only take 28 days starting second week of May. However, the Lawyers Union only lets them work four days a week. Plus lots of down time for the jury sitting in the jury side room while Lawyers fiddle. Then a Monday Holiday comes along and Lawyers ask for week off and Judge states Yes. Me I am watching calendar days go by and getting closer to 28 June departure date. Finally trial is over two weeks before we leave.

Three weeks before departure I start to do normal maintenance on Truck and Trailer getting ready for long trip. Change oil, all four filters, and check spare tire. Find crack/split in spare tire tread all the way around tire. Purchase new tire.

Take truck into shop to have the AC recharged. Shop finds leak in return oil line. Have that repaired. When I pick up truck they advise me that when truck is cold exhaust leak is heard on right side of engine.

Three days later take truck back to have exhaust leak checked out. Right exhaust manifold has crack. Have that repaired. Then shop calls. When they took truck out for test drive heard a clunk. Investigation revealed it was coming from transfer case. Filled Case with oil. Backed truck out shop leaving a trail of oil on floor. Found hole in case. Now this is Thursday one week before we leave. Send case out for rebuild promising to have it back next Tuesday.

While above is going on I am working on Trailer. Greased the bearings and started to wash and wax. Found 5 yellow jacket nests on trailer. While spraying the nests one of the little beasts hit me on the side of the face. Think he just bit me, not sting.

Come Tuesday 3:00 PM had not heard from shop. Called and they said the case had just come in they will have in the truck next day, Wed.

Tuesday my Wife told me her Washing machine was throwing codes and not running. I open it up and tinker with the contacts. They had worn thin. Needed some soldier to help the contacts.

Come Wed I pick up the truck and drive over to Sears to purchase a new battery. My current one, an Optima, was 9 years old. Sears has stopped carrying Optima so had to settle for a Sears Gold Die Hard. Change batteries out in the parking lot.

11:00 AM Friday I have the Trailer packed and the Truck hooked up, good to go. So, attach some roll down shades to the side windows because we will be driving all day across Nevada dessert. To do this I have to roll down the windows a little which requires using the key in the ignition.

Saturday I can not find my truck keys. So, use Wife's set to open truck door and find my in ignition with key still turned on. Yup, a dead battery. So much for Sears Die Hard. Son is late arriving so call him. Will be arriving in 20 minutes. Then we jump start the truck from his car.

Then we are off. Weigh the rig at the CAT scale in Sparks Nv. We are 230 pound heavier then we went to Yellowstone in 2012. Its my Son and his stuff.

2012 I had a 40 mile head wind to fight all the way across Nevada. This trip no wind. We stopped at two Camp Grounds in Nevada. First in Winnemucca, the Hi-Dessert RV Park. This is an older RV park that is well maintained. Shower house is large and clean. The Second was the RV Park behind Cactus Jacks Casino. Their shower house was clean but needed some work. Holes in the wall for hooks and the doors to showers would not lock.

As we approached Rexburg, ID it was time for lunch and saw a bill board advertising Subway and Burger King at the Conco gas station. As I started to break for the off ramp the Trailer started to Jerk, and Bump. I eased off the breaks and tried again same thing but worse. My first thought was broken spring in breaks or even a broken shoe pad getting hung up.

So, I am sitting in restaurant wondering how hard it was going to be to get a Mobile RV Tech to come and make repair? Half way through sandwich I remember that the brake controller has has a boost button which is right under the plug in that my son has been using for electronic toys while I drive. Go out to truck and start up. Yup, boost is on. Recycle the boost button and every thing is back to Normal. What ever that is.

We arrived in West Yellowstone on Monday and were staying at the Grizzly RV Park, very nice, for 5 nights. The weather was sunny and not very hot. A large crowd was present which is normal for this time of year. Also, it brought out a few I-Dots that were trying to get them selves hurt. Like walking up to heard of buffalo with calves or elk for photo. Or, walking off the wooden board walk to stand next to a thermal vent or hot pool.

Tuesday Got out the Bar-B-Q to find that I had left at home the connection piece to attach the Bar-B-Q to 2 1/2 gallon tank. So, Plan B. Drove to the Market on Madison to find that they only had one 1 Lb tank in the store. So, drove over to the other small market and found several small propane tanks that would cover the rest of the trip.

Wednesday Son wanted to ride the giant Zip Line next to Grizzly Rv Park. Took him over there. This is one of 14 in the U.S. It covers a lot of area and is set up for different levels of challenge. Son made mistake of taking hardest level. He saw little kids almost running through the different items. What he did not notice that they were riding their harness. Some thing he could not do. So, he rested a lot at the rest stations while the little kids ran around him. After climbing through the jungle gym stuff then he could ride the zip line around the four sides of the park.

Friday night, 4th of July, we sat outside at the back of rig and watch Fire Works from dark until 10:00 pm. Was a very nice show.

Saturday we are heading up SR 191 going towards Missoula, Mt our next camp. Light traffic so I looked over at the river to see if anyone was rafting. When I looked back I saw a tall, long bump in the pavement lined up with my right side wheels. No time to avoid so I held on tight and rode over it. It really shook the truck and trailer. When we stopped to check over the rig. We found no outside damage. But, inside the trailer the fire extinguisher had come off the clamp, a lounge chair had moved, and a section of trim, 6"wide x 7' tall had come off the front of the slide out. It had been attached with smallest staples that I had ever seen. And, the manufacture must have had a shortage so they rationed the use. Some stuck out the back of the trim 1/2 inch and others down to 1/8 inch. I pushed it back into place and propped a case of sodas against it to help hold.

Arrived at Jim & Marys RV Park Missoula, Mt. Unhooked the trailer and headed down to Walmart to get supplies to fix the trim. When we came out my Son noticed a young man just standing behind our truck. When we walked up he got into his truck which was parked next to us with motor running. Then he just sat there looking out of the windshield. I check the bed of the truck as I walk past and saw that nothing was missing so I got in. Back at camp I found that all of the tie down hooks had been removed from the 5 gallon gas can and propane tank in the bed of the truck. Only thing connected was the steel cable I lock it up with. Young man must have thought that I wanted to share my property with him, not.

Fixed the wall trim and then found that the screws were backing out of both trailer door locks making them hard to shut. Fixed them.

Next stop was at the Coeur d'Alene RV Resort in Post Falls,Id. This park has good report in the Good Sam RV guide. However, it was full of full timers. They parked along edge of the street, set out stuff to the edge of the street which makes it hard to navigate through the park with rig. I even saw two 18 wheeler tractors parked in the park.

That night we had Dinner tickets on the Coeur d' Alene lake dinner cruise. It sailed at 7:30 PM and did a 13 miles tour of the lake. The dinner was outstanding.

Then two nights at Portland Fairview RV Park. We visited Historic Highway 30 and saw the Water Falls. Anyone who visits this area must add this to their to do list.

Then Mother Nature came back to visit. While My son and I were playing our computers I smelled the acid odor of the Magic Smoke that electronics give off when they are about to fail. Since the AC was running we suspected it. We powered down and took the AC apart, top and bottom. No sign of problems. Put it back together and turned it on. It cycled two times and then more odor. I was out side checking the back of the refrigerator when my son said he found the problem.

He had saw smoke come out of the fuse panel. Powered down again and open up the fuse panel. Tested the 12 volt side. No problem. Tested the 120 volt side. All three of the circuit breaker units were giving off smoke, but had not tripped.

Camping World was close by so we head in what I thought was correct direction. Nope, Get caught in traffic at 5:00 PM and I am watching the clock going faster then we are. When I realize my mistake I program the address into GPS. Camping world did not carry any circuit breakers. What?? Clerk then gave us directions to Lowes Hardware store. They had the breakers. Back to camp.

Start to remove old breakers and find burnt wire on return side.
Told the troops I can shut down the 120 volt side and run the 12 volt side of the panel. However, we have to conserve power for the refrigerator, moving the slide back in the next day, and power jack. Which means we not only do not have lights, but no AC. And, we are normally three days from home. Note: I had plugged in My 30 AMP surge protector after testing power post at each camp. So, was surprised at damage.

So, activate Plan B. We call the next campground, 7 Feathers, at Canyonville, Or. Cancel the camp ground and rent a room in the Hotel.
When we made reservations at the Hotel, they gave us a 10% discount and a lower rate then was on the internet. That helped with stress.
Also, the Casino had a very nice Buffet for $11.00 each.

Next day we would normally have made another stop at Corning Ca at the Rolling Hills Casino which has a nice little campground out back. We had also called them and cancelled.

Canyonville is normally a little over 9 hours from home is why we stop at Corning. Told family was going make a run for home with out an overnight stop since we did not have AC and the Sacramento Valley is hot in summer time.

Two hours into trip in heavy traffic a Class A came down a On Ramp and pulled up along side of me trying to get onto the freeway. At that time I heard a loud Thump. I thought one of our tires had blown.
The Class A then passed us and headed on down the freeway at a good clip. At first chance I pulled off and checked rig. No problems.

3-4 miles down the freeway I see a bunch of shredded tires on the pavement. Then saw the Class A was sitting on edge of freeway with both right side rear tires gone. That would cost him 6-8 hundred just to have tires brought out plus tow truck cost. If wheels were damaged, real expensive.

Since I run at 55 MPH a lot of rigs passed me on this trip. And I saw a lot sitting on side of road. 7 in one day on I-90. Two more on I-5 after the Class A. One trailer had lost both left tires on trailer and the tires tore up the side of the trailer.

To sum this report up. We had a great trip in good weather, met a lot of good people out camping and having fun. Each of above problems would not have been worth mentioning until they just kept on coming. So, we analyzed, improvised, and over came.

So, on your next trip if you see your neighbor running around with a screw driver and wrench in his hand say Hi. It probably will be me.

Bob

[kknowlton]

Wow, that would be a nightmare! We have learned that things often don't go perfectly, but still - that many repairs in such a short period of time... 😞 Glad you came through it with sense of humor!

[buta4]

Good grief, what a Story!

"Aside from that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?".

[Jim_Shoe]

Just remember that bad things happen in threes. But if a fourth bad event occurs, it isn't an independent event. Its the start of another set of 3. 🙂

[loulou57]

Seems like your trip was a "normal" well planned trip, LOL

It does seem that on some occasions things happen one right after the other. Nothing serious but just enough to set you on the edge. Glad you kept your cool and the trip was not a complete loss. And some folk think that travelling with an RV is so simple, being a wanna be camper.

Hope your next trip is a little more relaxing.

[Tiger4x4RV]

Wow! That's quite a story! I'm glad that things turned out OK and you made the best of it.