The Sabbatical Journal: Oct 2 - Into Idaho with a stop at a tire shop

Yesterday we left Red Shale CG about 8am with promising skies giving us some hope that it'd be a better day. And a better day it was. While we still had the incessant head wind, sun lifted spirits as we moved across Montana.

We stopped at Little Bighorn National Battlefield Monument for a brief refresher in the history of the "white man's" confiscation of the culture and way-of-life of the native American Indian. How can we not be ashamed of what we did to these people? I hope that'd I'd have had the guts to fight back like they did.

Little noteworthy after that as we moved west with our sights set on Bozeman.

One of my brothers lives in Bozeman and we wanted to stop by... spend a little time with him and see the new house he just bought and moved in to. Since it's all so new and he's had so little time to get things unpacked, etc., we stayed in our little camper on the street in front of his house. It all worked out great... this camper gives us great sleeps... and we had a nice time connecting up with him again. Thanks Bro.

This morning Dar woke me from a deep sleep a little after 8am. Yikes... what'dya say there boy... let's get moving. On the road a little after 9am, early fluid exchange, and we're heading west once again.

A little east of Butte we stopped at a rest area where a regular inspection of the equipment revealed a chunk of rubber had liberated itself from one of the old U-Haul trailer tires. I don't recall if I'd mentioned that this trailer, according to the mfrs. tag on the side, is 32 years old. Judging by visual condition of the tires, they may have been 32 years old too. What a poor excuse for a rental trailer! I accept some of the blame for this situation as I didn't do as thorough an inspection before I rented it as I should have.

Regardless, I now had a slowly disintegrating tire (although it still held air), and some quick decisions to make. First off... call U-Haul roadside assistance and ask them what we should do. We're near Butte and could take care of the situation proactively, or... or... we could wait for the inevitable blow-out further down the line in more inaccessible location that would cost them even more.

In an encouraging sign of reasonableness, they agreed to connect us up with a tire guy in Butte... which we did... and after about 3 hours (there goes the schedule...) we were back on our way west with two new tires, two freshly re-packed wheel bearings, and a little more confidence in an old trailer.

With the delay, we decided to drop anchor near Post Falls ID and Spokane WA... at a Cabelas store again. Tonight we're nestled among the semi-trucks, nice and warm, and looking forward to a shorter drive tomorrow into the Portland area... and one of our other "homes-away-from-home".

G'night All.