We’re hoping to make up time so I’m up at 5; Allan at 6. We manage to get our stuff done, pack up for travel and are on the road at 720.
We have to be in Detroit on May 30th for the Indy race. Bailey can’t come to that race so we’re leaving her at an RV park in Milwaukee, sounds crazy but we have no interest in maneuvering Detroit with Bailey.
Back to today…it poured over night we hope that trend doesn’t continue.
809a Raynesford, MT dreary not raining
919a Lewiston
932a Then the rain started
1012a The fog
Got sick of taking rain photos
1144a Then we got stuck, for too long, behind this oversized load107p Couldn’t resist just one more rain photo213p Miles City a passing pick up threw a rock, Bailey’s windshield now has 3 cracks. Two together and another we don’t know when we got. When we’re somewhere for a few days we’ll try to get a mobile glass company,
We reached our destination at 922p. Walmart Jamestown! 13 hours 644miles/1036km. We are not fans of such big days, but hey we are adaptable!
Tonight, thanks for letting us stay Walmart Jamestown, ND! It’s pouring again and the winds are so bad we opted to only take out the bedroom slide. Bailey is rocking!
Tomorrow destination may prove scary or undoable
Didn’t want to jinx it but Bailey seems to be back to her old self! We do have a new rattle coming from the front passenger side, umm whatever can that be?
May 17th: Our mechanic, Jordan, told us this morning he thought it was either a loose wire or the ECM. “DEF Control Module – This module controls the operation of the emission system. The DEF Module and Engine Control Module (ECM) are in direct communication to make sure the system is operational. ECM – The DPF system and the regeneration process is controlled by the ECM on a Cummins truck.”
Nothing else happens Friday. We have to wait for a bay to become available. The motorhome in the bay is having generator issues that are stumping Jordan.
No ECM in stock and they don’t want to order one until Jordan determines we require it. Delivery would likely be the day after they order.
May 18th & 19th: Saturday & Sunday I-State Truck is closed. We are anxious for Monday to arrive.
Even though we are so cramped, Allan still managed to prepare us delicious meals. Saturday did a Walmart run and then just sat around playing games.
May 20th: Yahoo for MONDAY!! We’re up before 6 because we know Jordan starts at 7. We want to be ready for his arrival. 8am rolls around, then 9am with no contact. We don’t want to be pains but WTF!
Allan goes to the Service to ask our rep, Jason, when will we be up?
Turns out Jordan has Mondays off, once a mechanic is assigned to a job he sees it through. What bullshit!! After much discuss, Jason says he’ll order the ECM and if it is not required they’d send it back. A little good news.
So Monday’s outing was Ryan Dam. A much nicer weather day and the dam is pretty spectacular.
Our last meal in a squished Bailey, we hope
We also hope this is the last time we have this view out the window
May 21st: Again we are ready to be dragged to the bay. Again, 8am, 9am, 10am roll by and still nothing. We check out the bay and see the motorhome is still in the air, wait, wait, wait.
139p – they finally arrive!
They are trying to figure out how to “air up”. They need that in order to release Bailey’s brakes so they can drag her. They try from the front, it’s not working. They have to crawl under, which Jordan was trying hard to avoid. And the blocks are out
2.16p Here she goes!!!
Bailey is FINALLY in a bay! Let the repair begin!
With Bailey safely inside we head to the Crystal Inn which is a 2 minute drive from I-State, we can see I-State from the hotel.
3.38p Snuggled in and hoping for the best
Weird! The hotel elevator has a swing door on it. Never saw that before.
May 22nd: Sunrise from the hotel window
The wait for an update or better yet Bailey is ready call from I-State is excruciating. As I said earlier, we can “kind” of see I-State from the lobby. We go down to the lobby every 20-30 minutes to see if we can see Bailey outside.
930am Bailey is outside!! We pack up our stuff, (something told us to bring the room key check out isn’t till noon), Bailey is gone!
Jason tells Allan, Jorden took Bailey for a test drive.
The story is…. Jordon tried to start (we know this as we heard Bailey not starting) prior to being dragged. Didn’t start. When she got into the bay, Jordon tried again and she started. He cleaned wires and for cracked fuses. Checked the voltage in & out of the ECM The error code was an issue with the out. He found a wire rubbing where it shouldn’t & repaired that. Bailey kept starting. He didn’t want to take it upon himself to suggest replacing the ECM cause what if the same issue occurred miles down the highway.
He said he had a few other things to check. Allan & I took a drive to discuss what to do. It is no fun sitting on the side of the road waiting hours for a tow then the repairs.
Allan calls our diesel repair shop in Lethbridge and recounts the story. Armando, checks the error codes Allan said we had but with not seeing the unit is reluctant to advise but suggests it may be best to replace which is what we were leaning to.
Back we go to authorize the replacement. They then said they thought it best to replace as well
Will take about two hours to replace. Off we go again, this time we end up at Appleby’s. We happen to get there at Happy Hour 🙂
517p Here she is! Super dirty and needing a good dump! We’re going to top up diesel, fill propane, dump and get the wash. Pay up, Jason was nice by discounting the bill $800ish None for us, no one trained is in
To the dump
We’re most excited about the wash; 1/2 hour from start to finish. We both thought, but didn’t voice while in the wash, “What if she doesn’t start?”
Before After
720p Finally take a deep breathe and chill time. We’re overnighting at I-State and will leave early tomorrow. Like this view better:)What a week!
Wake up to a beautiful sunriseWe leave for our next destination, Glendive, MT, at 935a. First stop fuel and top us DEF at Exxon in Chinook about 20 minutes out. WOW diesel prices…
On the road again, just so happy to be on the road again when… Bailey starts losing power, we slow more and more. We are in the dreaded “Limp Mode” We tried to make it to a safe spot but this is where we ended up. Half way in the east bound lane on a 2 lane highway.
Allan sets up our triangles, they worked for a bit but then got too windy to use them.
Allan on the phone with CoachNet , 11.10a
Vehicles whipping by = Bailey is rocking. It is a little intimidating, they are so close. CoachNet did say they will contact Montana Highway Patrol as we are stuck on an active highway. (Spoiler alert = they never did show up, the one time you want to see a cop)
What do you while waiting for a tow? King’s Crib!
We also cancelled the next 3 RV Park bookings, of course of there is no such thing as a full refund.
CoachNet is good in staying in touch while attempting to find a tow and a place to tow to. Several calls to say they haven’t found either yet.
Then good news one!! Cliff’s Towing from Shelby but he will be 4-5 hours. That makes his arrival time between 4 & 5p Bad news, they are towing us to the closest Freightliner dealer in Great Falls, I-State Truck Center. 2-1/2 hours back the way we came. CoachNet tells us they will not be able to look at Bailey till Monday.
Cliff arrives at 419p
The loading begins….
Loading complete at 448p
Off we go
We are taking the direct route and will get to I-State ahead of Cliff. We need a spot next to a light standard so we can plug in to keep the fridge going. Cliff needed to get a permit to flatbed because of Bailey’s height and weight. DOT has select routes to travel which include weigh stations.
We arrived @ 754p
The wait for Bailey begins. We wait and wait… finally she pulls in 955p
Turns out the stop at the weigh station didn’t go so well. Cliff was overweight so got a chewing out, a fine and had to buy a new permit.
The unload begins….
It goes alright until… Bailey’s nose is stuck
Cliff tries this and that, that and his. Finally he comes up with putting wood blocks under Bailey to elevate her. That worked! 1110p Bailey is off!
1134p Finally dinner time, Caesar Salad
It’s a little cramped, can’t open the slides because Bailey doesn’t start. At least we could put out the bedroom slide.
May 17th: Bailey waiting to be diagnosed & repaired
A tech hooked Bailey to his computer to see if it was an easy fix. We all know that answer; Bailey needs to get into the shop but it’s full and doesn’t sound like she’ll make it there today. He thinks it may need a ECM for the DEF system and of course they don’t have one in stock and won’t order cause it may be something else.
Our Bailey is getting older, took several thousands and leaving a day late than planed but here we are on our next adventure!
Our sunrise this morning
“On the road again” Won’t record and post our leaving song even though it brings us such joy :} Your welcome!!
Crossing at Coutts, we learned our lesson last time we crossed at Sumas, No chicken, No eggs, No Fruit, No Vegetables! We’ll be crossing with none of these… Almost there We’re here!!!
Crossing guard asked the regular meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit.. No to all. Then the weird questions “Is there anyone in the Jeep?” “Have either one of you been arrested and convicted of a (not sure what type of crime) No we haven’t “Are you sure?” he asks. Then “you must like cold winters” took us a bit to figure that out but Allan did “No we don’t that’s why we go to Mexico”. Crossed from start to end in about 15 minutes.
The signs saying caution deer proved to be true. Allan was in his glory when we encountered deer on both sides of the highway… He air horned them and they scattered. The deer here are lighter and blend in more, we were on our guard and saw several.
Our first stop, Havre, MT
Always an issue, this one… our big slide won’t open. No power, why? Allan posts to a Winnebago site and someone responds with “the slide is likely locked”. We don’t ever lock our slides and none of our fixer dudes worked on slides… but… yep that was the issue!
Our site, likely the long one yet at 150′
There are animals here.
Then spotted the gators! Stranger things may have happened LOL
The day of our first trip of the season has arrived!!
Bailey is welcoming us, think she said “It’s about time!”
Bob’s hooked up, had an issue with the driver’s side light hook up on Bob, WD40 to the rescue. A replacement cable is on order.
Leaving storage
Where to?? A whooping 16 min (11.1 km) drive to Lethbridge KOA! We call this our “shake down” trip.
Heading to our site Our site 🙂
Our view of Oldman River from the captain seats. You gotta look real hard!
Please note the changing skies.
When we booked our site on Saturday the weather was supposed to be OK. Maybe rain but wanted to have time to repair/get parts in for anything that may need it so decided we’d live with the possibility of rain,
Once we got settled in they changed to forecast to… On well, we’re here now and know it’s important to do the “shake down” after Bailey was in storage all Winter and with the recent battery replacement and the work done we think it wise to do a quick trip to make sure everything works as it should, fill our water tank, and we have all the supplies, pots, dishes, cleaning stuff, etc that we’ll need. This is the list in progress.
The generator has been serviced but it still doesn’t always start. We’ll need it for many of our locations so it has to work all the time! We have Bailey scheduled to go back to Diesel Tech when we leave here.
It gets way messy before better! The fridge is cleaner than ever!
Our welcoming committee I count 6
Liz, introduced us to “King’s Cribbage” and we’ve been addicted ever since. Our first on Bailey game. 3 games played, 2 wins to me 🙂
My “Pit Master” creating goodness!
Predicted snow has not hit yet and the winds have died down! Fire time
We called the fire when it started to rain, (better than snow) again.
How much snow will we wake up to?
May 01st: How is it May already?? We’re a little frightened to look out – this is what we see! Yahoo, the forecast was wrong again. There are a few flakes mixed in with rain hopefully none will stick till we get Bailey to Diesel Tech. We decided to leave earlier than anticipated in case the snow didn’t want to quit. We arrived at Diesel Tech at 918a. Looks like Bailey’s neighbour is a little tipsy!Fingers crossed this fix is cheaper than the last one, but pretty sure it isn’t going to be.
It was very wise of us to do this “shake down” outing as it turns out not only the generator needs help so does our water pump (that is serviced by Back Country RV). 2 things we need when “boondocking” are of course the generator & water pump,
Our next good decision was to drop off early as this is what happened next; snow did make it here.
We pick up Bailey up from storage and taking her back to Diesel Tech. But first, we wait for the train to pass, 16 minutes. There are really long trains here!
Here we are, again, hoping for the best (ie cheapest) fix.
Back home we await, Kyle & Megan’s visit!!
We will welcome them with the Tequila we brought back from Mexico.
What followed were fun days filled with food, drink, hot tubbing and games! We love their visits.
Allan recently took a PitMaster course, he put those newly acquired skills to use.
First up, 2 Tri-Tips
Game time waiting for the tri-tips to be done….
So delicious! Look at that meat!
Next day we’re having pulled pork. Allan put it on the grill about 11pm leaving it to cook all night. It was quite the process of slow cooking over night, foil wrapping, raising the temp for a few hours, taking it off the grill, letting it rest, then finally eating!!
Incredibly delicious!! Allan for the WIN!
We get the call that Bailey is ready. Off we all go to get her. Turns out the DEF pump had to be replaced, definitely not a cheap fix but as least it’s done. Kyle & Megan get their first ride in Bailey 🙂
Yep another train on our way back but at least the wait wasn’t long.Bailey is back in storage
Just like that their visit, is sadly, over. Will focus on how much fun we had!
After K&M left Allan decided to try to make Batman fly!. We bought him from a beach vendor in PV. We thought it would fly while attached to the pergolas. Not so much, just tangled. Allan untangled and even though it was windy it just wouldn’t fly.
We have to replace all our batteries, the chassis batteries went well; our 6 expensive house AGM Deep Cycle batteries not so much!
We enquired before heading to Mexico and our battery store said no need to buy the batteries then as they are “always”in stock. No need to guess what isn’t in stock! They may have them again in 2 weeks. He did not sound confident.
Call battery store number 2; yes they have them in stock but they are about $60 more for each, Hard pill to swallow but… We need them!We drive there, he comes out to see our batteries. Nope he doesn’t have these we need both an automotive top post and a threaded stud post.
Original batteries in Bailey were NAPA brand; Allan called them. They are a bit more than battery store #2, but now we have no more options.
Off to NAPA we go. The lady Allan spoke to was gone for the day. The guy we now have can not find the battery in their system. He eventually calls the manufacturer and gets the correct part number and determines they have them in Calgary, of course the first quote was incorrect and the new one is not in our favour. Bailey is scheduled for the RV part of service including installation of said batteries, on Thursday, NAPA says the batteries will in be Thursday morning. The guy we were dealing with says to think about it and if we decide to go ahead call in with our credit card for a deposit.
We call back to order them, dude one is gone dude 2 says he wants us to come in again to confirm what they are ordering is the correct part cause batteries are not returnable. Back we go.. Order placed, batteries paid, fingers crossed! There is stuff I dislike paying for, garbage bags come to mind and now batteries! $3400 and I can’t even admire them.
Thursday… we drop Bailey at
NAPA says they’ll call us when the batteries arrive, no call. We go there expecting the worst. Yahoo they come through
We are relieved we have the batteries to take to Back Country. Next issue! When following Bailey back from Diesel Tech, the last service place, I noticed smoke bellowing from the exhaust. It cleared up, I did mention it to Allan. At the time all gauges were good. Brought Bailey back to storage, now in taking her to Back Country Allan sees a “Check Engine Light” never a good sign. On the way back from Back Country the light doesn’t go off. Allan has a way to read the error message, turns out it is a DEF issue. One of the things that can happen is “Limp Mode” where the speed gets reduced to 5 miles an hour. Imagine that on a highway!!
Have a Monday appointment at Diesel Tech, please keep fingers crossed it’s not a major issue.
Mar 31th: We visit Bailey and are so happy she started right away! Tomorrow is her first get ready for the road “checkup” day.
April 1st: Oh boy April 1st!! Is this a good day to bring Bailey to Diesel Tech. Are we going to need a tow? Front driver’s side looks a little, stuck!
Bailey makes it out! Went better than we thought, we’re off to a good start
Here for Bailey’s annual filter changes, engine & generator serviceApril 02nd: The lovely weather change, ugh…the today on the temp chart is April 02
April 2nd snow almost gone April 4th snow is back
We have no interest in driving Bailey in the snow, fortunately, they are waiting for a filter so no pick up today.
April 04th:OTD 5 years ago, love FB memories!!April 05th: Bailey is ready! Snow on the road means not picking up today.
April 06th: Dreary but no snow on the roads. Pick up Bailey, charges were better than we hoped.
Whoops we can’t make it back into our normal spot. Mud, Bailey’s wheels spin & spin. Ruts, some we made. Centerline assigned us a temporary spot till the regular one dries upBob is covered in mud, zoom in to his front tire. Know it’s a Jeep, we’d rather he be clean
The dreaded have to “get back to reality”day has arrived!
Our final walk around the neighbour.
Our street sign
Our condo was the yellow one top floor
Our corner street taco stand
Sites we’ll miss. Love all the colours
Notice? No smile, waiting for our Uber Super busy; it took us twice as long to get to the airport and actually make it to the drop off point. Still no smile 🙁
Getting through security was good, no need to open our carry-ons. It’s now lunch time. Love this restaurant. Can you spot Allan? Leslie I think you will 🙂 The best garlic shrimp! Allan’s tacos were good as well.
A bus takes us to the plane
The flight left only about an hour late, we’re pleased. Not so pleased that this is a dash 9 plane, the same type as the Alaska Airlines door fell off.
The windows, instead of the normal blinds, have a tinting system, push a few buttons and it turns blue dinning the outdoor light. This what it looks like through the tint.
The back of the seat entertainment centre is fun. They had movies as well as showing the navigation, how long till we land screens. One of the movies I watched was, based on a PI in PEI, I’d never heard of it but was quite fun; Who’s Yer Father? Anette, if you haven’t seen it yet I think you’d like it; you’ll recognize many places.
Landed safely, now in the Calgary Lounge waiting for our Lethbridge connection flight while enjoying bevies and snacks
1012a The fog
107p Couldn’t resist just one more rain photo
213p Miles City a passing pick up threw a rock, Bailey’s windshield now has 3 cracks. Two together and another we don’t know when we got. 
When we’re somewhere for a few days we’ll try to get a mobile glass company,
None for us, no one trained is in
We leave for our next destination, Glendive, MT, at 935a. First stop fuel and top us DEF at Exxon in Chinook about 20 minutes out. WOW diesel prices… 
What do you while waiting for a tow? King’s Crib!
We arrived @ 754p
The day of our first trip of the season has arrived!!
A bus takes us to the plane
Thankfully another uneventful flight
