Bailey

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.

YES, we are still having FUN!!

Empty hot tub was completed yesterday

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.

Stay tuned

I strongly dislike cleaning: Bailey is the exception cause it brings a trip a little closer.  We have to get her restocked 🙂

Bins, more in Bob                                              Slides open for easy access

Our happy place!  Allan’s getting the “bus” portion spiffied up Our view of a coulee from Bailey’s storage

We’re very excited!!

Flowers from a lovely lady! 

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.

Find Batman!! I gave a hint.

Not as smooth as the first phase 🙁

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    

                     IS DONE!!

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

Thankfully another uneventful flight

Another chapter ends….

Sunrise on the 12th   

Our time flew by so quickly, we did and saw so many wonderful things.  Love the day trips we were on, all the walking, the drag show and so much more.  The weather was fabulous, even the single rainstorm was fun.  But we blinked and 2 months were almost over.

Today is packing day 

Our last dinner will be at the Seahorse Cucina Bar & Lounge. We take the 46 minute walk slowly enjoying the sites. 

The twirlers were twirling

The inukshuks were inukshuking   

Me was me-ing in the beautiful sunshine with Puerto Vallarta in the background

      Delicious bevies

The view

Followed by a delicious meal and good wine.  Lasagna for Allan, Spaghetti with shrimp for me.

My foot tan makes my feet look dirty   

Today we headed to a small flea market in the Walmart parking lot.  This walk is in the opposite direction from Centro where we normally head.   It’s about a 45minute walk. Hum, looks like we should have confirmed the flea market is still there cause it’s not.  Oh well a walk is a walk!

Galeria Vallarta Shopping Mall is next door, we check it out, pretty nice complete with a kid’s train

Next stop, a Tequila Caesar (complete with hole-y ice, the only ice that’s safe to use here)  & Victoria Cerveza

We’re sitting facing a very busy road; tons of buses most are overfilled like sardines

Back on the condo’s rooftop we play a game till it’s go to dinner time, our second last night here.

Sauces galore!             Luckily I had a margarita cause Allan’s glass of wine was the worst we’ve had since being here

The meat was so delicious, so tender and tasty served on what they called a baked potato but was really a diced potato.  Simply delicious!!

Second last day here ends