We interrupt our regularly scheduled posting for, yes, the repair of our leak

Jan and I are lucky to have already visited Yellowstone many, many times, otherwise this unplanned event would have frustrated us even more than just the problem.  I left you with discovering a leak while sitting outside, turned out it must have been leaking for awhile and it was the accumulated water inside that was making its way outside.  But, lucky for us not too long, as we could not discern any damage from the water.

Some background first.  Our coach has 4 slide outs, with one of them containing our galley.  The manufacturer, in fact all manufacturers have to design a system to allow wiring, gas lines, heating lines, water supply hoses, and water drain hoses to move in and out with the movement of the slide.  Most, like ours, use a flexible piping with a trolley that moves back and forth to accommodate the approximately 20" of movement.  As our coach is approaching its 11th year, that represents a LOT of in and out movement to wear on those connections.  I am active on several forums that mostly pertain to Monaco built coaches, especially since the brand is kind of a long lost child now, with the original Monaco long since out of business, and many people have experienced this issue. 

A few folks that have dealt with this problem before me have modified the hose used for the drain and I thought their ideas had merit.  Yes, our leak was from the large 1 1/2" flexible PVC (spa hose) hose that takes the drain water from our double sink.

And, of course, this would actually have been a fairly easy project except for the accessibility. Now this was discovered in West Yellowstone, a booming town of about 1300, so we had little hope of getting the parts we needed there, but I did give it a shot at the local hardware store, no dice.  After a few calls we thought we found what we needed in Bozeman, the nearest large town a mere 90 miles away:-)

Jan, aka the Diesel Mechanic,
with her small hands, releasing the tambour door to give us access

With the door out of the way
you can see the myriad number of wires and hoses
and especially the large white drain hose,
the culprit

Sure enough it wasn't hard to find our leak, always a good thing.

A good view of the cracked hose

So after measuring, contemplating, and planning our repair, we made a list and took off for Bozeman.  Initially we thought we could get up there, get the parts, and then race back to do the repair.  It didn't take too long to realize that wasn't going to happen, so we slowed down and decided to do a couple more errands and have lunch in the "big" city.  We would tackle the repair first thing the next morning.

The crux of our modification was going to be a replacement of the glued in 1 1/2" flexible PVC pipe with a 1" piece of flexible PVC, still a tough hose, but instead of glued fittings, we wanted to use barbed fittings that, if it ever happened again, we could easily replace the hose.  Also, we figure since this line only drains our sink, we wouldn't experience any problem reducing the size by 1/2".

The bad hose

Our modification

Our new fitting installed in the bottom

And at the top

I will mention this all looks simple, but with the access so poor, each task took way more time than expected.  

A beached whale we found,
oh, that's me, trying to get pipe dope that goes everywhere off:)

There is a trolley that the mass of hoses move along with that was challenging to remove and especially tough to get back in place with proper support for our new hose.

We put 2 hose clamps on each fitting for peace of mind

The trolley.
It has 4 connections which fought us one by one

We were successful, and we feel confident this repair is superior to the original system that Monaco installed.

Repair all done except for the wire ties to hold
everything together

The tambour door gave us a go also

But all is in, leak tested, and we only lost 2 days in the park:-(  Luckily we are going to be in the area for another 2 weeks, and it gave me a little extra time to accumulate items for my new hobby.......

Bert said all in all he liked having us around

Mixed bag in Ennis, now in West Yellowstone

Good news and not so good.  As I said, we got a call back telling us they had found a guide for us for an all day float trip on Tuesday.  Meanwhile Jan and I went wet wading in the Madison and I was lucky enough to catch a couple fish.

It's tough wading with the current

A fish!

So with much anticipation, we showed up bright and early Tuesday morning, 6am in fact, for our float trip, met our guide and took off for the river.  

We thought it was a good omen being greeted by an eagle

And after a little while we welcomed the sunrise

It was a gorgeous yet smoky day.  The fires are prolific this year, so visibility is reduced and sometimes the smell and ash really get to you.  

The Madison River

She looks happy, right?

If you look hard through the smoke you can see the mountains

Well, I don't want to dwell on this but let me say, the float was not a success.  We only caught 5 fish, not even big enough for a net, and we had signs that all was not working well with our guide.  It was a very disappointing trip.  Jan and I talked about our experience and finally determined I would go find the shop owner and explain our displeasure.  Understand it was not entirely about not catching fish, sometimes things just don't go right, but we felt we hadn't been given a chance.  I'm not going to mention the fly shop, but I will say this, the owner welcomed our comments, apologized for our experience, offered all our money back.  I could not accept that, as no one can control the fish, so we settled on a very fair solution and I will tell you, after our meeting, I would not hesitate to return and book another float with this shop.

The rest of our time was taken up with some further wade fishing with several fish caught, another foray into Bozeman to stock up with groceries, as the areas we were heading to are quite lacking in that department.  We got a couple days almost smoke free, but then the wind would shift and back it would come.  

So now we are in West Yellowstone at a superb campground, Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park, one of the nicest we've experienced.  We found out just a couple days before we left Ennis, that RVing friends Dave and Lingky that we had met last year were going to be there at the same time.  Amazingly, as we checked in and were making our way to our site, we found out we were going to be parked right next to them!  We have been enjoying catching up with them.  

Jan and I went and got our fishing licenses for Yellowstone, and have gone into the park twice now fishing and gone north on the Gallatin River to fish.  Can't report a lot of success, but let me tell you, fishing in the pristine, beautiful Yellowstone National Park is quite a treat in and of itself.  We've got the rest of the week here before we move all of 16 miles to Henry's Lake State Park.

And now our plans have changed again.  Last night while Jan and I were sitting outside having our cocktails, she says, "Isn't that water I see dripping?".  Yes, sure enough we have a leak somewhere in the plumbing where the galley slide moves in and out.  Thankfully it is on the drain side, so it only leaks when water is running.  We decide it was too late last night to tackle it, but I guess you know what we'll be doing today instead of visiting the park....

A quick update from Ennis

We were so happy to have been able to extend for 4 days and to just stay on our site in Missoula.  So early Monday morning we left to drive south and try the Bitterroot again.  First thing we noticed is the smoke is back with a vengeance, in fact even here in Ennis now, the smoke is thick.  Lots of fires around, with no sign of rain.

Well, we didn't do so well on the Bitterroot, had a couple of bites, but it just wasn't our day, so after exhausting all the options I could think of, we decided it was time for lunch, and yes folks, there will be a few food pictures, I know you've missed them:-)

We went to the Bitter Root Brewery in Hamilton, and had a nice lunch, I even had a great IPA.  

Jan's brisket sandwich, yeah she had a bite before
we remembered to take a pic:)

My enormous half portion of pulled pork nachos!

So even though we got skunked fishing we scored with lunch.

We had a few errands to attend to before we left civilization for Ennis, like Costco and the grocery store, and of course another lunch.  I should note that there is no sales tax in Montana which gives a little incentive to getting the things you need here.  We decided to do a Irish Pub for a change of pace and went to the Stone of Accord for first, a couple pints of Guinness, and then a delicious lunch.  We had quite the waitress that was so friendly we thought she might just invite herself along to travel and fish with us!

Ah yes, mother's milk

Jan's banger and cabbage

My gorgonzola steak sandwich

We were counting down the days, still a few things to do, and Jan's feet were really hurting in her wading boots, she's had them 3 years and they are getting worse by the moment.  So off we went to fish Rock Creek again on another smoky, yet beautiful morning.  We each caught a few, although we did not have the particular fly we needed, a Spruce Moth that the trout were just devouring.  It was a great day, so on the way back we stopped into a fly shop to see about boots.  No luck on her size, but they ordered a pair.  

We ran into a guy in the campground that was telling us about a new condo type park west of Missoula that he was going to buy a lot in, so we decided to go have a look.  We saw several big billboards advertising the place, but with no exit or direction info, but our new friend said it was just off exit 47.  We decided to take a short cut, but we wandered onto a narrow cliffy road that caused me to bail, so we turned around and lost 18 miles.  Yeah, scaredy cat me.  

A little bit of our shortcut, before it hung on a cliff

We went to exit 47, found no signs and even asked a native of the area where this campground might be and she said she never heard of it?  It makes you wonder why someone who is advertising a new RV resort wouldn't make it abundantly clear where the place is!  Anyway, we never found it.  We ran into the guy in the campground later that evening and we mentioned we couldn't find it, and he said it was at exit 55 instead, oops?  Well we weren't that interested anyway, certainly not to drive back 40 miles.  I'm not even going to mention the name as I don't want to advertise it, a place we've never seen.

So wow, only one more day, and no call about Jan's boots, so into town we went, ran a few more errands, walked around a bit, and had lunch one more time at our favorite, Iza.  It was fantastic once again!

Jan's Ginger Beef bento box

My Nasi Goreng, a fried rice dish

Our fishing guide, Doug turned us onto this restaurant and we were glad he did.

No call about Jan's boots and we had to go.  Off to Ennis, a kind of unique little town out by itself, only a population of around 800 people that is a fly fishing mecca.  The Madison River runs right through town, there are at least 3 fly shops in town, lots of bars, restaurants, and shopping, and what seems like millions of fly fishermen:)  The campground where we stay, Ennis RV Village is full to the brim all season long!

It was a pleasant 200 mile drive from Missoula after we refilled our propane tank after our leak.  The fly shop where Jan had ordered her boots finally called when we were halfway to Ennis to tell us the boots had arrived 3 days late.  Unfortunately too late to do us any good.

A little narrow, but scenic

Passed this huge mine?

A pretty canyon

When we arrived to check in we were pleasantly surprised to find we got one of the amazing sites in the back that overlook a meadow and the mountains to the east.  The only problem is the smoke that unfortunately is getting worse by the day.

We wanted to get into town immediately and see if we could book a float trip on the Madison.  We had a fly shop in mind from our last visit and went there first.  We were told she would do what she could, and would call us if they were able to accommodate us.  Then we looked around town for boots.  Found a couple places had them but not in her size.  We wanted to go into Bozeman anyway, and since the boots are actually made there we felt we could find them there.  There was another ulterior motive for us to go, and that was to go have sushi at Dave's Sushi where we had gone last year:-)  We had another super lunch there and then went in search of the boots.

We found her boots and after spending quite a bit of time to be sure they were perfect we got them and ran a couple other errands and headed back.  I should mention one other thing that is entirely Jan and my opinion.  Even though Missoula has more of a reputation as being a bit out there socially and politically, we always felt comfortable and surrounded by friendly open people.  In Bozeman though it wasn't nearly as comfortable, kind of uppity, and maybe even surly, even in the restaurants and businesses.  So of the two, Missoula wins for us.  

We did get a call back and we have a float trip booked for early Tuesday that we are really looking forward to, it will give us a chance to see if we can wade and catch a few Monday first.

A smoky sunset

Our view!
This morning we can't even see those mountains

Busy, busy, busy, and a nice surprise

What a time we are having in Missoula!  After our fishing in the Bitterroot and our float trip on the Blackfoot, we were told by the fly shop another great place to go was Rock Creek.  We were whipped after our float so we decided to make the next day a recon trip to check out the creek, the access points, have a picnic, and drove all the way up the creek and popped out near Phillipsburg for our return to Missoula.  We were really looking forward to fishing it later in the week, it really looked awesome, and as an added bonus, even on a weekend it wasn't crowded at all.

Our loop

Beautiful Rock Creek

We came upon the Hogback Homestead along the dirt road  a home built in 1917 and is now available for rent.

Hogback Homestead

The scenery on the other side is a bit softer,
but still beautiful

I should mention that it is fire season here in the west and the last week has been very smoky, in fact you can see some of it in the picture above.  It's pretty thick, but right now it hasn't affected Jan or I.  We can just imagine how much the views would change with clear air:-(

We took another venture up north to St Ignatius to have lunch and complete a loop through Jocko Canyon over towards the Jocko Lakes, then Placid Lake, then by Salmon Lake, down 83 to join with 200 along the Flathead and back.  Funny, about halfway through, we came upon a fork in the road with a dilapidated house and we both said in unison, "wow, we've been here before!".  But I have to admit I didn't remember the cliff side road along the Jocko Lakes, a little bit scary.  Yes it does run together after all these years of traveling and exploring the back country.

You can really see the smoke

We had only been back for a little while when Jan's sister Karen and Tom arrived.  They got settled in and we had a wonderful evening enjoying cocktails and dinner, and catching up.  Tom mentions, unbeknownst to us that he has a cousin, Tim that lives just south of town and he and Sue had invited all of us to come over for dinner the next night!

So the next day we explored Missoula a bit, and had a nice lunch and later headed down south for dinner.  We met Tim and Sue at their lovely over 100 year old home about 20 miles south of Missoula.  What an idyllic setting, mountains in the background, gardens, and pasture nearby and they have made their backyard a beautiful oasis.  They welcomed us and asked if we'd be okay with elk steaks for dinner.  Jan and I almost jumped for joy, and then we found out it was elk that Tim had hunted, and we did jump for joy, and let me tell you, they were absolutely delicious.  I told Tim I may have to move here and hunt elk myself they were so good.  We had a wonderful evening.  Thank you so much Tim and Sue!!

Sue took the picture, thanks
Me, Jan, Tim, Karen, and Tom
Yes, we were all having a great time

The next day the four of us went to the Smokejumper Center here at the Missoula airport and took an interesting tour.

There are 75 smokejumpers based here, and these brave men parachute into remote areas to fight fires.

This is one of the planes they jump out of,
and you can see the DC-9 in the background
modified as a fire bomber

It was great and we built up an appetite so off to lunch we went.  Later that day we each took off in separate directions.  Karen and Tom went to the National Bison Range that was set aside by Teddy Roosevelt in 1908 as a permanent range for bison.  They said it was beautiful and would have been a lot better without the thick smoke.  We went north and west out along the Flathead River to where it meets the Clark Fork near St Regis.  A pretty drive although the smoke was fairly intense.

Flathead River

Clark Fork

Another very important appointment was attended to, and that is Jan's haircut.  She works hard to figure out where and when to get this done and it's often a pig in a poke finding a salon.  She had a terrible experience at her last place in Buffalo and was a bit anxious about this one.  Well, I can report it turned out great and she was much relieved.

The next morning was our morning to go fish the Bitterrroot again, and we were all set and taking stuff out to the truck when we each thought we smelled propane.  Not a good thing.  We opened the compartment and sure enough the smell was strong.  I turned off the tank and then we tried to find where the leak was.  I have a propane sniffer and it was going crazy, but it was only after soaking it with soapy water did we find it was a hose fitting itself on the hose between the regulator and the tank, way better than a leaking regulator which I thought at first.  Good news, after I fought to get it off, yeah dumb me didn't think about the fact propane fittings are reverse thread, we found a propane shop not 5 miles from the campground that made me up a new hose with fittings in about 15 minutes, and best of all it was only $15!

The new hose half installed

The new fitting on the new hose

One last sniff, NO LEAKS

Well, that little project kind of changed our plans, so we just drove down to Hamilton, a very cute town about 45 miles south of Missoula and met Tom and Karen there for lunch.  After, since it was too hot to fish, we poked around town and found there was way more there than we guessed.  It is vibrant, has many historical homes, a nice little downtown area, and the views are fantastic.

So just like that, Karen and Tom's visit was over, and they left early and after saying goodbye we went over to fish Rock Creek.  Murphy's law, as they left the smoke did to.  We had a great day on Rock Creek, Jan caught a couple and I caught one, but we had bite after bite, we must have been just off with our fly selection.  Nonetheless, we both really enjoyed the day, the river was beautiful, the temps prefect, hardly a soul around, just wonderful!

A "bridge" across the creek

Looking back down

Here fishy, fishy, fishy

And after a late picnic as the day was warming, we headed back.

And that brings us to Saturday and the farmer's market we had heard about.  We headed over fairly early expecting not much of a crowd and frankly not expecting too much period, and, man, were we wrong.  First of all it was already crowded, the folks here must be early risers, and the market itself was awesome.  Beautiful veggies, lots of vendors, lots of variety, baked goods that were calling us, no we didn't answer, food trucks, home raised meats, eggs, homemade cheeses, butter, etc.  We spent quite some time walking around and bought lots of wonderful, fresh veggies.  Very well done.

Only got one picture
that really doesn't do it justice

On to the surprise.  Jan and I have been extremely enamored with Missoula.  It is in a beautiful setting, not only the convergence of rivers but also of mountain ranges.  The city is fairly large, so we are finding it has anything you need, as well as an abundance of restaurants, shops, grocery stores, entertainment, breweries, and of course fishing.  So we started thinking and wondered if we might be able to extend our visit?  We stopped in the office and asked, and they didn't exactly laugh at us, but explained they were booked solid every night, through the season, and although they might be able to find one site here or there over the next week, it didn't look promising, but they were happy to put us on the waiting list in case of any cancellations.  So we bugged them, I hope not, and stopped in the office every evening as we did our walk, no, no, no.  But a couple days ago, they said an opening came up for 4 days, Monday through Thursday, but we'd have to leave the campground Sunday, and then come back as they were full, full, full on that day, but keep checking nonetheless.  We did, and with no changes we got ready to leave this morning, packed everything up and were ready to go.  We stopped in one more time just before check out and BOOM, the owner said she just had a cancellation, we could stay here tonight and the 4 after, and best of all, we could stay right on our site!!!  FANTASTIC!