Episode Two of 2021

Now maybe you are asking yourself why, for people that are trying to escape heat, would they go to Arizona?  Good question, and one we would ask ourselves numerous times over the next few weeks.  Honestly we naively thought we were early enough in the season to avoid it.  After all, it was just the middle of May.  We did in fact alter our route as much as we could to get more north, but finding spots for 2 large motorhomes proved to be difficult.  And, of course, food right off the bat:-)

There was a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant in Bisbee we had been to previously and we all wanted to give it a go, still great.

We were able to visit and some of us took a hike way up above the campground.

We then moved north up through Salt River Canyon to see the Grand Canyon.  We stopped in Winslow, AZ first at Homolovi State Park, and got to see the "Standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona" statue and a flat bed Ford, walked around the ruins there and had an amazing dinner at La Posada, and finished with a pretty sunset.

After a quick stop in Williams, AZ where K&T went to see the south rim, we proceeded north to Dark Sky campground which enforced the dark, no lights policy, it was great.  But the drive there was not!  It was windy, as in over 50 mph gusts, and sand storms that impacted visibility, and it seemed that we were abeam the wind every time we turned, it was a grueling, tiring drive.

 

We did the North Rim from here, Kanab, UT.

After a quick, and hot one night in Page, AZ on Lake Powell, we went to Durango, CO.

Where we were met by friend, Rachel for a few days!

We said good bye to everyone, Rachel went home and K&T headed for Oregon for some work and would meet up with us again in Carbondale, CO.  Then Jan and I moved up to Montrose.

And finally the fishing began!

And more food:-)

Then on to Silt, CO right on the Colorado River where we were actually attacked by the hobo spiders, hundreds of them, and yes, Jan will agree!  Terrifying.

We found delicious food in Glenwood Springs.

And more fishing.

K&T had rejoined us by now and we all moved to our "secret boondocking spot", north of Creede, CO.

And the fishing was awesome!

Even found a great burger nearby.

Then K&T moved down the road to Creede, while we stayed to fish another day, but we joined them in 2 days.

We said goodbye in Creede and Jan and I moved down to South Fork, CO for a run into Durango for errands, and a hike around Big Meadows Reservoir.

Then north to Grand Lake and Rocky Mountain NP, and smoke.

Then as we headed north for Montana, in northern CO we saw a sight we had never seen before!

As we made our way from Billings, MT to Cascade, MT where we planned to fish the Missouri River, our #3 alternator gave up the ghost in the absolute middle of nowhere with over 100 miles to go to Cascade.  Normally this wouldn't be a panic, but our generator had been getting a bit temperamental by surging almost to the point it was dying.  We normally run the generator to charge all the batteries and to allow our engine to continue to run and it isn't a problem, but now we cringed every time it surged wondering if the next time will be its last gasp.  We did make it, but now we have a dead alternator in Cascade, and we are 240 miles from Billings and 160 miles from Missoula, the only towns we think might be able to help us.  I did research for several hours, read every forum that mentioned the alternator, called a major supply house and was told 4-6 week delay!  We found a shop in Missoula that said they could get a replacement alternator, a Delco-Remy versus our third Leece-Neville so we went that route, and through much trial and tribulation and 2 round trips to Missoula, we put in the Delco and have been pleased so far.  At the same time with everything backordered we ordered new house batteries to be installed when we were in Oregon.  

Delco on the top

Then it turned out fishing on the Missouri was restricted because of heat, so we didn't get to fish and the smoke and fires were dreadful.  This fire we could see right from our campsite.

Then over to Missoula where we couldn't fish either, but we did tackle the generator, we replaced the fuel filter, air filter, and took out the governor actuator and cleaned it up, and tried again, still surging.

And since we couldn't fish we found some excellent food, so we ate:-)

Then to Oregon through smoky, smoky Yakima, WA to pick up a replacement governor actuator for the generator, and of course found a restaurant for lunch.

In Oregon before the work started we found some Dungeness crabs and made our own crab cocktails!  And fresh veg.

We got our new house batteries, and Scott at Amazing Creations did a fabulous job on the consoles, and we found out even with the new actuator and a new fuel pump, our generator still surged, getting serious now.

Then we turned the corner and headed back easterly.  2 down, one to go.  Bear with me:-)