A Tiring Day

June 7

With campground reservations at Glacier we pulled out of Jamestown early.  I would have loved to photograph the birds but they weren't active that early.  We hoped for as smooth a drive as the day before.

There was road work on highway 2 with stretches of wet tar and loose gravel.  We had to wait at several spots for a pilot car to guide us through the work.  As soon as we got beyond one pilot car a driver got impatient and flew past us, spraying gravel as he went.  Of course one rock hit the windshield.  We will have to see if we can find a Safelite station before the chip becomes a crack. 

We passed through many small towns, each with speed limits of 25mph.  It was going to take a long time to make the 340 miles we planned for that day. 

We pulled over at a historical marker to give Clark a walk.  Two young native women were there and they looked uncomfortable to see us.  When they thought we weren't looking they went over to the rock there and left an object.  After they were gone I read the sign.  The large rock was called the Sleeping Buffalo and was a very important object to the local tribes.  When the road was going through the rock was moved into the town.  The natives said that the rock was unhappy and they could hear it tossing and turning at night.  It was moved to a spot along the roadway and a shelter built over it.  Locals bring it gifts and ask for favors.  There were quite a few cigarettes on the rock, broken but unsmoked.  A tobacco offering or a prayer to stop smoking?  There was also an apple and a large teddy bear and other items I couldn't see.

As we approached Cut Bank the Check Engine light came on.  We had visions of breaking down on that lonely road, having to be towed to Great Falls, me having to spend the 10 days Breland would be gone living in a repair shop's parking lot, losing our reservations.....   Breland called Freightliner and they walked him through the diagnostic computer on the dash.  The code was an SCR catalyst efficiency fault.  In other words the DEF sensor was indicating a problem.  The recommendation was to try to drive to Great Falls and hope we didn't de-rate on the way or to add DEF and see what happened or both.  We were down to a quarter of a tank of DEF so Breland added 5 gallons more and we decided to keep driving towards Glacier.  My reasoning was that being towed heading away from Great Falls would cost no more than being towed heading toward it and just maybe adding DEF would solve the issue.  After about 10 miles the Check Engine light went out and we relaxed a bit.  Bre had decided not to let the DEF go below a half a tank any longer. 

The wind rocked the motorhome and rainstorms appeared as we started to climb the mountains.  The campground warned us about the 6% grade when we called.  We have taken much steeper grades in even worse weather so I felt safe.   We made it with ease. 

A beautiful rainbow arched across our camping site.  A great ending to a long day.