Day Two

Last night was MISERABLE.  As predicted the coach battery did not hold a charge and died during the night.  That meant no heat and no shower this morning.  The kids slept through the whole fiasco of me waking up to try to start the generator and then running the car engine so we could have a few minutes of heat. 
First order of business today- find a new battery.  The Wal-mart in Post Falls, ID would not install a battery into a motorhome because of a previous incident.  I didn't want to know what that was, so moving on...
Just before Missoula a huge sign read "RV parts and service."  Just what we needed.  The service guys put the new battery in while I made lunch.  [Check out the photo below for our lunchtime snafu]
Next stop,  University of Montana.  We made a quick stop to visit Chelsea, one of Karlyne's friends who is starting her first year at UofM.  The campus was beautiful, but I was determined to get over the mountain passes quickly to avoid an approaching snow storm.  Chelsea headed to class and we were back on the road. 
So much for my plans.  Literally, as soon as we passed the last Bozeman exit and any signs of civilization the rain turned to snow and I couldn't decide what to do.  The exits looked dangerous and the road was getting worse. I have some experience driving in snow covered roads and I can tell some horror stories of the mountains in Northern Arizona at Christmas time.  However, none of those sagas involved me driving a motorhome I am only vaguely familiar with.  Funny how the kids are deathly quiet when it looks like we might go sliding off a mountain pass- a little too high a price to pay for peace and quiet, but we are living in a confined space so whatever works.  A few white knuckled miles later, thanks to Andy, Google and our GPS we realized we were over the worse of pass and it should be smooth sailing down the other side.   Just to be on the safe side we traveled 100 more miles (away from that mountain) to rest in Billings for the night.  The motorhome is now my friend and I can almost forgive it for the whole no power /battery incident last night.



Chelsea Wilson with Andy and Kristen at the University of Montana in Missoula. 

 



Never, ever put a hot glass pan on hot steel.  Thank goodness nobody got hurt when it exploded in my hands, and our lunch was safe on the foil liner.