We wake up and eat a delicious
breakfast outside in order to enjoy the lovely temperature of the
morning. While eating breakfast, our campsite is claimed. It's
around 8:30am. We pack, eat some thimble berries, and get on the
road as soon as possible as we notice the fridge is having some
trouble working probably because the liquid propane (LP) tank is low.
We hit another bear jam and take that rough road again to exit the
Many Glacier Valley, but this time something happened. We notice a
horrible smell. Is it the toilet? It's true it hasn't been cleaned
since leaving. Is it the sink? Could it be the propane? We keep
driving until we find a place to fill up the LP. The attendant, a
young man from Moldova, has some trouble filling the tank like last
time, but is able to fill it unlike last time. As he is filling it,
we smell the same smell that we encountered before. That smell was
definitely LP. However, we turn the fridge back on and start driving
again relieved.
We drive along the Glacier NP limits
that is filled with beautiful views of lakes surrounded by mountains
that are crossed with rivers. Some of the mountains were only
covered by burnt tree trunks. A big portion of the NP forest caught
fire in 2003, and the forest is slowing reviving itself from ashes.
The LP smell is still around us. We stop and check the fridge, and
the burner is out. Something is wrong. We light it again. We stop
5 minutes later. Same story. The next stop we light it again and
wait. Soon after it goes out. The burner flame is really weak for
the short time that it is lit. We pass East Glacier and its Amtrack
station and follow the railroad to West Glacier and its Amtrack
station. There we decide to run the fridge on the battery, which we
know barely works. We will have to address this fridge issue at our
next stop.
Going west on US 2 the road descends
along the Flathead river. The main attraction of the area is
definitely the huckleberry. This wild berry looks like a blueberry
but is smaller. We stop to see what all the fuss is about. We get a
piece of huckleberry pie and 2 scoops of huckleberry ice cream. It
is delicious. Later we learn that huckleberries can only be found in
the wild and that people never reveal their secret huckleberry spot.
Sometimes gun fights break out over a good spot. Huckleberries go
for $30.00 a gallon. The valley expands and suddenly we are in front
of a gigantic flat area. Is it the Pacific already? No, it's the
Flathead River Valley. Soon enough we are in the Kalispell, MT area.
We search for a place to help us with
our fridge. We stop at an RV shop that is busy until Saturday. They
give us the telephone number for Mike. From there we go to a
transmission center. They tell us that overdrive is fried and that
we have two options: repair it for a good amount of money or drive
without it at the cost of convenience. We choose the second options,
which we have already experimented with for the past week. The real
draw back is that you can't go faster than 55 mph and need to
regularly check the transmission fluid. We call Mike about the
fridge issue, he directs us to another RV place in the south of town.
We go there and find out they are busy until Monday. We call Mike
again, and he fits us in to his schedule. We will meet him at 7pm at
his place. In the meantime we drive to our hosts' place, Daniel and
Debbie. The drive brings us to the other side of the valley. We
cross some nicely cultivated fields and some newly developed housing.
We turn onto Mennonite Church Road. We are definitely close to our
destination. Our hosts' house is off of a dirt road at the foot of
the mountains with the whole valley before it. We meet Daniel, who
is heading off to work, and settle in. We empty our fridge into
theirs. We try to relax.
We meet Mike at 7pm. He quickly looks
over the LP system. The problem is definitely coming from the
fridge. He plays around with the burner. He reiterates that it's
definitely a small flame, and it keeps going out. The verdict is
harsh: the gas valve is bad. You can replace this part for $300, but
that is only if you can find the part for this old model. You can
also change the whole fridge for a minimum of $1,000. We are
heartbroken. The closest camping world store is in Spokane, WA,
which is quite a ways away. This might be a deal breaker. It's not
really worth having an RV without a fridge. We choose an alternative
option. We pray. Then we go home and go to bed.
In the morning we meet Debbie, who
prepares us a great breakfast that features huckleberry pancakes.
Yum! We talk about life in Montana. Debbie's husband, Daniel, is the
third generation living here in these very fertile lands. About
fifteen years ago lots of people started to move to the valley or buy
a second residence here. Now it's really hard to be a farmer in the
area as the property values rose drastically.
Yellow, with his expert mechanical
skills, decides to take a closer look at the fridge. It takes him
awhile to figure out how the fridge works, but he gets it. Then he
tries to see what is out of place. He notices that when the dial is
turned to gas, it seems that the gas valve is only half open. So he
turns the dial off the mark to try and open the valve completely. He
lights the burner again, and this time the flame is strong. Great!!
Five minutes later the flame is still burning. Fifteen minutes later
the flame is still burning. An hour later the freezer is cold.
There is hope!
We treat ourselves with some Angus
Deluxe sandwiches at McDonald’s. Why McDonald’s? We haven't been
there in at least two years! And wifi. Free wifi. Two hours later we
go back to the RV and check the fridge burner. It's still burning
strong and there is no smell of LP. This is getting awesome. We are
so confident that we purchase groceries. For dinner we make crepes
for our hosts, their daughter, and their three grandchildren. We
didn't plan to stay two nights here, but our hosts are gracious
enough to let us stay another night. We think the crepes were a hit,
even if some of the kids (especially the girls) might have used to
the crepes as an excuse to eat ice cream.
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