Day 130: Havre, MT to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

August 22, 2014

Thanks to everyone for the nice happy anniversary wishes!

We were up at 5:30 this morning so we could leave about 6:00. It was 59 degrees. It really didn't cool down overnight as it was 60 when we went to bed. It was overcast as we were leaving but before 7:00 it was raining and it rained most of the day. We had road construction as we were leaving Havre but that was about it for the day, with no travel delays. No more construction until we reached Theodore Roosevelt National Park where the last three miles to the Cottonwood Campground is being repaired and is a muddy mess today. Our poor vehicles. They haven't been really clean for much of the summer.

Again today we stopped for breakfast at a little historical roadside pull off after we had been driving for about two hours. Glad we weren't planning to eat outside because you could see the mosquitoes swarming.

Breakfast stop, finally.

Today's drive was primarily through miles and miles of farm land. There were small agricultural centered communities scattered out along our route. We noticed one Chevrolet dealer who was also a tractor dealer. We saw huge fields, acres and acres of what we think was barley. Then massive fields of sunflowers and hay. The road was primarily straight and flat as we drove to the eastern border of Montana and entered North Dakota on I-94.

Montana scenery

Acres and acres of sunflowers

 

North Dakota scenery was a little more interesting

Just inside ND. Didn't see any deer or antelope, it was cloudy all day and the discouraging word from the weather service is that will rain for a few days.

Today we had our first major problem of the trip. It was very scary and could have been been tragic. We were driving on a narrow 2 lane road (of course with 70 mph speed limit, but we were not going that fast) with basically no shoulders when we felt and heard something different, but didn't know what it was. Fortunately we have made a habit of always driving with the backup camera on so that we can keep and eye on the pickup. Immediately Max could see that the tow bar that goes between Fred and the truck wasn't right and the truck was starting to pull to the side. The passenger side arm of the tow bar had come apart.

Fortunately the built in safety cable kept the truck in line and Max was able to keep everything under control and bring us to a safe stop. However, we were still in the highway because there was no where to get off. Again we were blessed that there was very little traffic. We got out of Fred, saw what had happened and quickly disconnected the truck from the rig and put the broken piece in the truck so we could move down the road to a safe place to pull off and figure our what was going on. Only 4 vehicles came by while we were frantically working. It was probably 15 miles on down the road before we came to a grain elevator with a parking lot we could pull into. We sat down in the motor home and just thanked God for keeping us safe. Then we started trying to determine what we could do. We knew we certainly did not want to drive the truck and the motor home the rest of the way home. We called Demco, the manufacturer of the tow bar. They took our information and said they would call us back in a few minutes. When they called back and understood what had happened, they said they would ship us a new tow bar at no cost to us wherever we wanted them to send it. They would like for us, if we can, to get the old bar back to them at some point so they can try to determine exactly what caused the failure. It was bad that we had the failure, but it sure is nice when a company stands behind their product and lifetime guarantee. Even after close to 10,000 miles towing with the bar over some very rough roads.

Interestingly, we had just bragged to someone last night who was admiring the tow bar that we had towed the truck from Alabama to Alaska, all around Alaska, and were now headed back south and had not had a single problem. Today reminded Max of the times he would walk into the 9-1-1 Center and comment on how quiet it was and all the phone lines would light up.

This whole situation could have been so much worse. If Max hadn't gotten things under control the truck could have separated completely from the rig and crashed, or hit someone else. It could have happened while we were driving some of those mile high mountain passes yesterday. It could have happened in Canada. As it is, the truck and motor home are fine, we are safe, although a little rattled, and we will have to find somewhere we can stay for a few days that will accept a package for us – probably not here at the National Park. We are truly blessed and thank God, every evening when we come off the road, for keeping us safe that day. We thank all of you who check on us and pray for our safety. He is listening. Please keep praying.

We had scheduled a long driving day today and it turned into a longer day than we planned. Here's hoping for a good night's sleep.