Our travels started out okay this morning, but after an hour or so on the road, we got a battery light on the van (we’ve had to jump-start it a couple times on the trip), and Providentially pulled into the last gas station in a remote area for miles. The van died shortly after we pulled in.
While the gas station had no mechanical services, they did have a phone and phone book (no cell coverage) and I arranged for a tow back into the nearest town (Big Fork). While waiting on the tow, I cleaned the battery terminals (they were pretty cruddy). The mechanic in Big Fork charged the battery up and checked everything out in the charging system, pronouncing that all was working properly. We decided to go ahead and buy a new battery “just in case” and headed on our way after a nice lunch in town.
We made one more stop on our way down toward I-90 to visit “GB in MT,” a friend I’ve known online for a number of years through the Ford 8N Tractor Forum. Gary’s standing in front of his “carb shack,” where he rebuilds carburetors for Ford and other tractors – he’s done thousands over the past 4-5 years.
Other than the cruise control on the van kicking off by itself twice during the day, we had no other issues with the van.
We had originally planned to make it about halfway across Montana today, but our morning delay required an adjustment in plans, so we ended up staying in Bozeman. You can see one of the mountain fires in this last photo. We passed well South of this (no road closures). The scenery was beautiful—I’ve really fallen in love with this part of the country.