That’s The Night the Lights Went Out in Rexford

We started early today.  About 0030 (12:30 am).  Last night we stayed in Kootenai National Forest.  Which is lovely.  It was the first time we camped with no hookups (aka – dry camping).  It reminded us of when we were camping last year in the Black Hills in the tent.  Definitely an improvement on these old bones to not have to sleep in a tent.  Anyway, we were all sound asleep with the windows open and the faint smell of wood fires and pine trees in the air.  A perfect night.  And then the beeping began.  It was the chirping sound of a smoke detector when the batteries needed to be replaced.  It took us a minute to figure out what was going on (remember, we have no lights-power).  The noise was the carbon monoxide detector alerting us to a dying battery.  We were ready to replace it with a fresh battery, however when Joe unscrewed it, we found it was hardwired.  So the next best thing was to pull the fuse.  The noise stopped, but we were still left with a lack of power.  We had thought the battery would last until morning.  Maybe because we were parked under a bunch of pine trees the solar cell couldn’t charge?  It’s something we’ll need to investigate as there are a few more times that we’ll be without plug-ins.  We turned off the refrigerator, unplugged everything we could find and waited until 6 am to start the truck to repower the battery. 

As a side note – Neptune did not do well with the early morning adventure.  He climbed on top of me and shivered until Joe made the big, bad noise go away.  However, once Joe and I were settled back in bed he was more than happy to jump into bed, too.  I believe he was a little more jammed into us than usual, but who knows.  It was late.

As you can imagine, neither of us slept terribly well.  Joe left for his ride about 8:15 am.  It was a long day today, especially after last night.  He took a picture that we included, otherwise it was just a long ride with 5 climbs and a bad road with construction.  US 93 was 75 mile/hour traffic with no shoulder.  I passed him about 40 miles into his almost 70-mile ride.  There was nowhere for me and Neptune and the RV to pull over and meet him, which was disappointing.    He met up with a BNSF railroader who gave him a couple bottles of water.  Not sure who he was, but we appreciate you! And a thank you to Paul for helping him through that last climb.  The encouragement really helped.

Neptune and I showed up at our next RV park in Columbia Falls, MT about 1:30.  It was a long ride in the RV and Joe and I both encountered the road construction.  I took a picture out the window when we were waiting to follow the pilot car leading us over the one lane bridge.  There were a couple construction areas like that.  At one point Joe was the lead vehicle.  The drivers have been pretty patient so far, which is very nice. 

I set up the RV completely on my own today.  Usually, Joe is there to help with some or most of it, but today he was riding a long ride and it was up to me and Neptune to do it.  And we did!!  The only thing I forgot was to turn on the water – LOL.  Other than that, we were good to go.  We had a quiet evening because today was long, both mentally and physically.  We took Neptune for a walk at Rivers Edge Park which is a big and cool park in Columbia Falls.  Very dog friendly.  Dad – they have a community garden! I love that they have baskets that people can take the herbs, vegetables, etc from.  I for one know that by the middle/end of August I’m always looking for people to take some cucumbers.   Rivers Edge Park is on the Flathead River.  The river was running quickly today with all the snow melt.

We are planning to rest this evening and maybe even stream Netflix.  Thank you to our neighbor Dean for providing us with his delicious banana bread.  It really hit the spot. 

Here’s hoping for an early and uneventful evening.  Joe has a huge ride and climb into East Glacier tomorrow.  And then Saturday we meet up with brother in law Bill!  Looking forward to a friendly face from home.