From Custer, South Dakota to home is still quite a journey. Luckily tho, another one of our favourite spots is very handily part way up the road.
Buffalo, Wyoming has some great little antique stores and outdoor stores (as well as a terrific craft brewery…. a wool mill…and a cowboy bar straight outta the movies..!!!)
So we broke the journey home by stopping for a couple of nights under the lovely shade trees at Indian Campground ……..
………and some wandering through the art stores and antique stores on Buffalo’s main street.
Then…its the decision whether to stop again in Billings..(another Harvest Host favourite at Canyon Creek Brewing……) or to just make that long haul home…..
This time…despite all the rain storms, as the daytime and night time temperatures were still pretty high…we decided that an overnight without power (ie no air conditioning) was probably less appealing than the long drive….. so decision made to make for home, we set off through the winding mountainous roads of the Black Hills of South Dakota…and then through the Bighorn Mountains.
After all the long steep grades through South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana……..around 10 miles shy of Billings Montana….we lost brakes….!!!!
As we gingerly pulled over to the shoulder …it was the trailer brakes that actually allowed us to stop. (Just before the highway dropped into a long steep descent) A quick look under the belly of the truck ……aaaaand…….brake fluid was pouring from the back end of the truck…..Not good….!!!
Thank the heavens for AAA…. (..click here… they have saved us before…!!!)
Now stopped on the shoulder of a very busy highway (speed limit 80mph)…..early morning so getting busier by the minute……..it was not long before the blue flashing lights of a patrolling state trooper appeared at the back of the trailer. Just checking in that everything was OK and we were being taken care of.
Many thanks to the officer who stopped……he actually moved his car back a bit to push the giant trucks out to the outside lane earlier to reduce the increasing buffeting we were experiencing as we sat. (State law requires traffic to move over for emergency vehicles)
I asked if it was OK to take his picture…and particularly that it was OK to publish. His response was that there were plenty of images of him out there on the internet ….but none of them with him smiling……LOL……
If you click the picture and enlarge it you will see the giant grin on his face….I just love it….!!!
The tow truck arrived…..
Hooked On U towing company. (Isn’t that just the BEST name for a towing business..!!)
We expected to be pulled off to the closest ‘safe ‘ spot…then the truck and trailer separated to be towed separately……but it was just under 10 miles to The Brake Shop in Billings……Matt hooked us up and towed the whole rig ….like a giant train….!!!!
It was impressive…..!!!!
The Brake shop in Billings …I could not sing their praises enough….they were great…..trailer parked in their back lot…they took the truck straight away…got the whole thing sorted, staying late to do it, and we were all set to be on our way again.
By this point it was late in the day….so Brewery it was..(Editor. OH NO I said, but I gave in)….nothing quite like a beer and a taco bus after a day like that…..oh…and to boot…it was happy hour when we got there…..so the day ended on a much happier note. When life gives you lemons….
We have learned to be very grateful that when these things happen to us…it seems like we are in the right place to have it all fixed….and have met so many truly magnificent people along the way.
It was good to get home though……despite the armpit high triffid-like weeds and grass..!!!
Good to be home……but the summer of storms…….or character building experiences was not yet over…..
One HUGE thunderstorm here at home saw our hydro (electric) pole hit by lightning…..yes the one right outside the bedroom window…!!!
It shattered, what I now know is the lightning arrestor…..a ceramic insulator…
The guy from Fortis Power had to be up there with one of our very large Ferruginous hawks screaming at him the whole time…!!!
Other than a loss of power for a few hours……oh…and it blew the control board on our well pump…..another learning experience……all was well with the world. (no pun intended…!!)
OsteoPraxis on the road 