Boy is it good to be wandering again. Although we’ve got a general direction in mind, the rest is an experience yet to be had.
Although we still had one day to work, we had the van all packed up and our volunteer situation all sorted. So, the Forest Ranger on duty told us to just go ahead and go. We were gone in half an hour. Our first stop was only 40 miles down the road in Priest River to purchase fuel. And it lasted a lot longer than it should have.
All filled up, we started Annie and were casually chatting when she turned off. It is not new for Annie to just turn off at will. However, she usually starts right back up. Usually. What is the opposite of usually? That’s what this time was.
A few hours of combing through our FSM (Field Service Manual), problem solving and running through various diagnostics and we were pretty sure we had it narrowed down to our coil not getting any voltage. We were in the middle of reading about the next diagnostic steps when a man popped his head in the window and said, “Are you having troubles? If you are, I used to work on old Dodge’s and could see if I could help you.” (Hey, Universe! Thanks for that.)
This kind man demonstrated and talked us through all of the diagnostics that we had just been reading about. We re-attached the items unattached for testing purposes and with that the coil started receiving voltage, vroom vroom and off we went.
Final conclusions, we were not meant to be on the road for those few hours and one day we’ll actually replace the ignition switch that has been acting up and causing intermittent electrical gremlins since we bought the van.
So, the start to our latest adventures was... an adventure. Everything is as it should be.
And now we bring you to the serenity that is The Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge...
Wide open grasslands in a glacial valley bordered by two mountain ranges.
This was one of the prettiest settings for a wildlife refuge that we’ve seen.
We saw a reasonable amount of wildlife although most of it was at a good distance. Too good of a distance for our point and click camera.
Even if you aren’t seeing any wildlife though the scenery is just spectacular.
If you decide to visit this refuge you might would opt to walk or bicycle the four mile, one lane auto tour road. Driving it is nice and all but with very few pull-out opportunities you can feel a bit of pressure to keep moving. Here’s a few more shots that you can take your time and feel unhurried with.
There you go. Day 1 of our being on the road again neatly compressed into a blog post.
We shall return with more photos of our travels... now and then.