Time keeps on flying by at seemingly faster and faster speeds. But I’ve accomplished my goal for the summer… to be out camping as much as possible. Now my job is to catch up on the blog posts!
My next camping adventure started on September 11th when I drove to Livingston and stayed one night at the RV Park there. The next day I continued to Rapid City, SD where I stayed at an RV park and campground for five nights.
During the days I hung out with some precious friends,
playing cards, eating ice cream, watching cloggers dancing, worshipping
together at church, and attempting to troubleshoot some strange email behavior
on their PC.
I had the most unusual experience while staying at the
campground. I can laugh about it now
but it didn’t seem very funny at the time.
I had gone up the hill to the bathroom/shower building at the
campground, stepped into a tiny stall, turned around to lift the lid before
seating myself to take care of business.
When I was all done, I did the normal flushing and headed back to my car
only to find that my car key and fob were no longer in my sweatshirt pocket
where I thought I had put them. Hmmm.
I went back down to the van, walked all around it, looked underneath, and not finding the key and fob there, headed back up the hill to the bathroom/shower building, looking everywhere. They were nowhere to be found. I repeated this procedure a few times before concluding that they must have been flushed down the toilet. How can that be possible, you may ask? I asked the same thing, but there was no other explanation.
My cell phone had been left in the locked van to charge on my power station before I was to head to my friends’ house for the day. Serious mistake #2. ☹
Farther up the hill was the campground’s main office. I hiked up there and asked if the attendant knew of any locksmiths in town who
could get me back into my car. She gave
me a few phone numbers to try on their office phone. I finally reached someone who could help
me. I asked if they made keys or
replaced fobs. They certainly did. They got someone scheduled to come to the
campground within an hour or so. I highly recommend Harvey's Lock & Security in Rapid City!
Once the van door was opened, I grabbed my phone and called my friends to explain why I was so late for our scheduled lunch, all the while the locksmith tech was making a new master key for the van and explaining they had no fob to replace the one I lost. Fortunately, my van has key locks on both the driver and passenger front doors, so I’m learning how to lock and unlock the vehicle with the key, something I’ve never done before with this van. That happened the first morning I stayed at this campground. After that, the week went more smoothly.
I left Rapid City and headed to a campground in Billings where I stayed one night.
The advantage of van camping this time of year is sharing the tent camping areas with the fewest people. In fact, I was the only one in the tent area that I know of. However, the RV section was packed full with over 100 RV’s.
As I headed out to meet a friend for breakfast at Cracker Barrel I noticed my check engine light flashing. Ugh. I could only guess that another ignition coil failed, as seems to be a regular occurrence for this van. I pulled out my code reader and sure enough, cylinder 2 had a failed ignition coil. The friend I had breakfast with recommended a mechanic and provided the name, address and phone number.
After eating, I headed off to find someone who could help. Miracle of miracles, I was in and out within 45 minutes heading back down the highway with a new ignition coil.
The trip was considerably more costly than anticipated but it added to the extra excitement when I saw the “Welcome to Montana” sign and soon afterwards drove by the welcoming committee. 😊
It was an amazing trip but I was so grateful to get home, and to get home safely!
