August 19, 2021 and August 20, 2021; writing from Dubois, Wyoming
Hello again friends and family! Well, you know, things can get interesting when your home is on wheels and traverses the windy, bumpy, frost heaved, pot hole filled roads we find ourselves on. And so it did…
You know that nice chatty update I gave you on the day before we were to leave Stanley, Idaho? Well, the next morning, things changed. After we hitched up and while doing my usual walk-around-look-at-everything, I discovered a shiny spot on one of our tires on the inside of the wheel. Looked up from the shiny spot and noticed the brake line to that wheel was loose. There was just a tiny bit of brake fluid that had dripped out. I learned to check the brake lines to be sure they are tight and look good from our incident a couple of years ago when we experienced a broken brake line. I learned then that if one line leaks brake fluid, eventually all the lines will lose their fluid and the wheels will lock up. While you’re driving. I’m pretty sure I wrote about that experience in a post back then.
Anyhow, I also noticed this big metal hunk/part that was in the wheel was loose and I could move it with my hand. That is definitely not good. I may not know what that big metal hunk/part was exactly, but I knew it shouldn’t be wobbling around in the wheel. Oh dear. So I say to Steve – “We’re not leaving. It’s not safe. I know we’re in the middle of the mountains and there’s no service place anywhere near. But, we can’t drive down the road with a wobbly metal hunk in the wheel and a loose brake line that I can’t get to tighten up. Double Oh Dear.
The campground, Stanley RV + Camp is owned by a very nice young couple. Joe the owner came over and asked if we needed help! Yes! He was able to tighten the brake line, and said that big metal hunk that was wobbly was the brake caliper. He said it was still partially attached and didn’t think it would be dangerous to drive with it that way. Each wheel has it’s own brake, so we still had 3 working brakes on the RV plus the truck. So we drove to Idaho Falls, the closest “big” city, which took us about 5 hours to reach. We stopped often to check the wheel and all was ok. In the meantime, I started calling for a service appointment. Let’s just say that was a frustrating experience all in itself. Places were booked weeks out before they would even look at it. I finally found a diesel truck repair place that said come on in! They agreed with the earlier diagnosis and set about getting a replacement brake caliper. That is another story in and of itself…talking to the manufacturer (after many attempts to figure out who the right person was to talk to), and delays due to the manufacturer’s phone system being down from a rain storm in Indiana where they are based. They shipped the part overnight, finally. But wait! That would be all to easy! FedEx failed to deliver the part – they were days behind. Of course we couldn’t find out exactly how far behind or when it would actually show up.
We had moved to a hotel since the RV was in the repair shop. We ended up spending 3 nights in hotels, a different hotel each night. And wow it was expensive! Idaho Falls, Idaho…who would think hotels would be so expensive? We paid about $300 each night for very, very average hotel rooms. Nothing special or nice. Of course Gerry was along for the adventure and he rolled with it just fine, although I don’t think he was thrilled:
After 3 nights we bailed and decided to leave with our bad brake and pick up our schedule to be in Dubois, Wyoming, on the eastern side of Grand Teton National park. The very nice people at the diesel truck repair promised to forward the brake caliper when it finally showed up. And our time in Idaho Falls was not all bad – we had grocery shopping to catch up on, found the inevitable Walmart, and explored the nice town.
Idaho Falls has a very nice greenbelt that runs for several miles right through the middle of the city. The Snake River runs through the city, and they have made walking paths, bike baths, gardens, and picnic areas all along the river. We hung out at the parks each day while we waited for our brake part to arrive.
So we have now spent about a week in Dubois, Wyoming, and guess what? Our brake part showed up today! The very nice people at the diesel truck repair place in Idaho Falls received it finally, and they re-sent it to our new location, and it finally showed up, although it was 2 days later than FedEx said it would arrive. But, at least we have it now. We’re leaving here tomorrow, heading for Colorado. We’ll take it with us and find someone to install it.
Meanwhile, we have enjoyed our time in Dubois. We were here a couple of years ago and we are glad we came back. We hiked the Brooks Lake area again, twice this week. It is absolutely beautiful. Then the rain moved in and we’ve had rain the last few days. Unusual here, but they are always glad for the rain. So we have caught up on banking and other life maintenance stuff, I’ve been crocheting, cooking and relaxing. So we’re now all rested up for some adventures in Colorado.
I don’t have a bunch of pictures to share, but here’s a few from our hikes at Brooks Lake in Dubois: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kaHqM4KQhb7DmqUz8