Day 21- To Glacier National Park

We woke up in Helena realizing we needed to find a shop that might solve our generator issue. After three places, we were convinced we have a NH ( or lowland ) generator and there wasn’t anything to be done because in a couple of weeks, we’ll be back at a lower altitude. Then we hit the road. The drive to Glacier started out nice enough with gently rolling grazing land giving way to lush high yielding wheat fields. Then ever so slowly the land became more rugged and we could see the Rockies in the distance. The prevalence of freight trains are everywhere. In Shelby there were 5 tracks running parallel with each other. The Missouri River was running clear blue in this part of Montana and it was running with us, north. We hit more than a usual amount of construction. It seems Montana has received a large group of federal financial aid for their infrastructure. In these parts, they assign pilot vehicles to lead groups of vehicles through the construction zones which can be quite confusing or dangerous. This is where our troubles began. One stretch of road had been chip sealed which is to lay down a thick coating of liquid tar and cover it with crushed gravel. Vehicles passing over it drive in the bits of dirt and rock and make a pretty good surface. However, until that time, travel on these roads is very slick and can be hazardous. Little rocks come flying off of tires and you can hear the pinging as little projectiles come at you from the vehicle in front or even off your own truck. We began hearing a grinding noise, soft at first but as we approached Glacier, it was much louder. By the time we found a campsite for the night, the noise was constant. We set the camper up and Carl went to figure out what the noise might be. He thought gravel had gotten wedged between a brake shoe and the router. There is a pin that hold the brake pads in place and ours has worked it’s way out. I’m not sure if Carl can fix it but we have to wait until noon when we move off this site to our reserved site for the next two nights. Our worse case scenario is AAA will come and have to haul our vehicle to a Toyota dealer. Who knows how long that will take. Meanwhile we are in Glacier National Park and getting here brought us through some very beautiful country. The site we had last night was adequate. Quiet hours are in effect so we can only run the generator for two hours in the morning, at lunch and supper time. That’s it. We’ve traveled 4,337 miles to date.