Montana

Saturday - Sunday - We were at our friends home getting the trailer packed up for the trip south. Saturday night was cold-ish at ~35°F but the elevation was much lower at ~4200’. The RV started Sunday morning no problem. This suggests that the hard starting problem is low compression exacerbated by higher elevation and colder temperatures. West Yellowstone was 6670’ and we had similar problems at other higher elevation locations. 

On Sunday, while repacking the trailer, one container seemed unusually heavy. When opened, I discovered several inches of water. A lot of items were soaked and some were moldy. This was one of the black plastic containers with yellow lids from Lowe’s and Home Depot. I should’ve just bought Action Packers. I was ready to toss the contents but Annie said that it won’t be a problem to clean them. I pulled the liner from the Bombardier winter helmet and washed it with my old riding jacket, stuff sacks, liners, and cloth bags. The leather gloves were wiped down with disinfectant wipes as were the two tank bags. They came out pretty good. Thank you, Annie! 

I’m thinking that the only real losses are the Aerostitch winter gloves and possibly the helmet. I can’t get between the foam liner and the shell. 

Monday - We are back on the road again with the Jeep towing the trailer with the Ural. Our stop for the night is Cracker Barrel in Billings, MT. We were initially planning to go through Colorado but engine blow by seems to increase with load and rpm. Bridget and Annie spent some time yesterday finding the route with the least number of  hills or higher elevation.

Added another gallon of oil to the RV engine this afternoon. Very annoying…

We did have a delicious dinner at Cracker Barrel!