We left town on Friday around noon headed for an RV park outside of Ririe
ID that I had been calling for a couple years.
50 miles outside of Missoula, MT we broke one of the rear axles of our
toyota sienna.
Tow truck hauled myself, my wife and our two daughters (4 and 2), our
minivan AND our trailer to Missoula.
Missoula was apocalyptic.
The nearby lolo peak fire filled the town with refugees and we had no where
to sleep. Our tow truck driver spotted some campers in a lot next to a
super 8 motel just up the street form the toyota dealership where we
dropped our car. They had power and only wanted $25 for the night so we
spent the night outside the super 8.
We spent the 3 hours waiting for the tow truck working on plans B, C, and D.
Plan B was rent a pickup from Uhaul, but that was a non-starter because
while the truck could tow our camper, the electrical hookups were not
compatible.
Plan C was rent a car/SUV, find somewhere to park the camper, and go buy a
tent and gear at cabelas/wally world and drive down on sunday and camp
overnight.
Plan D actually turned out best and really is what plan C morphed into. We
rented a car in the morning so that we would have some wheels to get around
town while we waited to see if the SUV double booking at the rental place
was actually a double booking. In retelling our tale of woe to the guy at
the car rental place, he casually says, "you know the SUV you are going to
get later has a hitch right?" to which my reply was; "Okay, but you won't
let me tow anything with it...". He says "We don't care" at which point I
could have kissed the guy.
So we end up renting a Yukon, and we got to our camping spot at 11:30 on
saturday night. Everything went pretty much as planned from that point
forward.
We ended up coming in about 7k over budget and we will have to drive out to
missoula on saturday to pick up the van but it was totality worth it.
My family already wants to see another.
20170818_194104.jpg
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-Tj9cS_iUGWTDNiODM0cmdYSTA/view?usp=drive_web>
20170821_112233.jpg
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-Tj9cS_iUGWRDJ1OWRxRlAzLUU/view?usp=drive_web>
20170819_123434.jpg
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-Tj9cS_iUGWVlh1RFBlejJ0STg/view?usp=drive_web>
20170819_095108.jpg
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-Tj9cS_iUGWd2dxU044RzA2RDg/view?usp=drive_web>
20170818_220846.jpg
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-Tj9cS_iUGWN2dQbGhUTlVNVnc/view?usp=drive_web>
Totality_1.JPG
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-Tj9cS_iUGWVGQ5Qkc1WUJOcDg/view?usp=drive_web>
On Mon, Aug 21, 2017 at 1:25 PM, Nick Monkman <nmonkman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Just...incredible. I was so completely mesmerized I was unable to take
the filter off my lens 😆Still got some great pics though. Still in awe.
Crowds much smaller than expected here...except on the road out of here.
Glad we planned to stay the night.
Nick
On Mon, Aug 21, 2017 at 1:56 PM Michael Finch <michael.finch96@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
That was so awesome! On the road back to Spokane.
On Aug 20, 2017 5:35 PM, wrote:
We're on centerline
On Aug 20, 2017 5:31 PM, "Nick Monkman" <nmonkman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Nice. Going to get up at 4:30 and get to the centerline...I hope
On Aug 20, 2017 6:25 PM, "Michael Finch" <michael.finch96@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Have fun. Rich and I are in Mitchell OR.
On Aug 20, 2017 3:43 PM, "Nick Monkman" <nmonkman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Made it Ashton ID where there is wifi and...a Dollar store. Hope those
traveling are doing so safely. Can't wait to hear everyone's account of the
event. On to totality!
Nick
