MONDAY; JULY 16 2020; WHITEFISH, MT TO KELLOGG, ID AND BACK

Monday, 13 July; Whitefish, Montana

Today is exciting for two reasons.  Our friends/neighbors from our Calif home (Rancho California RV Resort) are catching up with us today.  They spent the night in Dillon, Mt last night and will arrive in Whitefish this afternoon.  Then they will travel with us for the next three weeks.

Second, we are picking up our new truck today at Dave Smith's in Kellogg, ID.

It is beautiful this morning.  Sunny and everything.

Rob is still hoping that Dave Smith's will give us a decent trade in value for our old truck so that we can leave it with them and be done with it.  But when we had an accident back in 2017 in Fresno, our insurance, USAA, reported it to Car Fax as a "total loss", although they in fact did not total it but rather fixed it.  So Rob spent a little while on the phone with USAA trying to get something in writing from them.  He finally got through to them and they sent him an email that he could print out and take to Dave Smith's.

So we left about 8 am.  The last time we spoke to Dave Smiths, on Friday,  they were still waiting on a part, but said it would be ready on Monday.  Its a 3 hour drive to them, and they are an hour behind us.  So, leaving at 8 am puts us there at 11am our time, only 10 am their time and if they don't open until 9, that only gives them an hour to be completely ready for us.  I'm a little nervous.

The drive over was uneventful and went by fairly quickly.

Three modes of transportation:  River, Train and Highway.

I took this picture of the river, tracks and highway because I thought it was pretty cool that three major modes of transportation were lined up side by side.  The fact is, I missed the really good picture where the three of them were lined up, side-by-side in front of me in a straight line.  It was a really cool sight.  But, this is the best I could get.

That much closer once you cross into your destination state.

We did make one stop at a place that was advertising Cherries.  It wasn't a fruit stand more like a little trailer or hut.  They also advertised Huckleberry shakes so I bought 2 lbs of cherries and a shake for Rob.  That shake was amazing.  The best shake I have ever had. I only had sips of it, but some of those sips were on the long draw side.

We got to Dave Smith's and found the proper people.  They were not quite finished.  They were finishing up some sort of Clear Coat or something for the paint.  While waiting we talked to the power that was to be about the trade in.  He said that Car Facts and Auto Check both had it as a total loss.  He said Car Facts is what individuals check, but Auto Check is what Auctions use, so again no trade in.  The truck was finally ready and we went out to look at it.  It's so pretty!

When Rob opened the tailgate to look at the liner and the new 5th wheel hitch the gate just glided down light as a feather.  The old one was super heavy and about broke your arm.  This one even has a remote from inside the cab to open the tail gate.

The interior was really pretty as well.  Big navigation screen with all the bells and whistles.  Even a sun roof, and the back window is even electronic. Amazing.

Rob and the nice lady took it out for a test drive so that she could explain all the bells and whistles to him.  Bella and I stayed behind. She wanted to put me in the front seat while she explained everything to him from the back.  I figured it would be better if she were up front, and Bella would be happier walking.  Besides, I have the rest of my life to ride in it or drive it.

We finally finished up everything and hit the road at about 2:30 pm.  We were starving so went over to a hamburger joint that they told us about.  We met another couple there who had also just come from Dave Smith's with a new truck.  Funny!

We got burgers and shakes (huckleberry again) and a patty for Bella, (it also included a doggy bone) and then climbed in our respective trucks and headed out.  

Craig and Pam arrived at the RV park at about 2pm.  We were hoping to get back around 4 pm and then we would all go to dinner.  That isn't happening, it'll be more like 7 pm before we get there now.  Rob received a text from them so he pulled over to read it and to tell them to go ahead and go get dinner as we will be late.

The rest of the drive was smooth, uneventful and seemed to go by pretty fast.  

We got back to the RV park at about 6:30.  We wandered over to Pam and Craigs' spot and then they came back to ours.  They have three dogs.  Bella, Shelby and Marley.  Marley is a long hair Doxie who just turned one year.  Anyway, we travel with a portable fence so the dogs are secure without leashes.  We also have a propane fire-pit which we all sat around.

We drank some beers and caught up on the happenings back at he ranch as well as what has been going on with their adventure and ours.

As we continued to visit I said "what time do you think it is?" Naturally they thought it was 8-ish, when in fact it was 10-ish.  It was still so light out. So we said our good byes and went to bed.