Medora Again… but the Start of Something New
It was now spring and the weather was still cold most days, but this did not stop us from thinking about how hot it can be where we were going to find ourselves in our travels this summer. In preparation for this season, we ordered a 12v mini split and installed it on the back of the RV just weeks before leaving Kansas. We were very excited about being able to cool the RV while we were boondocking but this first leg of our trip to back to Medora would not be the time to use it. We were traveling North and the further north we got, the cooler it was. In fact, one of the campgrounds we stayed at had to shut the water off due to freezing pipes from a cold snap.
We would arrive in Medora just as they were turning on the water to the campground. Ben would be working on the grounds crew again and this season I would be joining him part time in the afternoons after I had finished my work online. While we had somewhat recovered financially while we were in Kansas, we had some big goals for this season and we wanted to make sure we had enough money in the bank to do them all.
We were working hard, both at work and when we got home as we were prepping the fifth wheel for our next adventures and we only had a short amount of time to get it ready. This is not to say that we did not have any fun though. We still had friends in Medora from the summer before and were making new friends. We still found time for campfires, mini golf, BBQs, and evenings at the musical.
Then, something amazing would happen. I had been working a remote job for a year and a half now as a contractor and a position came up to be hired on full time. I interviewed and got the job. The start date was going to be the week before we left though which would make things a little more complicated, but this opportunity was worth the complications.
It was now July, the peak of the season and time for us to leave. The night before we were ready to leave we found an issue. One of the valve stems on the truck was leaking. Ben had found it when he was pre-tripping the truck and adjusting the tire pressure to tow. We called a few tire shops before we found one that could fit us in before they closed. They were only open for an hour and it was going to take us 30 minutes to get there. There was not time to change to the spare. If we didn’t make it in time we would be stuck in Medora for the weekend. We decided to risk driving on the tire and luckily we made it. We felt very lucky that we were able to get it fixed before we left but it was a little more excitement than we would have preferred right before leaving.
We would be meeting my parents in the Black Hills for a small vacation (I was working my new job through part of it) before Ben’s next gig and the reason we needed to leave Medora early. We would spend some time on a reservoir in the Black Hills, on a lake nearby in Wyoming and some time at Devils Tower before saying goodbye to my parents and heading to Gillette, WY.
The reason for going to Gillette, WY was that there was going to be an FMCA rally there where Ben would be teaching driving lessons. We had wanted to go to an RV rally and this was a great opportunity to check it out. It was exciting to see the rows and rows of RVs and meet people easily as we all had the same thing in common, RVing. Early on in our stay, we realized one of the truck tires was losing air and had to take it to a shop where they found a nail in the tire and patched it up for us. Other than that small hiccup, things seemed to be going according to plan and we were thankful we found the tire issue while we were staying somewhere and not while we were traveling. We were there for about a week and a half and then it was time to move on again. We did take advantage of the vendor deals while we were at the rally and were excited to try out the new TPMS system we had purchased. In fact, we got the sensors installed and the app programmed right before we left. We had wrapped up all of our obligations in the afternoon and were ready to get at least a short distance in that day. We were looking forward to the next adventures and chatting about the wonderful time we had at the rally as we merged onto the highway. Then all of the sudden the TPMS alarm started going off. It was showing that we were losing air in one of the truck tires. Ben took out the tire gauge and confirmed that we were in deed losing air. We used the air compressor to top off the air in the tire and found an RV park for the night as it was Sunday and the tire shop was closed. The next day, we went to the tire shop as soon as they opened. We took the fifth wheel and unhooked it in their parking lot so that they could fix our tire. It turned out to be the valve stem had failed just like the one in Medora. Having two fail in such a short time frame was a little unnerving so we had them change out all of the valve stems (8 in total as we have dual valve stems, inner and outer). They made quick work of it and before we knew it, we were on the road again. We were headed back to the Black Hills for a few weeks of Boondocking, a quick trip over the boarder to Montana to see our friends and their lambs, and for another gig Ben had picked up at the rally before we would make our way West again for the next adventure. Little did we know, that gig in the Black Hills would turn into something bigger.
