We arose on Monday morning after no disturbances during the night and made our way to an auto electrical place we had sourced. It turned out to be a one man band company and he was booked out with work for at least a week – he suggested that we try the company over the parking lot. He too was very busy and could fit us in on Friday. There was another guy there that used to own the place and he was talked into looking at it for us but could not do it before noon. So, noon it was and to pass the morning we found a Starbucks, had a coffee and used the internet. The guy spent well over an hour and a half on the Harvey, having ruled out the fridge straight away (so much for our theory!!) and when Seamus mentioned that the battery isolation switch refused to turn off he said that that would definitely have something to do with it – when he took the cover off and looked at the circuit board it was all corroded. He did his best to clean it up but it would not turn off and was causing a short somewhere. Despite his efforts he could not get the part in Kalispell but there was one in stock in Portland, Oregon which is where we were headed in about a week’s time. We had learned to manage the battery but felt better knowing what it was and that we should be able to rectify in due course. By the time we had finished at the garage it was gone 2pm and so we decided that we would stay over at Walmart again and then resume our plans the following day. We felt like treating ourselves and so when we got back to Walmart we looked around for a nice place to eat. We found a Mongolian grill called Hu Hot and we had a brilliant evening there. The food was excellent – you selected what you wanted, put sauces on it (they had cards to assist you) and then took your dish to a grill to be cooked. The large circular grill was worked by two guys who worked with large spatulas to turn the food every so often and in between times they juggled the spatulas while you queued up around it. At the point of food collection there was a gong and every time someone banged the gong, the guys would yell Hu Hot! It was hilarious. During the evening the staff, discovering that we were English, all came over for a chat with us. What a great night.
On Tuesday morning we headed off quite early as we wanted to get to our campsite, Big Arm State Park which was on the western shore of Flathead Lake, as early as possible because we did not have a reservation – this would have cost $10 and we could only stay two days there because they were booked up. We arrived and were allotted the same campsite that we would have chosen and it turned out to be the best site on the campsite. The views were incredible and we were camped parallel to the lake, just about 15ft away from it. It was sheer heaven as there were no bugs and it was lovely and sunny. Out came our chairs and we sat and relaxed by the lake all afternoon, reading our books and watching the boats go up and down. We were quite tired and so retired fairly early that evening, having watched a gorgeous sunset and for once Linda fell straight to sleep. She awoke at around 2.30am for her nightly bathroom visit and when she returned to bed Seamus was stirring, so no snoring, but what was that noise………….oh no, it was an unwanted nocturnal visitor in the shape of a mouse!! We laid and listened to it. Seamus got up to make sure the bathroom trap was set and remove anything that could get ruined in the drawers where we knew it could reach. It scampered around, first Linda’s side, then Seamus’s side, then under our bed (don’t worry it is a cavity that holds our water tank and so it could not get out from there), then Linda’s side again and two hours later there was BANG – got it. Thankfully he did not have any little friends. By now Linda was wide awake and so she got up and watched the sun rise over the lake – it was stunning.
Having had such a disturbed night we settled into our chairs again on Wednesday and had another very lazy day by the lake soaking up the sun’s rays and the scenery. It was good to have a restful time because we were going to be travelling for the next three days.