Our 10th day on the road meant yet another trip to a welder. We packed up camp and drove to a town called Choteau to drop off the Scamp at Teton Welding and Machine.
After talking things over and checking out the previous welds, these welders said it should only take a few hours to make the needed reinforcements so we decided to stay in town while we waited.
We stopped for a light breakfast at a local coffee shop and looked at the Atlas to pick our next destination, we took the dogs for a walk at the town Chamber of Conference building, and we enjoyed some ice cream at the town museum. Choteau is one of fourteen stops along Montana's Dinosaur Trail, so as we enjoyed our cones we walked along the the wooden boardwalk to examine some of the displays.
It's then that we discovered that the welder who was working on the Scamp is famous. Choteau is known as the "Bear Cage Capital of the World" because the man who fixed our Scamp designed and builds a bear trap that is used all over the world! I instantly knew that our welding issues would be fixed once and for all. If he can build traps for bears, he can certainly fix our trailer frame.
After stopping at the local grocery store to stock up, we headed back to the welder's shop to check on our "home."
Wow. I don't know anything about welding...at all...but just one look at the camper was all I needed to know that we were in the clear. Bob and Shane completely reinforced our frame. They removed some of the previous welds and added more metal all along the underside of the entire front of the camper. It probably looks stronger than it looked when it was first made thirty years ago.
We paid the welder (for the third and FINAL) time and hit the road to find a new campsite for the night.
After a two hour drive north in the general direction of Glacier National Park, we found our campsite for the evening. Situated in the Lolo National Forest along the Inez Lake, our campsite has a great view of the water and the forest. Once again, we drove through a few campsites but forged ahead until we found an isolated spot.
Once we got out of the truck and stretched out legs a bit, we set to work reinstalling braces and the bench inside the trailer. We had to remove them to let the welder do
his thing. By this point we are a well oiled machine when it comes to deconstructing and reconstructing the trailer, so we had it done in no time.
As I write this post, I am swinging in the hammock overlooking the lake while Kevin is somewhere fishing along the shoreline. Soon we will make dinner and crash for another night in the crisp Montana air.
It is supposed to rain tomorrow, and we really really really want to drive the Going to the Sun road in Glacier National Park one of these days. The last time we were here it was pouring and we decided against making the drive...this time we are going to wait until the weather is right, so we may go tomorrow or we may wait a day or two. It depends on what Mother Nature has in store for us.
All I know is...I hope we are done meeting welders for the duration of this trip. I mean, they are nice and all, (and their wives are nice too--our third welder's wife just retired from teaching English after 44 years) but I'd really rather spend my cash on some souvenirs or maybe even gas so we can get home! Plus it is stressful worrying about the trailer from a safety standpoint and from a where-am-I-going-to-sleep-if-it-breaks-we-are-in-bear-country?! standpoint. Like I said though--even I can tell these welds are different from the previous ones. I think it's going to be smooth sailing from here. Hey--at least tonight's campsite is free! :)
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