April, 9th to April 13th 2023
We enjoyed a 4-day layover in Big Timber, Montana at Big Timber / Greycliff KOA. This was our 2nd stop on our adventure taking Richard to Boston Children’s Hospital. Dad really felt at home in Big Timber, most of his time was spent driving around getting parts for the trailer brakes’ wiring, getting the truck’s trailer brake controller and wiring tested and picking up Richard’s IV Nutrition.
A new friend
Sidney befriended the retired gentleman that camped next to us. He was from New Hampshire, a retired carpenter, and a Jeep enthusiast. He and his wife were retired and traveling the US. On his last Jeep outing he slammed the front of his Jeep into a rock wall and broke the electrical umbilical connection on his bumper that is used to control the Jeep’s brakes and lights when it is being flat towed behind his motorhome. Sidney and Papa helped with the rewiring of the plug.
Trailer Brakes
When we were coming out of Washington, we started getting ‘Check Trailer Brake Wiring’ warnings on the console message center on the Truck’s Dash. As we got into Idaho, we would intermittently see the warning message followed by the truck saying, ‘trailer brakes disconnected.’ This problem got worse between Missoula, MT and Big Timber, MT to where by our estimate, the brakes were non-functional 50% of the time. Dad took most of the extra time around camp to troubleshoot and rewire the brake system from the Kingpin to each axle. We have high hopes for our next drive.
The KOA
The KOA was just opening up for the season and was still de-winterizing most of the park, pool and other recreational activities were not up and running for the summer. The Managers where very nice and wonderful to work with. The Maintenance man’s two boys (guessing 8 and 12 years old) came after every school and helped him with raking leaves and other tasks. The pool, water slide, and giant bouncy pillow were all still winterized and usable. Overall it was a nice little park and I would love to spend a week here during the summer again sometime. The best part, for the Boys is our big back windows were looking right at busy stretch of train track and they enjoyed the show.
The Town of Big Timber
Big Timber was a very nice and small town based on rural agriculture and some tourism based on its proximity to Yellowstone River and National Park. They had a great general store and ACE Hardware. People were very welcoming and engaged with the boys well.
Sidney enjoyed watching the volunteer fire station responding to a brush fire!
