The Dreaded Annual Motor Home Maintenance

Not every day of full-timing contains glamorous discoveries and beautiful vistas. One of the things that has to be done to keep that diesel motor running smoothly is the annual maintenance visit. We had an appointment to get the oil changed in the motor home here in Missoula. Mark found a diesel shop with good reviews among RVers, and we got this appointment before all the forest fires started in Montana.

Before we bought the motor home, we were weighing the pros and cons of gasoline vs. diesel engines. We love the power of the diesel, but one of the cons has to be the expense of diesel engine maintenance. Mark did some research, looking for a shop that could change the oil, grease the chassis, service the transmission, and check the generator. We were up very early this morning, as we had an appointment at 7:00 a.m. to get everything done. We pulled into the service lanes at 6:50 a.m.

That's where we stayed until 10:15 a.m. when they finally pulled us into the bay. It looks like we could have slept a whole lot later this morning (Denisa says with her sleepy grumpy voice).

At $119 per hour, you hope your technician is fast. Ours was not. We didn't leave until 4:40 in the afternoon. We now have fresh synthetic oil (priced similar to gold), and our transmission was serviced this time. Our generator had an oil and filter change too. So we left the shop with our home all maintained. We should get great diesel mileage, as the weight of our rig is less now. That's because our wallet is much lighter.

We're not sure that we would recommend the service at I-State Truck Center in Missoula, but we did meet some very interesting people in the waiting lounge where we sat all day. Among them was a couple that was just evacuated from their camp host site in the line of the wild fire. They had two-inch embers blowing into their campground, so they were ordered out. This is a serious fire!

Leaving in the late afternoon, we still had the 60-mile drive to our next destination. As we left out of the Missoula Valley, we headed over the smoky mountains. Not to be confused with the Smokey Mountains on the east coast, these are western mountains shrouded in smoke from the Montana forest fires.

The air got clearer as we made our way north to the Mission Mountains of Montana. We will be staying at the Diamond S RV Park in Ronan, Montana, for only two nights. A small town in northwest Montana, this isn't normally a tourist destination. But it has an interesting stop a few miles down the road in St. Ignatius, Montana. Denisa had to stop to admire the beautiful flowers outside the church.

But the real reason we are here is to see the interior of the church. This is a Catholic mission, built to bring religion to the many native Americans in this area in the early 1800's. The mission's cook also was an artist. Joseph Carignano painted these beautiful murals in the sanctuary shortly after it was built.

The murals have gotten this church recognized as a National Historic Site. But this honor doesn't provide any money for the upkeep of the building. When the building's foundation began shifting, so did the paint on the walls. Many of the paintings have cracked, and are being repaired just to keep them on the wall. The white squares you see in the picture below are not reflections, they are actually sheets of rice paper to keep the mural intact.

As we drive on to our camp site, we love the views of the Mission Mountains that lie behind the town of Ronan.

We know they are tall when we still see snow on the tops during this very warm August. Montana is "enjoying" unusually warm and dry weather, with day time temperatures getting all the way into the 90's.

We found a nice viewpoint to watch the sunset, and got to see the last rays of the day hitting the tops of the peaks. We liked the reflection in the water, and dried wildflower heads in the picture as well.

Those last rays also lit several passing helicopters, used for fighting the massive fires around us. This was a big helicopter, with a nozzle at the bottom big enough to spot in the picture below. We found out that one of the nearby lakes is closed to recreational users. That means it can be used solely for scooping out water to fight the fires, without worrying about also scooping out boaters and swimmers.

We were watching the light change on the mountains to our east, and the sunset sky to our west. It was delightful head-turning evening as we are enjoying more of God's wonders.

As the last rays turned the Mission mountains to purple, we headed back to the campground. We've endured the dreaded annual motor home maintenance, and experienced a new slice of Montana today. We're looking forward to wandering more wonders tomorrow.