Rain in Cameron and the Madison River led us to venture back to Yellowstone. We stopped along the way to check out parts of the upper Madison which flows through the park and the town of West Yellowstone. Baker’s Hole Campground is serene and lovely and we have lunch by the winding waters.
We fished the Gibbons, catching several in our usual spot and drove through the majestic Firehole Canyon. Alas, dusk was falling and it was time to leave. We thought we had timed it such that most visitors had left but alas found ourselves in a long line of cars. Arriving in West Yellowstone, we bought groceries, picked up dinner at Firehouse BBQ, then headed back.
I was doing on the 2 lane road when suddenly there was a large boom. Apparently the rains had released some rocks onto the road and I drove over one, puncturing our left front tire. I drove into a large pull out and while Ray inspected it, I tried to contact AAA. There was no cell service but miraculously, I was able to use SOS which connected to satellite and road assistance. AAA was amazing! Our location coordinates were transmitted to AAA every few minutes and they got in touch with a tow truck. We are our dinner and sat for 3 hrs in the dark, pouring rain outside, waiting. But they gave us updates every 20 min on eta. A car pulled up, also having hit a rock but their car was ok. We told them to let the police know about the rocks and later saw a snowplow come by clearing the road. A truck pulled up with 2 guys offering help which we declined. He later told us he was an off duty deputy but we politely thanked him saying we had already contacted AAA. Finally the tow truck arrived, a very nice deaf driver who proceeded to change our tire for our spare, using his phone to communicate. We loaded back our stuff and slowly drove the few miles back to our trailer.
We discovered that most tire stores in Bozeman are closed on sundays and we were worried there would not be tires our size in the area. This would have meant delaying our return indefinitely and finding a new rv place with openings but missing the arrival of Robert’s family! To our relief we finally found supply at Firestone and have made an appt for tomorrow morning. Keei g fingers crossed we can leave on Tuesday as planned!