Post by Hard Rock Cafe on May 28, 2010 22:11:22 GMT -5
Before I start describing this trip, I need to give a little background...Last Labor Day I was headed out for a bicycling trip with my family. We were going to ride on the Elroy-Sparta bike trail with my brother-in-law. Well, we left Minneapolis and got just outside of Rochester when the transmission went out for the second time on our 2000 Honda Odyssey.
After having the van towed back to Minneapolis, we got it repaired with a 1 year guarantee at Aamco. Last week, I took it in for a service check, knowing that I was going to Montana this weekend with my 9 yr old son, Ian, to hunt for dino fossils and Montana Agate. The transmission checked out fine.
So, we left Minneapolis this morning at 7 am and as you can guess, just west of Bismarck, ND, the transmission blew. I was able to keep driving to our destination, Glendive, MT. This being a small town in a sparsely populated state that prefers Fords and Chevys, and a holiday weekend, there is no chance of getting the tranny fixed around here. I bought 2 gallons of tranny fluid and because the van is still drivable (barely), I plan to drive it home on Monday. Once I get into overdrive, it seems to be okay. Fortunately, this is an annual trip for my rock club, so we should still be able to hound Saturday and Sunday by riding with others.
I'm not trying to make this a "woe is me" tale, in fact I'm surprisingly (for me) optimistic. I guess I don't have much choice. I may see if somebody will be willing to follow me home and drive us the rest of the way if the car dies. The other good news is that the forecast all week long was for rain this weekend; that has changed to a 10-20% chance. I'll take those odds!
Back to rockhounding, our hotel is adjacent to the Yellowstone River, so after dinner, Ian and I went down to the river to hound. We found about 10 lbs or so of agates. One definitely looks like typical Montana, and some of the others look like Prairie Agates. I didn't know those could be found here, but judging from the Badlands-type geology, it makes sense. And Ian had a great time getting muddy.
I'll try to take some pics tomorrow. We were going to go here today, but I chickened out because it is even more rural:
www.harmons.net/
We're supposed to go here tomorrow, provided it's been dry enough:
www.dailydinosaurdigs.com/
If that doesn't work out, we'll go to a private quarry for agates.
Chuck
After having the van towed back to Minneapolis, we got it repaired with a 1 year guarantee at Aamco. Last week, I took it in for a service check, knowing that I was going to Montana this weekend with my 9 yr old son, Ian, to hunt for dino fossils and Montana Agate. The transmission checked out fine.
So, we left Minneapolis this morning at 7 am and as you can guess, just west of Bismarck, ND, the transmission blew. I was able to keep driving to our destination, Glendive, MT. This being a small town in a sparsely populated state that prefers Fords and Chevys, and a holiday weekend, there is no chance of getting the tranny fixed around here. I bought 2 gallons of tranny fluid and because the van is still drivable (barely), I plan to drive it home on Monday. Once I get into overdrive, it seems to be okay. Fortunately, this is an annual trip for my rock club, so we should still be able to hound Saturday and Sunday by riding with others.
I'm not trying to make this a "woe is me" tale, in fact I'm surprisingly (for me) optimistic. I guess I don't have much choice. I may see if somebody will be willing to follow me home and drive us the rest of the way if the car dies. The other good news is that the forecast all week long was for rain this weekend; that has changed to a 10-20% chance. I'll take those odds!
Back to rockhounding, our hotel is adjacent to the Yellowstone River, so after dinner, Ian and I went down to the river to hound. We found about 10 lbs or so of agates. One definitely looks like typical Montana, and some of the others look like Prairie Agates. I didn't know those could be found here, but judging from the Badlands-type geology, it makes sense. And Ian had a great time getting muddy.
I'll try to take some pics tomorrow. We were going to go here today, but I chickened out because it is even more rural:
www.harmons.net/
We're supposed to go here tomorrow, provided it's been dry enough:
www.dailydinosaurdigs.com/
If that doesn't work out, we'll go to a private quarry for agates.
Chuck
