Well, as you all know, the Newell mini rally in Spearfish was an unqualified success.....in all we had 32 coaches attend.....including 3 Foretravels, a Wanderlodge, 2 Prevosts, and a Class B, so 25 Newells, including the 2010 Newell show coach that was at the FMCA rally stopped by on the way back to Miami, OK for a day so we could all take a tour. Made many new friends, had 3 great potlucks, two nights of touring each other's coaches, and a lot of fixing stuff. One day Richard (Richard and Rhonda) came over to help me with my speedometer issue. He crawled under the coach (after it was properly blocked) to look at the speedo generator....I hear him exclaim...."Oh my, what do we have here?!"......I ask....."what's going on Richard?"....he replies...."come under here and see what I see"....I comply......as I crawl under I see him pointing at the point where the drive shaft conects to the transmission.......as I focus I hear him saying something about loose bolts.....as I focus on the bolts connecting the drive shaft I see that ALL 8 bolts are LOOSE.....ALL!!! Of course it was easy to replace them with eight new grade 8 bolts and top locking nuts purchased from the local Fastenal hardware store (cost $6.70), but to think I was just miles from a serious mechanical failure that could have cause serious damage left me shaken for about 24 hours. Thank goodness for friends, and a fresh set of eyes. I had begun to feel a vibration coming from the rear of the coach the last 50 miles into Spearfish, but couldn't decide if it was the road, which was in poor condition, and under construction. I don't know if we would have made it to the Montana border. A lot of coach owners received help with various issues, and a lot of new friendships developed.
From Spearfish we we formed a caravan with ecantotom (Tom McCloud), and folivier (Forest and Cindy Olivier) for 5 days up to Cochrane, AB, Canada.....we visited Devil's Tower, and Little Big Horn along the way, and visited with our friends in Billings, MT who have the '61 GM Bus conversion having the 8V71 rebuilt. We have now been in Cochrane since this past Wednesday. This coming Wednesday we will journey up to Banff, Lake Louise, Columbia Icefields and Jasper. Then we'll head back south on Canada 2 into Glacier National Park seeing it from both sides of the border. We met Jim and Gail Ellis who own a 1987 Newell, and have spent the last year here at Bow Rivers Edge RV Park here in Cochrane working for the park. They are great people, and why not.....they are Newell owners.
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