On interstate I-15 between Dillon and Butte, Montana two motorcycles passed us and I thought nothing about it. Then a few seconds later I realized one of the cycles was down and sliding down the middle of the highway at 70 mph. I slammed on the brakes and knew I could avoid hitting the cycle or rider, but Don Martin was driving behind me. I hit him on the CB with "motorcycle down" and he was able to stop too.

I stopped just inches off the right lane and Linda jumped out to stop other vehicles because the highway was full of 70-75 mph drivers. A pickup stopped in front of us and a semi got stopped just off the fast lane. With Linda and a man standing by the highway waving their hands other people got stopped too. The bike rider got up and we realized it was a woman and she was walking around. The man from the pickup helped get the bike up and off the road.

The woman was wearing proper gear and that is the only thing that saved her. Her pants, jacket, gloves and helmet were all terribly damaged and the right side of the bike was partly torn away. She was riding with her husband and after he realized she had spilled he turned around and came back. He gave her a big hug.

Linda asked her if she was injured or bleeding internally and she didn't know so Linda invited her in the motorhome so she could take her clothes off and check for injuries. Luckily, she was only badly bruised. Linda gave her some orange juice.

Her husband checked the wrecked cycle and said he thought he could ride it up the road slowly and his wife could ride his cycle. They told us they didn't need any more help and thanked us so we left. They were both riding large Hondas. The woman told us she hit a "snake" (a long wiggly tar patch) and that caused her to lose control.

We were on our way to Fishtrap Fishing Campground located on the Big Hole River south of Anaconda, MT. It is free camping on BLM land right on the river. Our friends, David and Patsy Kessler, were here last week and they told us we "had" to come here. What they didn't tell us was eight miles of the highway was torn out. For eight miles we drove through soft dirt that the Dutch Star sunk in, mud that was a challenge to drive through, loose rocks and on sloping shoulders where ditches had been dug across the road. At times I held the accelerator to the floor and still lost speed in sand and mud. But we made it to the campground with the dirtiest motorhome and CR-V ever seen.

We did clean the motor scooter and thought we'd take a relaxing 23 mile ride to the nearest town. After about fifteen miles it suddenly started raining and at mile twenty we stopped and put on our rain gear, turned around and headed for home. Then the rain became heavy, side winds were hitting us at 35-45 mph I estimate and then it started hailing. There was nowhere to stop so we pressed forward at 30 mph and made it home without any damage to us or the motor scooter. (A brochure on this area shows it get only 10.6 inches of rain annually. It rained on us daily for five days.)

Just another day in the life of a fulltimer, but the worse day of fulltiming is better than the best day of working.