A Dry Run to Billings

October 25, 2026

After what felt like several geological eras installing batteries, wrangling the inverter, pulling cable through the motorhome, and discovering new opportunities to rearrange the electrical system, I finally did something that didn’t require a crimper: I drove it somewhere. Apparently the motorhome is meant for traveling, rather than providing increasingly elaborate opportunities to question my electrical decisions.

I left Helena in the evening, aiming for Billings. That’s not a heroic first-day distance, but I also need to work Monday, and getting a useful chunk of Montana behind me seemed better than trying to make a point with mileage. The larger route is east through South Dakota, down through the Ozarks, and eventually Daphne, Alabama.

The plumbing was already winterized before I left Helena. Freezing overnight temperatures were the reason I did it in the first place, and now I’d managed to turn deciding when to undo that work into another project. Billings was looking cold enough that even putting water in the fresh tank without running the pump required more analysis than I wanted to give it. For now, the practical plan was to leave the plumbing dry, use bottled water, and wait for reliably warmer nights farther east. I considered going through Utah to escape the cold, but that seemed like an elaborate way to solve one problem by creating a lot more driving. I stayed with the Billings and South Dakota route. Running water would have to wait.

On my last road trip, I had a little blue dude with a goofy smile along for the ride. Apparently, smiling planters are becoming a recurring feature of my travels, because this time I’ve brought along a larger pink version. He spent the first evening sitting on the dashboard, looking thoroughly pleased with himself while I worried about freezing temperatures, mountain passes, and whether I’d ever get to use the plumbing. One of us clearly has a better understanding of what a vacation is supposed to be.

I was also thinking about the mountain passes, mostly whether making it to Billings would mean the worst of that part was behind me. That question is a lot more interesting in a motorhome than in a car.

Meanwhile, the increasingly elaborate mobile-office setup already had another item on its backlog. I was thinking about polling the WattCycle batteries or Victron SmartShunt from my Mac, showing the state of charge on an iPad dashboard, and eventually feeding that data into Home Assistant over Tailscale. It was still a prototype idea, not a working monitoring system. Apparently my ability to invent projects is not limited by the amount of space available in the motorhome.

I got to Billings after midnight. At 12:20 a.m., I parked at Bass Pro Shops and did the informal overnight-parking reconnaissance. No prohibiting signs that I could see, one trailer that looked like somebody might be living in it, and a few cars with fogged-up windows. Not exactly a reservation confirmation, but enough to give it a try.

The plan for Monday is to work from Billings and get back on the road afterward. For now, the first leg is done. The plumbing can wait.