California to Oregon

Yesterday morning Mari and Jeremy came to the RV park for coffee and goodbyes. It is such a beautiful thing to see them grow into the fabulous parents we know they will be...grow being the operative word!

Then it was time to pack up, unhook, walk the girls and get on the road. Seeing the smoke from the raging wildfires, as well as a few caravans of firefighting trucks, made the journey through northern California less light-hearted than usual. We also saw a line of out-of-state fire trucks and thanked those folks for lending a hand.

We are particularly grateful to the Canadians who are helping fight the Shasta Motion Fire with an amazing water tanker. Here's a video of the Shasta fires and the flying tanker in operation. Its a big download and will take a few minutes, but its well worth the wait!

Martin Mars Flying Tanker

The view of Lake Shasta is pretty grim...now at 92 feet below its high point (photos in new album). In August the lake is usually only 40 to 50 feet below its high water mark. We still saw lots of houseboats and activity, but as the water goes down, features normally underwater are surfacing, and you can see snags, rock outcroppings and entire islands literally popping out of the lake.

Climbing and descending the Ashland grade was exciting and a little hair-raising. I prefer going uphill, whereas Eddie loves going downhill. The 6 degree descent and several runaway truck ramps...not to mention the fact that I feel like I'm HURTLING down the grade...makes me clutch the armrests and plant my feet against the dash.

The gold of northern California changes to green just past the Oregon border and the temperature drops almost as suddenly. We arrived in Canyonville at the Seven Feathers RV Park in the late afternoon, and our friends John and Jan met us and helped us set up. After coachside cocktails and then feeding, walking and bedding down the dogs (leaving Animal Planet on the TV for them) we headed to Riddle and dinner at John and Jan's house. We ate too much of Jan's excellent spaghetti and she sent us home with killer home made fudge. YUM!

We will be here for about a week. We're having some work done on the motorhome in Eugene, Eddie is going to help John do some work on his house, and Jan and I plan to see some sights and play a little golf.

I've started a photo album, which you can see at the top of the album list at right. For largest photos chose the Slideshow option.

Hasta pronto!