Heat, Fog and Fires 08-14-14

 

Tuesday;

We weren’t in any hurry to leave Tuesday so we visited with Becky for a while. Eventually Dennis took a break from his duties in the park and we spent a few minutes with him.
When Dennis went back to work we went to our RV to get ready to leave.

I took the time to get some more pictures of the yurt.

The door to the yurt was locked so I took some pictures of the inside through the screen windows.

It looks pretty spacious.

It looked like it was going to be another hot day in Oregon.
We finally left the Valley of the Rogue State Park around 12:30 and drove north on I-5 to Grants Pass where we got on hwy 199 heading west.
The drive down 199 is a very scenic

as it follows the Smith River. The Smith River is as low as I have ever seen it

There are some very narrow spots where rock slides are common. Here, the highway department has hung netting to keep the rocks off the highway.

At one point there is a long tunnel through the mountain.

The highway winds through beautiful redwood groves.

As we approached the coast the temperature became progressively cooler until by the time we got to Crescent City we encountered fog and even some drizzle. It was a relief from the high temps that we have been experiencing for the last month.

We stopped south of Crescent City to take a picture of the Klamath Rocks.

We crossed the Klamath River.

I don’t think I have ever seen a trike with rear axles that wide.

We continued south on 101, through Eureka.
Around 6:30 we stopped for the night at the Bear River Casino & Hotel just north of Fortuna.
We had dinner in the Hotel Restaurant. The Tuesday special was Prime Rib dinner for $14.99.
Patti played the machines for a while and broke even. 

Wednesday:

We went back to the restaurant for breakfast. After breakfast Patti played the machines some more and made enough to almost pay for dinner and breakfast.

After breakfast we continued south on 101.
As we headed south the air became more and more smoky from forest fires burning in the Laytonville area.

Just north of Laytonville we could see smoke rising from the forest just west of the highway.

The smoke became thicker and thicker as we approached Laytonville.

 
We passed several fire fighter staging areas.

By the time we got to Willits the smoke had cleared a lot.

We got home around 12:30.

My niece Joanne stopped by with her new grand daughter Riley. Riley is three months old and cute as a bug. Sorry, we didn’t take any pictures of her.

Here are a couple of stats for you.
We drove the RV 3,263.5 miles.
We were gone for 5 weeks and 1 day.
The total Gas cost was $2,070.29 about $1.50+/- per mile.

It was an awesome trip but it is nice to be home.