Smoke and Mirrors

8/3/14
We left Left Lafayette at 6 AM. The “White Whale”, our ’98 Toyota truck with camper shell, was filled to the gunnels. Most importantly, Sandy our Shitzu, was comfortable in her dog bed in back of the passenger seat. Tent, cooler, sleeping bags and, of course, laptop, cell phones, camera and chargers all packed for the trip.
The drive up I-5 was smooth and creamy - no traffic and lots of 60s music to pass the time.
We stopped at a rest stop just north of Winters to stretch our legs and let the dog pee and saw the guys in “Orange” lined up at the bathroom. I chatted with the Sargent in charge and discovered they were on their way North to cook ribs for the firefighters. We didn’t think much of it except ribs sounded pretty good since we hadn’t had breakfast yet. Then as we approached Mt. Shasta the sky changed dramatically. We stopped at a “Vista Point” near Dunsmuir to check out the famed volcano - nothing was there. After staring for several minutes we could make out the outline through the smoke. Wild fires evidently were burning down Northern California. It got worse. Just before we got to our cut off, highway 97, we saw the sign - closed due to wildfires. Not ready to believe it we took the turnoff anyway and stopped at a fire fighter ready area. The fire fighter on duty confirmed the sign - the road was closed - time for a change of plans. Now it was back to I-5 and up to Oregon farther west than we would have wanted. The smoke was nearly unbearable. Windows up we persevered to the cutoff to Klamath Falls, our planned overnight stop. Highway 66 teased us with an organic chocolate factory - we took the turnoff but dam, it was closed. Still the smoke was thick for the hour long detour, but we were rewarded with sliders in Keno just before hitting our destination - cute town.
The Maverick hotel was as expected -  for $65 a night it’s not the Four Seasons - but just what we needed.
R