It Happened Here...Again

We climbed in the 'Go Van' and embarked on a ten day 'Smoke-cation' to breath-friendly campsites within a two hundred mile radius of The Park Fire. This most often includes a long and wnding hwy to the coast. We camped and played North of Arcata...Trinidad, Patrick's Point, Crescent City, Gold Beach and Bandon, Oregon...where the breathing was excellent, even if a little salty. Oregon, it turns out, was having it's own problem with fires (over sixty lightning caused fires up and down the Cascade Mountain Range). We crossed over to the backside of the Cascades near Crater Lake...not good, AQI well over 200. The air improved as we drove South into California and Susanville was looking great. We could see the Fire Dragon standing up tall as we drove West toward our home of Chester. It was time to check on our garden and home and to launder a bag of dirty camping clothes. We thought we'd just make a day visit and then motor on to better air. Surprisingly the plume of smoke moved to a column twenty miles North of Chester. So, I decided to open the Bicycle store for three days...and much to my surprise, customers showed and I had three good Summer days of business in-a-row. Not all is lost but our summers have definitely been lackluster these last three years due to fires and the resultant smokey days that come with them.