Greetings from Ashland, OR!

[fenchurch]

I think we may have been a little overly optimistic in our plans to stay here tonight... I mean, we made it okay, rolling into the hotel parking lot at around 10:30. But I sort of wish we'd been able to stop at Grant's Pass, about an hour or so earlier. OTOH, I'm so very glad we made a reservation... I figured it would all be booked up around here and I was right, since the Shakespeare Festival is in full swing.

The big problem is that we should never, ever depend on actually leaving the house when we plan to... today we'd wanted to get on the road between 10:00 and 11:00. What with one thing and another, we left a little closer to Noon, heading over the tomte and gidgiddoni's place to borrow their copy of Mort by Terry Pratchett (our copy seems to have wandered around the house somewhere and will probably be found the moment we walk in the door after we get back home), since that's the next book in the series and I wanted to read it aloud to Rackham while he drives. Anyway, book picked up, we headed toward the freeway and I went to check my email on my phone... and there's an error. Not a serious one, since I was able to force a sync with no problem. However, it reminded me that my password was expiring in less than two weeks.

This meant that odds were really good I would lose my ability to log into my laptop before we got home from this trip. Thankfully, we were only about 10 minutes from home at this point... but we were also getting a bit hungry, so we decided to swing by Taco Bell to pick up some food, then head home to change my password on all pertinent systems and pick up the Zune which we discovered we'd accidentally left at home.

So, yeah, it was after 1:00 by the time we really got on the road... dodging over across I-90 to I-5 when we saw that there was stop-and-go traffic on 405, and still hitting an amazing amount of a roadwork pretty much all the way down the line.

We did stop off at the restaurant ladyforash manages in Springfield, OR... hoping she might be at work, but no luck. I started skimming my flist while we were waiting for our food and discovered that she's actually in Montana on her own roadtrip this weekend. Heh.

We had one exciting moment driving by a brushfire in the median, north of Vancouver... there was a ton of smoke, so Rackham had moved into the middle lane before hitting it (it was seriously thick at that point) and it turned out to be a good thing or we would have gotten more than a little singed... the flames were blowing over the entire inside lane! Yikes! As it was, we could feel the heat from the fire.

And then the funky thing... I noticed something odd just above the horizon, at one point, sort of hanging back behind the trees. For a bit there, I had no clue what it was... and then it hit me. With all the wildfires they've got going in California and Oregon, there's a ton of smoke just sitting around the atmosphere. And I was seeing the moon. Or rather, I was almost seeing the moon. It was an *extremely* dark orange-ish red... to the point where we were trying to figure out if it might just be a new moon. Nope. There was just so much smoke hanging around that it was almost completely obscuring the moon. It was both cool and creepy.

Tomorrow we're headed down to the my grandfather's place in Sacramento... hopefully with a stop at the Olive Pit along the way (mmmmm.... olives...) and I have no idea what sort of condition his wireless network is in. Hopefully we'll have access when we're there (or it won't take long to fix it so it's working again).

Comments

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

It was an *extremely* dark orange-ish red... to the point where we were trying to figure out if it might just be a new moon. Nope. There was just so much smoke hanging around that it was almost completely obscuring the moon. It was both cool and creepy.

Ahh, used to see that--and red suns, too--all the time in Nevada, since we had wildfires of varying intensity every summer. It really is funky. I'll have to scan in some old pics I took of it all once.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

With all the wildfires they've got going in California and Oregon, there's a ton of smoke just sitting around the atmosphere. And I was seeing the moon. Or rather, I was almost seeing the moon. It was an *extremely* dark orange-ish red... to the point where we were trying to figure out if it might just be a new moon. Nope. There was just so much smoke hanging around that it was almost completely obscuring the moon. It was both cool and creepy.

That is cool and creepy. Have fun!

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

Oh it sounds like an amazing trip! Thanks for sharing

[http://users.livejournal.com/opalescence_/]

Carolee's on the road herself! LOL!

Safe travels!

[jedihealer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we often have a "we'd like to leave at..." time, but really aim for a more realistic time up to one hour later. Less stress that way.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

We had one exciting moment driving by a brushfire in the median, north of VancouverI wondered what that smoke was from.

I admire you making it as far as Ashland and having brain-cells intact enough to write; I usually start melting down about Eugene.

Julia, trying to figure out how we're going to get to St. Paul for the rose sale in two weeks or so and not be too broke to buy roses.

[ljs-lj.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Ashland! I've only been there once (high school trip) but I'd love to go again. And wow - there are safe places in Springfield? (Is it near Gateway Mall?) (Got my BA from U of O.)

Have a great trip!

[tomte.livejournal.com]

I usually start melting down about Eugene.

Eugene has that effect on a lot of people.

[pmgoose.livejournal.com]

Yikes. Driving by a brush fire sounds scary. Glad Rackham had moved over a lane already.