Wednesday, yesterday, we made it another 210 miles on our trek southward. However, due to the cold, getting underway took a little extra effort and provided an opportunity to learn a thing or two. The temperature sank to 20f degrees that morning and had only risen to 24f by the time we were ready to get rolling. We're old hands when it comes to living in a camper on frozen nights... as low as 5f degrees, if I remember right, back in West Texas a couple years ago. But this was one of the few times we've buttoned up the bus-house for travel while it was that cold. When the slides were retracted, it became apparent the slide-toppers (small awnings that cover the very top of the slide) were coated with some ice and very stiff... and didn't want to retract properly. Getting up on the roof, which had it's own thin layer of frost and ice, to work on the problem from "up there", didn't seem wise. But after some effort by Dar at the slide retraction switches, and me outside knocking ice from the toppers as they retracted, we got them stowed. The other issue was the tow-bar we use to pull the car. It apparently got wet and one of the arm locks had frozen and wouldn't lock. After a little gentle urging the lock was unfrozen, locked properly, and we could be on our way.
The drive took us through Klamath Falls, OR., and then south on OR-39 which becomes CA-139 on crossing the border into California. At Canby, we jogged east a few miles and picked up US-395 for the balance of the drive. We finally threw out the anchor a little after 3pm at Standish, CA., where we found an acceptable camp for the night. Notice the refreshing lack of snow.
It was still chilly last night but we stayed above freezing and the morning sky looks agreeable for our short drive today. We've got our sights set on Fernley, NV., about a half hour east of Reno and only a hundred miles or so down the road. Since we're ahead of schedule, we may linger there for a few days. You may remember that Dar is going to fly back to Wisconsin during the weekend of Nov. 13 to join her Mom and Favorite Sister in getting ready for the upcoming holidays... mostly baking cookies and sampling holiday spirits of various kinds I'm sure. Her flight arrangements have her flying from Las Vegas in about two weeks. So if we find some sun and warmth... well, it'll feel good to have shorts on again while exploring.
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On Monday, the day we went up to Crater Lake, we stopped at the Oregon Logging History Museum on our way back home. It was just up the road from our camp at Collier State Park. The timber industry has been a driving economic force in Oregon for the past hundred years or more, and this museum is a collection of the equipment that made it all possible. Set right in the forest among tall Ponderosa Pines, where it felt right, we walked among the stuff, big and small, used to harvest massive trees from very difficult mountainous terrain. I can kill a lot of time in a place like this. The ingenuity and effort that went into designing and making these relics speaks to the technology of the day and the energy of the people involved. Each one is a frozen-in-time piece of history.
Now let's see... the sun is over there... so South... is that'a way.
T
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