More than once I've been tempted to take 199 from Crescent City, CA to Grants Pass, OR, but wasn't familiar with the area. So I wanted to check it out, hopefully finding a good parking place. I'm at Jumpoff Joe Creek RV park, just a few miles north of town, a very nice, quiet place that gives me an Escapee discount. Yesterday in Yreka the smoke became very thick, casting a weird orange light on everything, and nearly stopping my solar panels. I...
The smoke was gone today and I got to see Mt Shasta. I don't think I've ever seen the mountain without snow before. Odd. I found my way from Weed to Mt Shasta City to Dunsmuir mainly along old US99. These small towns are basically on the feet of the mountain, founded as timber or mineral places, but depending totally on the railroads. Union Pacific goes as far as Weed, then the Central Oregon and Pacific runs from Weed to Eugene. Amtrak runs...
Just a few miles up the road from Redding is Weed, a small town where US97 intersects I-5. A large forest fire not far to the NE is filling the sky and valleys with smoke, so I don't have many views. I'm in a small but quite nice RV park near town, and once again all by myself. Obviously this is not peak tourist time around here. I've been getting some great discounts by paying cash for my parking spots. It's said that winter can hit at this...
Robert Siegel interviewed Michael Botticelli, acting "Drug Czar" about legalized marijuana in Washington and Colorado. Mr Botticelli cited statistics concerning increased usage by youth since legalization. Mr Botticelli: There are no such statistics. Congress has prohibited you or anyone else to gather the data leading to the statistics you cite. If you have gathered such stats, you broke the law. The impact of legal marijuana in Colorado and...
I like Northern California a lot. The main drawback is it's in Expensive California. Redding itself isn't much of a town, but they do have Turtle Bay Park with the Sundial Bridge. One of the nicest River Walks I've seen anywhere. The bridge itself is a walk and bike route over the Sacramento River, and is designed as a functioning sundial. Very nicely done. A sculpture over a river made for walking, what's not to like?
It was 41 this morning when I got up, so rather than spend another night in the mountains at Lassen, I went down to the valley. I'm in the Shasta-Trinity Recreation Area somewhere, but close enough to town to reach it quite easily. Shasta Lake is very very low, and looks quite sad.
I'm in an excellent Forest Service campground at Eagle Lake in the Cascades, near Lassen. The Corps of Engineers built this place, and it's nice as usual. Quite the change from the Black Rock Desert. Tomorrow it's Lassen. I have to attend a wedding in Portland at the end of September. So, my plan is to knock around in N Cal and Oregon until then. Looking for those roads I've not taken, searching for cheap places to park. The weather in the PNW...
This is the time after Burning Man when you have to get used to the real world, and digest your experiences, which takes a while. The BM blog had a good article this morning: Grover Norquist That article contains a link to Norquist's story in the Guardian, which I found to be quite interesting. Be sure to read the comments. There are always VIPs at BM, and some make the mistake in thinking their social status follows them there. It doesn't, and...
I washed the truck and began vacuuming the house. Burning Man was kind this year to keep the dust down. I've seen much worse. Any chance of an internet connection disappeared on Tuesday as more and more vehicles drove in and parked. Many people were using their cell phone, though there is a warning about roaming. As far as I could tell, there was no way to tell whose network you were on, so no idea what the charges are. I'm sure I'll hear when...
I'm in Fallon now, for a few days of clean-up and decompression. The weather for the most part was quite good, and the dust problem in my house could be a lot worse. The exodus was without delay at 10 AM this morning. More tomorrow when I get rested up a bit.