Day Fifty: And two llamas

It rained quite a bit over night. The air was cleared of smoke and ash. The dirt had the dust settled but generally hadn't made it all the way to mud, also helped by the very rocky ground. So, my pre-breakfast walk was quite enjoyable in the clear air and crisp coolness. (I was glad I had a jacket.) The rain excuse allowed me to avoid all tall grasses, which also had the benefit of avoiding the shoe sucking bottomless spring fed mud pits. (Not my story to tell.)

After breakfast, we cleaned the place. With so many hands it didn't take long. I seriously thought to invite the whole crew to my place for just such a cleaning. It's going to take me considerably longer as I have a lot more stuff than just what four cars could carry in for a few days.

Then it was back on the road for the reverse trek. We all left around noon, the official check out time.

The trip consisted of new sights and perspectives, including seeing two llamas that I missed driving in because of all the sheep that I was looking at at the time. Since my smoke plume picture came out so well, taken through my windshield, I attempted to take some more pictures: The Dalles, near Klamath Falls, and Mount Shasta from the side I had never seen before. I missed several other photo ops because of their fleeting nature at the speed I was traveling and because I didn't think of it until, well two hundred miles into the trip.

There was a lot of construction going on. For the most part, I made it through the spots in good order. In one short stretch near The Dalles, they were single "laning." I was the last car they let through going my direction and I didn't need to stop at all. It would have been a considerable wait, if I had to be the first car of the next pass.

Just across the California-Oregon border is the town of Dorris. I first made note of it when I saw the curfew sign of 10:00 PM. Then the three right angle turns in 97 going through the town caught my eye. I didn't particularly pay attention to them driving up, but then I didn't have three semis in front of me oozing around them at the rapid speed of at least 15 MPH. To top it off, there was a truck only agricultural inspection station just outside the town. While it was a short line, the trucks were long enough that the last one extended out onto the road and entirely blocked my direction. After a short wait to allow the oncoming truck to get by me, I swung out across the double yellow line in time to have a truck exiting the inspection station pull out in front of me. The driver was unexpectedly but very appreciated courteous as he swung over on the wide shoulder to allow me to pass. I'm sure he didn't see my appreciative wave through my extra tinted window.

I got to the City of Mount Shasta right at 5:30 PM. So, I decided to eat at the Billy Goat Cafe again, even though I had been eating the whole drive thus far. Since they didn't have lemonade, I had two glasses of Ice Tea to help combat the food coma that could have jeopardized the rest of the drive. Even with the construction reducing traffic to single lanes in several spots on I-5, even with the stopping for food I didn't need but enjoyed, even with the earlier rest stop and buying gas twice, I made it home by 11:00 PM.

Now, I can't really know for certain that my after five tea caffeine kept me awake on the drive more than normal. It could have very well been my listening to Take on the Street, or my ability to drive without sunglasses due to the clouds and then the dark, but, I did stay up for a couple hours after I got home.

I'm looking forward to doing more of this driving, including longer motorcycle treks. I really do hope to be spending a good bit of my Life after Layoff on the road.