Fleeing fires to the Oregon coast

…and a dreamscape beach scene

After another miserable day in Northern California’s “record-breaking heatwave” that has become a new, unpleasant summer normal in these climate change times, we cut our reservations for a lakeside campground short and fled the Shasta Trinity area with smoke from nearby fires in our hair and asphalt melting under our tires. (This fire continued for weeks, burning over 200,000 acres, but we were there at the beginning when the town we tried to find breakfast in was being evacuated!)

The heat was causing dangerous tire blowouts, even one whose shrapnel we were luckily able to dodge as we followed another truck. That accident caused damage to the insulation under our trailer, which then hung down and dragged on the road for untold miles without us being aware of it. Another driver finally pointed it out, and a hot and annoying episode of crawling under the trailer and pulling off and disposing of the insulation ensued for Mike.

I was glad we’d prepared for the extended road trip by putting…