We just returned from a lovely two weeks off from work. We had our good days... and our bad.
We started out by driving up 101 N through the Mendocino Lightning Complex to Ferndale, CA. At some point, we had to pull over and don breathing masks. You read reports/watch TV about air quality and the wildfires, but it does not prepare you for how bad it really is. The smoke just hangs in the air. The visibility at times was down to 100ft. Your throat and lungs burn. Given that these fires burned for over three weeks, I simply don't see how people lived through it. My heart goes out to all of those affected.
Because of the smoke, we didn't make any stops for sightseeing until we hit the blissful foggy air of the coast. We stayed at a wonderful B&B in Ferndale, the Collingwood Inn, which allows dogs. We spent a delightful day strolling around town with the pooch, and letting her run on the beach. Of course we lost her only ball deep in the sand within minutes! After a lazy breakfast, we headed up and onward to Crescent City, CA.
The coastal drive is beautiful. It was surprisingly cold and foggy at times, requiring headlights et al. We very thrilled to find that our campsite at Panther Flat Campground was just out of the fog zone and thus a little warmer. It still got rather cold at night. The poor dog was cold. At one point I wake to find that she has headed headfirst down into my mummy bag with me. Not sure if she could breathe, I rearranged her :) We thankfully were just across from the bathrooms too. Camping became a lot less fun when I started getting up 3X/night to pee! Unfortunately, the next morning I came down with a bout of diarrhea. We pushed though and still managed to get a decent hike in. I was very paranoid about all of the poison oak everywhere, but we and the dog were spared. We spent two days here before heading up to Lincoln City, OR.
We made a few stops on beaches along the Oregon coast to stretch our legs, and take some interesting photography of driftwood. We eventually landed at the Looking Glass Inn - like my favorite hotel ever. They allow dogs - and give you sheets to cover the furniture should your pooch wish to join you on the couch. It is just a few steps from the bay and beach. Very warm here, heavenly. The hotel is all suites, with a full size living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. Kaylee, after a few very cold nights in the tent, was thrilled. The best thing about this inn was that there was zero evidence of dogs - very very clean and pristine and a great place to stay.
After Oregon, we headed back inland to meet up with I-5 to take us to Rasar State Park north of Seattle. We met up with Greg & Agi here for an awesome night. Hot and humid => heaven! It was much much warmer than our last campground. Rain threats persisted all night but never came to fruition. We had one moment in the middle of the night when Kaylee was sure something was attacking her in the tent. I reach over to touch her (she was kind of still asleep/having a nightmare) and that set her off. Now there really was something attacking her, me! She bit me!! Okay, not really, just grazed me. She settled down quickly at least. Then, in the morning, the rain came. Our old tent had the full to ground rainfly; the new one that has room for Kaylee, does not. We quickly learned our tent does not stand up well to torrential downpours. We hunkered down for a few hours and decided to head out for breakfast with hopes that it would stop, but alas, it was not meant to be. I stopped in for labwork in a local labcorp and then headed back to camp to pack up in the pouring rain. Boy were we all a soggy mess.
We made a relatively quick hop across the border and drove to Greg & Agi's in Vancouver (suburbs that is!). Here we got dry out, take a hot shower and relax. We had some thai takeout (now THAT's camping, eh?) and played games. Great night.
Onward ho! To Summerland, BC. We arrived just in time for dinner with Julian's complete family: his two sisters, his brother-in-law, mom, and even his dad visiting from china. Several friends of the family also joined in. We awoke early and headed into town for a desperate load of laundry. We spent the afternoon visiting the Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre and wine tasting. We bought David a nice bottle of wine before heading home. Unfortunately after dinner that night, I got a mild headache....
Which grew.
And grew.
I hardly slept a wink. I woke up and ate a little breakfast and was astonished when it came right back up. Other than the slammin' headache, I didn't feel THAT bad. Unfortunately, I could keep my medication or any fluids down. We waited until it was time for my next dose of meds and headed into the ER. Prior to this fateful trip, we made desperate calls to my best friend C. hoping she could find some info on our healthplan coverage in Canada. While I vaguely remembered coverage, when you are looking at an ER bill, you kind of want to know for sure. She went out of her way to get the info for us, driving into work on a Sunday. It is a shame that you can get 24/7 service from our insurance company if you have a mental health issue, but if you have a medical emergency, there is no way to get a person to take your call!! I got an IV of fluid and zofran and thankfully was able to keep the pills down. Of course, I woke up puking and still miserable the next morning. In the midst of the confusion, we failed to notice that Kaylee was perturbed by our lack of attention and all of the 'stress' in the house. She unfortunately got in a little fight with her cousin and got a gash on her forehead. It's healed into a solid lump by now thankfully. Julian's dad was smart and picked up on her mood right away; I was in another world.
In fear that I'd need more fluids and another ER visit, we sadly left Summerland early to go to Seattle - where there is both a transplant center AND where I have full coverage. Fate was on our side. As we neared the end of our trip, I was starting to feel better. I was still severely dehydrated (not wanting to puke alot in the car) but managed to get some fluids in before bedtime. We stayed in Seattle for two days, just in case.
We took our time heading home. We stayed overnight in Portland, OR where we visited the world famous Powell's Books, took a long stroll along the waterfront and hit a pub (none for my stomach thank you!) with the pooch.
The following day we picked a spot at random on the map about halfway home to stay... Yeah, we are dumb like that. When we got to Redding, it was 114F! Poor kaylee couldn't even touch the ground without wimpering - it was scorching her feet. Once again, it was like driving through a warzone with all of the smoke. We shared our hotel (with blissful AC) with firefighters, Forest Service workers, and evacuees. Again, being in the middle of it is just overwhelming. I don't know how the evacuees deal with the stress frankly. Also, the AWESOME firefighters work long shifts for 14 days straight. Thank god for these men! (and women!).
We finally arrived home at last, all semi-healthy (man my stomach is slow to recover), and pretty darn beat. Yeah, I know my health got in the way, but we still had a good trip. I enjoyed sleeping with the dog while sick (we don't let her upstairs at home), I enjoyed our good nights of camping, I enjoyed some of explorations on both the drive up and down... there were still a lot of good days in there.
To recap:
Lowest temp: 45F at night, dog burrowed into mummy bag with me
Highest temp: 114F in redding, dog scorching paws on pavement
Conditions: dense fog, blazing sun, dense smoke, low visibility, clear skies, heavy heavy rain, dry as a whistle drought conditions
Favorite stop: probably Looking Glass Inn, Lincoln City, OR
Least favorite stop: Redding, CA through no fault of its own