All Stoved Up

Q: What happens when Kirsten drives straight from Hyder to Reno?

A: Her back gets all bunched and knotted and she can't walk.

After three days of driving, I arrived back in Reno at midnight and I couldn't stand up straight. In fact, as Skeena was jumping all over Ken, I was rolling around on the floor trying to work the kink out of my back. After a bit of finagling, I was able to stand up enough to hobble myself into the shower where I let hot water work my back so I could at least walk around without looking like a really old Japanese woman who'd been malnourished during the war and spent her lifetime doing back-breaking farming work. Today it's much better (thanks to a good night's sleep and a handful of Advil) but I'm still having twinges.

Of course, I didn't exactly drive straight through. I stopped, like, three or four times to take a few photos. I should say that I stopped three or four times yesterday to take photos and stretch out my back. I took 395 all the way through Oregon, which was a big mistake...I should have stuck to 97 and cut over to 395 in southern Oregon. 395 from Pendleton to Burns is windy and very slow in spots. I should have gone 97 to La Pine and used 31 to cut over to 395. Live and learn, eh?

However, if I hadn't gone the way that I did several things would not have happened:

1) Skeena would not have eaten grass at the rest area and puked it up (fortunately not in the car).

2) I would not have stopped at the Burger Queen in Lakeview, OR for the worst road trip burger I've ever had (a thin burnt patty topped with even thinner and equally burnt bacon).

3) I would not have been worried about driving through a fire.

I encountered falling ash and thick smoke as I headed through the Malheur National Forest towards Seneca. I figured, though, that if the road were closed there would have been cops or Forest Service people turning cars around before it got too bad.

All told, yesterday I saw smoke from three fires, and all were on the stretch in Oregon between Seneca and Lakeview. This next picture was also taken in Seneca and shows the tents of fire fighters set up in the school yard.

I saw this smoke cloud as I was driving into Burns.

And this smoke came into view as I was driving around Lake Abert. Although the narrow road didn't have a shoulder on the lake side (the side I was on), the views were phenomenal.

As the sun was going down yesterday, I couldn't resist stopping, stretching, and taking a few photos of a grouping of sunflowers.

And two other random photos: The first one is of a sign I saw somewhere in northern Washington (maybe in Brewster). I neither ate at the place nor bought gas at the gas bar. The second photo is of the first sign on 395 indicating the mileage to Reno.