Corrie had been thinking that saying somewhere close to SLO and then having a Sunday brunch with our SLO peeps sounded great. I agreed. But the idea of a $150+ motel room where my two kids were still going to sleep for shit, and then the midday drive on a Sunday back to the LA area on 101 (which is stop and go from Santa Barbara to the mountain up to Thousand Oaks, a distance of about 50 miles) convinced her of my crazy, let's-drive-the-entire-day-and-get-home-at-1-am plan.
In all my years of going to the Cabin, this year and last were the first two summers where wildfire was a serious topic of both conversation and concern. My mother's been visiting the same spot for over fifty years, and she's said the same thing.
So, whenever I can get over t this thing (my laptop), I plan on posting some stuff. Our trip was bizarre: circumstances pushed our initial departure date back nearly two weeks; we made the drive from Long Beach to Mill Creek in a single drive, which is unusual (especially with kids five and under); we left after two days to return to Sacramento for the weekend, and returned to the Cabin for nearly a week with my mom; after leaving for good, we went through the Bay Area (not unusual), but stayed in Berkeley, and then the long push home.
One day at the Cabin we were stuck inside because of smoke:
That picture was taken at 10:23 am. Too long outside and your eyes burned. This was from the Dixie fire as it raged through a relatively nearby mountain crevice, going from 60k acres when we arrived to 220 acres when we finally left for good ten days later. At least that particle mountain side wasn't populated.
New normals for everyone in the region, for certain.
Not everyday was this bad, as we got some wet weather as well. I'd like to get these posts up quick, what with my dad visiting this week and work getting started in earnest next week.
Also get to mention a few books I'll be attending to from this trip. Always makes me smile...
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