It's time to head east and face the smoke!

It was foggy when we left our overnight spot at the Bear River Casino in Loleta, California. Ever since we made the decision to head to the coast to avoid the smoke we have enjoyed cool temperatures and smoke-free days. Aside from hazy days of fog, it has been really nice on the coast as we continued into California. After the early fog burned off today, we enjoyed the blue-sky coastal drive with a few sprinkles on the motor home windshield. We both sighed a little sigh of contentment as we realized how much we had missed these blue skies for much of the summer.

This morning we are driving further south, before we turn to the east to drive across California. In the fog this morning, we drove by a large mill, with a half-mile of logs and finished lumber in sight. After hearing about the sky-rocketing price of lumber this year, this place must be making lots of profit. Who says money doesn't grow on trees?

In our drive south along Highway 101, we entered another grove of redwoods. This is Richardson Grove State Park, where this major thoroughfare is narrowed to fit between the big trees.

When a sizable motor home meets another large motor home, you just hope you can both squeeze between those redwoods.

It's a beautiful drive where you can reach out your window and touch a redwood.

Shortly after our last brush with the redwoods, it was time to head east and face the smoke. We can already see that distant views are smoky as we turn towards the fires that have been burning all summer here in central California. We have been monitoring the fires, and checking the air quality web sites on a daily basis this summer. The national news has spent time talking about the Dixie Fire that has grown to one of the biggest forest fires ever in the United States. 

After a 161-mile drive today, we made a one-night stop at Aurora RV Park, a Passport America half-price campground on Clear Lake. This is the biggest natural freshwater lake in the state of California, and our camp site was just across the road from its northern shore.

We spent a little time watching the water birds near our shore. But most of our time was spent in getting laundry done and doing some grocery shopping because we're getting ready for company!

We also filled up with diesel here. This California fuel stop broke our record (that has been broken so many times this summer) for the most expensive diesel we have ever purchased at $4.39 per gallon! Wow! It's sad that we were feeling good about this "bargain" price, because the next station in California was charging $5.10 per gallon! 

Mark also had a chance to call the technicians at Tiffin Motor Homes today. The air-conditioner specialist there knew immediately where the fuse was for our dash air-conditioner. Now that Mark knew where to look, he could see that the fuse had blown when the compressor locked up. That's why we didn't have any cool dash air. A trip today to Napa Autoparts and a $1 fuse solved our problem. We're sure glad we didn't stay in Coos Bay for another three days, waiting for them to figure it out!

After five nights without hook-ups, we're enjoying full-hook-ups here at the campground. We are also excited about the Concord grapes we found growing on the pergola near the water. When I asked the owner, he said, "Help yourself!" so Denisa is enjoying a fresh grape snack this evening.

This has been an unusual string of one night stops for us. We much prefer to stay 3-5 nights at each stop, getting to know each new area. We had planned a much more relaxed trip to Lake Tahoe. But after having the motor home breakdown and being towed in the wrong direction, we had to pick up speed to get to our destination on time. The next morning we were heading further east, and we found out just how big Clear Lake is as we drove beside it for many miles.

Our trip took us through layers of mountains on the west side of California, now hazy from the smoke.

Then the mountains gave way to flat agricultural land in the valleys of central California. We loved driving through orchard country, with fruit trees lining the highway as far as we could see.

While we saw mature orchards that have already been harvested, we also noticed very young trees that were just getting started.

Denisa would have loved to stay in this area filled with fresh fruit and produce. Mark planned a stop that she loved. He found a family-run produce stand with a parking lot big enough for the motor home and pickup. So we stocked up on fresh fruit straight from the grower--one of Denisa's favorite things. Further down the road we noticed this older orchard with tree trunks that changed color and texture a couple feet off the ground. We know that is because these trees were started with the best root stock, and then had the best fruit-producing stock grafted on to it.

We also noticed lots of fruit trucks in the valley, and we played the game of trying to guess its cargo whenever we passed one of these trucks loaded with produce.

This was an interesting crop that we saw several times. Any idea of what it might be?

It is sunflowers, with heavy heads of seeds that must be dried some before harvesting.

As we drove past the signs announcing the beginning of the Tahoe National Forest, we are quite pleased to see the blue skies ahead. Maybe the smoke won't be as bad as we had heard.

Denisa took a picture to show the blue skies as we drove past the sign that let us know we were just 25 miles from our destination of Truckee, California. Truckee is where our campground is, about 20 miles north of Lake Tahoe. All summer we have been monitoring the smoke in this area, knowing that we had a week-long reservation in Truckee where we were meeting our oldest son and his family. We made this reservation and they bought their airplane tickets months ago before the forests of California started burning. All summer we had been watching the Dixie Fire, and how it was affecting the air quality in Lake Tahoe. What we didn't know at the time was that a new fire had started just three days ago south of the lake.

We hadn't yet heard about the new Caldor Fire, but the winds were really whipping it into a big blaze this afternoon. As we headed down into our valley, we couldn't help but notice that the smoky haze was more evident. We have driven all the way east across the state of California in the last two days, and now we're afraid it's time to face the smoke.