Settling In

All is well here this morning, my friends. We learned just about an hour ago that our home is now at a Level 2 evacuation. That means we should be ready to go at a moment's notice, but it is safe to return to our home for now. Our power is still off, and so we'll probably just stay put at an RV park near our home. We were happy to find vacancies at this place since many of our neighbors have had the same idea.

First, let me give a global thank you to all of you who have written such kind and supportive comments. I'm working my way through the list and responding to all that I can. Some of you are no-reply, and so if you don't get a personal message from me, just know that your message was received and I am grateful to have so many friends in Blogland. Also, I'll be catching you up on the more scenic portions of the past few days. For now, I need some time to collect myself. Expect to see some pretty images very soon...just not right here and right now.

Backing up to the day we left home, we drove under eerily orange skies. If I didn't know better, I might think we were living on Mars. This next image was taken around 11:00 a.m. about an hour south of our home.

We had hoped to take a scenic byway to our destination, but the skies looked like this. We were heading parallel to the edge of the clouds, but our turn would have taken us directly into the smoke. As it turns out, the road was closed, and so it was just good decision-making that we changed our route.

Finally, we arrived at our campground, Rogue Elk County Park, in Trail, Oregon. It was a very nice campground with water and electric, and we were directly across from the Rogue River. We sat and enjoyed the view, and rafters floated by occasionally. 

Turning directly around from the river's edge, our site was just over there.

Ash fell on us as we sat. You can see the dark specks below the buttons on my shirt.

Of course, I wasted no time baking up something for dessert. This is the Original Plum Torte. If you click on that link, you'll find the recipe, but it also has an interesting story behind it. This is one of my annual recipes...every year when the plums ripen, I make it. Yum.

Interestingly, we left the campground a day early. It was empty, though a sign noted they were full for the weekend. The camp host was there, but we did not notify him of our decision. Then, we received a day's refund via email because the campground had been evacuated. I don't know any more than that, but it doesn't surprise me one bit. 

While we were sweating out news about our property, I found this image on Facebook. This was taken by our farmers from their farm just a little west of our property. The flames you see there are just one gully over, and less than a mile from our home. Yikes.

(Image credit: Working Hands Farm)

As you already know, we headed for home yesterday. It was a long day of driving through smoky conditions. When we arrived home, we were still at Level 3 evacuation. Everything at our place looked fine, although there were lots of downed limbs and leaves from the big winds. Our power had been out for around 20 hours at that point. Mike set up a generator to run our chest freezer and one of our refrigerators. Power won't be restored until the fire is out and it is safe for crews to enter. (As I'm writing this, we've been listening to radio dispatch. It seems they are intentionally leaving power off until the fire danger has passed.) 

We spent our time there taking pictures of our belongings (a weirdly grim task), and switching things from the truck camper to the fifth wheel. As we worked, at least 8 water tankers flew overhead dropping water on the fire. We couldn't see the fire, or any evidence of it, but the sky was glowing strangely yellow. We've been looking through a smoky filter for days, everywhere we've been.

We worried about finding any space at any RV parks nearby, but we found a place in McMinnville, which is only about half an hour away. The kitties have been troopers through all of this. They don't like being put in the RV at the beginning of a trip, but when we open the door and serve up their treats upon arrival, they settle into camping like old hands. Here, they are enjoying their dinner and their treats. I thought to pick up some wheat grass for them, and they really like that.

So, even though we are able to return home now, there is no power there. We'll stick where we are until power is restored, but we'll travel up to the house each day to refill our gasoline-powered generator with fuel. It will only run for about 8 hours. Surprisingly, even though the power had been off 20 hours, everything in the freezer was still frozen, and so we haven't lost anything there.

I'll keep you posted on any changes in our situation, and I'll be back later to tell you about our trip to Crater Lake. We're going to start calling this the "Vacation That Wasn't." It's all fine though. We have everything we need and our family is fine. And, honestly, what else matters?