On the road again

[Don Bradner]

Left home in Eureka today, exactly 10 weeks after badly breaking my right ankle.
Got the surgeon to remove the one screw that had to come out (tied tibia and
fibula together) on Thursday, and it is still complaining a bit about that.

I gave it a good workout today by crossing on California 299. This is only the
second time I've driven an RV West-East on that road, and the first time in a 40
footer. For those unfamiliar with it, the 150 miles from the coast to Redding
crosses four passes and has very few straight parts. The middle portion along
the Trinity river was thick with smoke. Before we left this morning a neighbor
told me that they had heard 299 was closed because of a flare-up at Big Bar, but
a call to Cal-Trans indicated the road was open.

When we got to Big Bar, the grass was flaming right against the pavement! Saw
lots of fire crews, but didn't see any that appeared to be doing anything. Huge
tent city fire camps at Junction City. Between Junction City and Big Bar is
where that helicopter went down August 6.

Going up the 8% grade to Oregon Mountain, the third of the 4 passes, I was down
to 18MPH in first gear to keep the engine at 200 in the 100+ air temps.

The culmination of that crossing is 5 miles of continuous hairpins down from
Buckhorn, the last summit. There is literally no stretch of straight road in
that 5 miles, which drops a bit over 1500 feet in the process. Most turns marked
as either 20MPH or 25MPH.

We usually go either north or south on 101 before heading east, but since we are
going to Salt Lake City it would be a lot of extra miles to go any other way.
Price we pay for living behind the Redwood Curtain.

Don Bradner
90 PT40 "Blue Thunder"
Posting today by satellite from Susanville, CA
My location: http://www.bbirdmaps.com/user2.cfm?user=1
Don Bradner
90 PT40 "Blue Thunder"
My location: http://www.bbirdmaps.com/user2.cfm?user=1