In honor of Chuck and his Saviors…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKxjBsO-Bvk ;
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKxjBsO-Bvk>
On Sep 21, 2020, at 3:18 PM, ct goolsbee <cg@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Fri, 18 Sep 2020 17:21:55 -0700, Michael Harvey wrote:
How did the trip go
Sorry for the slow reply, but... We died.
;)
No, everything went okay. Our destination was the Lane County fairgrounds in
Eugene, which was one of two evacuation centers that had put out the call for
donations and help. We had stopped at a farm near us to fill the trailer (a
big gooseneck that can carry four horses) with about 2.4 tons of hay. We had
gone to the grocery the night before and stocked up on food & drink, plus
cleaning wipes to donate to the firefighters. I had put some extra cans of
Diesel and as much water as I could carry (in race gas bottles) plus ALL my
fire extinguishers in the truck bed. Expect the best, but prepare for the
worst. Most of the roads over the mountains were closed, so we ended up
having to take Willamette Pass, which is quite a detour to the south. The
conditions were VERY smokey. For the section of the road near the summit of
the pass I wore my respirator INSIDE the truck. Traffic was remarkably light.
I don't think that anyone was going east, as that is where the fires USUALLY
burn, but this time it was bizarro-world, being 2020 and all, and the bulk of
the fires were west of the Cascade Crest. We never saw any fire or evidence
of (beyond the smoke of course) so the drive went actually quite well.
The folks at the fairgrounds were very happy to see us. They had hundreds of
animals, from duck and chickens, through goats, sheep, cattle, Llama/Alpacas,
and of course horses and ponies. They were a bit disorganized, but clearly
just getting started dealing with evacuees. They gladly took our donations,
but still had plenty of extra space for animals, so there was no need for us
to bring any back with us. We heard that the next fairgrounds north (in
Salem) was expecting at least 100 horses that day, so we sent a message along
to see if we could help there, and went into Eugene to grab a lunch. We
waited for a couple of hours before we heard word that we were not needed to
move any animals, so we headed home. All in all about 9 hours of driving in
one day, with visibility never more than maybe 1500 yds.
The smoke was terrible for about ten days, with AQI levels hovering around
450-500, which is "hazardous". We mostly stayed indoors, and only ventured
out to care for our own animals (2 steers, 4 horses, 8 hens, 1 dog, and 1 cat
in the barn.)
A few days ago, it finally rained and visibility went from "my fence" to 40
miles in the space of a few hours. A few fires still burn, but more rain is
coming in the next few days. Wonderful to be able to breathe again.
