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Driving south again

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23.08.2017
Kārlis writing:

We are at Portland Suites Airport East motel. Another day, another early morning. Jump out of bed. All right, you got me! It’s not a jump, it’s more like a fall out of bed for me. Have a quick shower. Run…, no, not for morning exercise, run out of milk. No problem, made some hot water in microwave or on our mini gas stove, sorry, don’t recall. Put some porridge in it, as usual 2 packages each (kids included, why do they make them so small, anyway), some of us took sweet ones, some unsweet corn based ones. All tasted good. We put some real coffee in our cups and waited for the best taste. As usual, we also got some fruits. We made some sandwiches for later and put all daily food in two bags, one for each car. The rest of food went in cooler bags. Dishes were cleaned and we had 4 minutes left to collect our staff from the room. Three minutes and we were done. Here we go. Not so fast! We still had to solve a daily puzzle of squeezing our never stop expanding luggage, pots and pans included, into our cars. Well, not as hard as it may sound, we were all very experienced already at the time. Now we’re done.

The next navigation target fixed to Crater Lake, Oragona located at distance of about 240 miles from us. About 350 miles were planned total for us for today (it’s about 550 km – that’s specially for you folks who still live in metric). Ole, we are on a road again.

The road to Crater Lake was easy, at least from point of view of navigation that I did. “Take LEFT after one and a half mile”, “Copy that”, “Left now!!!” — this was how our radio conversation sounded. Maybe such kind of conversation does not seem to be very interesting for a reader but I suppose it might have been very useful for us at a time.

Just after making the last turn on the Crater road (just right after that last “left now”) the traffic suddenly stopped. Forest around had been recently damaged from a fire. Tree trunks were black and missing needles seemed to be needless. Somewhat little bit surrealistic view. And no one here to feast us with carrot bites. And I forgot to mention the fire smoke that still was smelling in the air. Under such circumstances looking around the destructed forest we spent about endless 15 minutes in traffic jam. Then we started to move inside the National park reaching the North part of the Crater. Due to the slow traffic, the officer at the park entrance did not look at our National Park Entrance Card (if needed I will refer to it as NPEC from now on) instead he was waiving getting every car inside as fast as possible free of charge. Not that it is important, just to conclude it was completely useless for us to get the NPEC out of a car shelf (I knew this new introduced acronym is going to be useful one day).

Last few miles and we got close to the very top of the crater rim. The parking place turned out to be foolishly full. We decided that our drivers will find some place to park and the rest of our team jumped out of cars. At he beginning we climbed up a path getting at the very rim of the Crater and then we got a little disappointed from a view we saw or rather what we did not see. Everything was in a foggy smoke. The opposite side of the crater was just imaginable, the central island, called the Wizard island that is in fact volcano inside the volcano, was partly noticeable. Where are all the heavenly colors that we expected to see? Where is the blue sky and greenishly blue crystal clear water in the lake? Beside that outside temperature was quite low, now I understood, the lake is so clear because it gets its water from the melting snow that is visible on several places around the crater. Later we had a chance to get closer to such a snow pile. Yes, it is a real snow indeed no doubt about that. The lake surface is about 6200 ft above sea level, let’s say we are at 2000 m or higher at the crater rim.

Next to the road there was a fire truck. Far away in the Western part there was some large smoke clouds and fire still going on. This time the forest fire started a few days ago by lightning strike. It has been monitored since then but generally fireman do not fight any small (is this small?) forest fire letting it end naturally. There was an information board set up with actual forest fire information. Some roads have been closed because of that. Our roads were opened. We met other teams at the crater.

Rihards decided to join another team that was thinking about swimming in the lake. Although I’m not sure if anybody took a swim at all in the Crater Lake that day. Anyway, it seemed too cold for rest of us and we decided to go to the next vista point at the Eastern part of the Crater (in fact I am not sure if viewing point is called as vista point in Oragon. Isn’t it only in California? Never mind, you got the point and we got to the point.)

Crater looked a bit better from the next viewpoint. Possibly fog started to clear a little bit or we get used to it or Sunlight from this direction was showing more of the lake. We took another series of pictures. Juris and Kristaps decided to walk uphill reaching the Watchman peak. It took them about half an hour there and back.

We continued to the Visitor Center and had some time at this viewpoint. There we met Rihards, our team was complete again. So, we started our way to Medford making a few stops between. We drove through a very nice forest with large pine trees around the road and hills in front of us. Very nice view, especially after many desert crossings.

We arrived at our supposed motel in Midford after 6.00 pm. Almost at the same time the team two arrived. We all were tired and thought to have some nice rest this evening because for the next day there was even a larger way scheduled ahead us. For our unpleasant surprise, motel administration said “Sorry, we have some construction going on. No free places!”. I and Ilgonis, we tried to reach Agnese on phone several times about motel booking information but failed. She was out of mobile coverage. At this stage we got to know that at this moment only free nearby places for a reasonable price were left only at Motel 6, here in Medford and in Weed. The weed was place closer t Sanfrancisco were we were heading and it also has been considered as our potential staying place before.
Additionally we took into account chance that any place that we will not take may become occupied any moment and we do not want to spend a night on a street. Since Motel 6 at Medford seemed to be no better as Motel 6 at Weed, Ilgonis called and made reservation for all our teams in Weed. Besides Weed is about 100 km closer to Sanfrancisco, we thought. We were tired but we decided to moved to Weed.

Not to go into more details, at the end our teem number 3 appeared in Motel 6 in Weed but the teams number 1 and 2 stayed at Motel 6 in Medford that the initial motel had arranged instead of their overbooked rooms. Kristaps was ready to go back from Weed to Midford another 100 km, but rest of us were feeling too tiered. So, we all stayed in Weeeeeeed. Just after we arrived at the motel, three fireman tracks followed us. There was no fire there, it turned out that firemen were working somewhere out in forest and stayed overnight in the same motel.

A few minutes later we went out for a dinner in local Hi-Lo café in Weed. They even were selling souvenirs like “I love Weed”. Just to explain, the town in fact had gotten its name from its founder of the local mill Abner Weed. What did you think? Anyway, the moto of Weed is — “Weed like to welcome you!”. This day ended not quite as planned but we were happy that we decided to have a little bit more rest and to move on at about 9 o’clock tomorrow morning. We went to bed. End of day 25.

North Oregon

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22.08.2017
Gļebs writing:

Our day started at 7 am in the small motel which was located in North Oregon street in Pasco town, Washington state. Our departure time was planned for 9 am and we almost reached our schedule and drove away at 9:10 am. Our next stop was Oneonta Gorge on a creek flowing into Columbia river near Portland and it was approximately 320km away from our motel. Our drive took some time – a little bit less than 3 hours.

We parked our cars nearby and started preparing for our extreme walking route to the waterfall. It was in the canyon through the small river with some obstacles such as fallen trees, rocks and deep level of water. We successfully went through this route and some of our crew had time to observe another stunning waterfall (Multnomah falls) nearby. After that we were staying in a big traffic jam near the park’s exit.

First thing which we saw in the Portland was our friend and angel – Walmart and we made our usual shopping. After a long run and hard day we were literally shocked when we came in our hotel – it was luxurious and cosy. Evening was spent in the city centre where we were observing life in a real American city.

It was another good day and with positive thoughts of the next day and a little sadness of the soon departure back home we went asleep.

A Couple of Minutes in One Moment

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21.08.2017
Kristaps writing:

On the road, something grabbing passes by and wakes me up, it’s already over 6am, light and very dusty. For a change I slept in the car tonight. I did not want to get cold again, yesterday someone had seen a rattlesnake and warned us about it when coming from the Painted Mountains, and there are also fire ants here. Full set. Besides, we returned to the camp late last night, when many of us had gone to sleep very early before the day of the climax of the trip, and I did not want to disturb them in the dark by rustling around in the tent when setting up my place. Enough of excuses. I did get cold anyway, the warm hills of yesterda had cooled the air down to + 15 ° C in the morning. (I train looking at the thermometer at regular intervals.)

Yes, I have a thermometer! Agnese had by the way sent information about NASA Citizen Science project on the eclipse, called GLOBE Observer, where every wannabe scientist can participate by recording data on natural processes on the eclipse day. I left the preparation up until the very last night before the flight, when I decided that if I had the opportunity once, then why not try and I adjust one of my UKHAS.net nodes as a thermometer – I put the display, the solar panel, fixed code, then again and then again, and ready, works. Because DIY is better than buying!
With the GLOBE Observer, however, there is a problem, the application requires the internet, but of course there is no such in a desert. Well, ok, I’ll record the data just for my joy.

The sky is clear, just a thin band of clouds in the southern side. While still sleeping in the car, I looked at it, trying to figure out where it was going, and decided that everything would be fine, as it looked like it calmly slided past and would not approach. Daumants, however, investigated it more critically and expressed pessimistic comments on how everything will be bad.

It’s only half past 6, but the road to the park’s parking lot and the parking lot itself is already full, but the stream of cars is just flowing and flowing, till there is an endless line on the road. The idea was already mentioned yesterday that some might not go up in the Painted Mountains in the morning, but will stay to observe the eclipse right here at the camp site. I like this more and more, as almost all the drivers and passengers of the visible cars will go to the mountains, but there really is only a road and a small roadside on the hill where to stand, so it smells like a crowd for a couple of hours. It can be that the solar eclipse is a very social happening, I do not know yet, but it doesn’t tempt me. Salvis and Laura will stay here, yay. I courtesy ask again if this will not be a private event for them, but no, and the three of us stay at the camp, take mats for laying down and climb higher up the hill – closer to the Sun.

At 9:07am the moon begins to bite in the cheek of the Sun, which from a round pancake slowly transforms into a classical [Latvian] patty. Meanwhile, it has slowly become dark and much cooler. The two others even put on their jackets, I was not so provident. 22 minutes after 10am is THE moment. As we look through the special glasses that hold off 99.99% of the light, we see how the sun disappears completely, and removing the glasses is woooww .. It’s so unusual, it’s dark around, there are three or four stars or planets visible in the sky, I think they are Venus, Pollux and Capella. It seems that you can see the sun’s crown – something there looks like three huge rays.

It is not completely dark or black night, it is quite deep dusk – Ilgonis later says that it is due to the same clouds that dissipate the light from outside the shade. Yup, even at the place which by statistics should have the slightest chance of clouds, there are clouds. At first they were on one side, but now they have already taken over all the sky. They are thin, transparent enough to see the darkened Sun, do not interfere too much.

Two minutes and four seconds pass in one moment. Too fast. Although my camera does not really allow it, I am still trying to capture in pictures the darkness in the middle of the day for memory, until Laura suddenly exclaims: “Kristap, look!” And this is the best view – a diamond ring, a moment when the Moon still covers almost the whole Sun and only the very edge of the Sun has gone past. There is still visible the pale ring and the brilliant Sun, which for people in ancient times has probably looked as a diamond. Impressive and thrilling view. Was it worth it? Yes!

Well, and beyond all in the reverse – once again it becomes brighter, warmer, the world is waking up, cars start to drive, the masses dissipate, and all the eclipse-tour participants gradually return to the camp to share their impressions, gradually gather their belongings and prepare for the road.

After this only entering Washington is in today’s plan, where a visit of LIGO Gravitational Wave Observatory is scheduled for the evening, but there is still a ride of several hours to Richland.

It turns out that a congestion is possible even on such a outskirts and in a desert. Back to Mitchell to send out postcards we get fairly quickly, but there are many miles after that which we do in a walking pace. This is not Yosemite, here nobody offers carrots while being in a traffic jam, a shame. When traffic finally disperses, one of our drivers lets his feelings wild and then talks to the local police about the consequences of speeding. Nothing too bad, just a warning.

The following road is fairly smooth and runs along the Columbia River, which separates Oregon from Washington, but we don’t get to cross the river that soon. The bridge has been narrowed and there is an accident somewhere, resulting in another giant congestion in which we spend more than an hour. In this way we may be late LIGO! In fact, this is the case, because we have to be there at 6pm, but we are there only at 7:30pm. The second team has already managed to check out everything and leaves when we just arrive. Fortunately, the tours are still going on. It is quite interesting in LIGO Gravitational Wave Observatory. Comments on how meaningful it is to throw in such a money in order to have only two validated gravitational wave occurances and another potential one within these years I will keep to myself, but it is interesting enough anyway. LIGO is a very sensitive instrument (although not the best in the world), its resolution is less than the the size of an atomic. A large instrument seeking to measure vanishingly small. It senses both the wind-induced pressure on the walls of the building and even such distant events as the ocean waves off the coast far away in Alaska. True story.

After the excursion we visit the local amateur astronomy club’s star-watching event at the car park for a bit. As far as I understood, they do that on a regular basis on Mondays or so. They have two telescopes, through which one can look at Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter is as usual, but I have not seen Saturn this year yet. It’s always interesting to look at the planet with ears, and here in the south, it is much higher above the horizon than in our latitudes.

We find the city of Pasco and our motel quite easily, and, hey, even here they have a pool! If it is there, then it should be used, but the water in it is coooold. This is no longer the hot south. Bit by bit also other people who are awake come around the pool to simply sit and talk. The first team, unfortunately, did not reach LIGO, they had to spend about two hours in that huge congestion to Washington. Well, maybe tomorrow morning?

The evening is spoiled a bit by Rihard’s arguing with Agnese about me and my arguing with Agnese about it. I expected something like this all day long, it is not a surprise. The problem is apparently that Rihards is not getting to drive enough, but in turn I have reservations about his driving style and attitude. And also, both me and Agnese have rebuffed him without even knowing it. Not sure why other main drivers can drive when they want, and I need to be some sort of exception. At the end, we reach an agreement that he will be driving for two hours in the morning. Gleb says that I have to bear “for only three more days, three days!” Someone else adds that it’s a bit of a feeling that everyone is fed up with everyone and we just need to wait the end of the trip. Oh, well.

To the ocean!

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06.08.2017
Atis Edvards un Niks Jānis raksta:

It was morning of August 6. We got up shortly before 6 o’clock a.m. and heated a water for the morning porridge. Today it was planned to travel a great and long distance. At 6:45 a.m. there was our group meeting. It was said that it would be possible to take and use swimsuits. Once again, we filled up our cars with our stuff to the top and we went on a long journey.
On the sidewalk, we tasted some figs that just grove green and fresh in trees. I should admit that it was my first time eating green completely fresh sweet figs. Then I fell to a little sleep, as I woke up, we drove through a green beautiful forest, and the next time I opened my eyes we had reached the Pacific Ocean that loudly rocked and waved, finally we could really look at it. Let’s go further and see it from a different point of view. It was early morning, so people were not there yet, and the weather was mildly warm but ocean’s cold winds made it pleasant and cool.

When we found a nice-looking place, it turned out to be some kind of a cow beach. Wow, the private cow beach possibly is a place for a milk with fish aroma – was noticed by someone in our radio. A few moments later we drove off the main road to the beach, where some of us did swimming. Salvis was the first who run in the Pacific Ocean with his arms wide open. The water was quite cold and unpleasant, but the sensation of embarking and soaking legs was already an adventure. After the beach we ate some bananas and went further. We drove for a long time and tried to stay at least a couple of minutes from each other, we traveled through traffic jams, either lost or separated for a moment but we could hear each other on our walkie talkie channel 11.

We were separated because some stopped on another beach to cool down and I’m sure they were swimming. But we continued our journey and later stopped for a moment at the rest area. Somebody told that Kristaps had said that he had seen a rattlesnake, and that he was asking others if they have seen it. The rumors spread quickly and everyone remained obscure, some went to look. But in fact, Kristaps had only seen the sign, written about the rattlesnakes, and that they usually go out at night. We stopped by self-service machines, someone took a lemonade, someone – coffee, but we with brother found an ice cream machine for a dollar. We inserted one-dollar bill into machine and the refrigerator what was in the machine opened its lid and a robot hand miraculously swept our order from the freezer – it was lifted, moved a little towards the glass and dropped at our feet. You do not see anything like that every day (if you do not live next door by the ice-cream vending machine, of course). The ice-cream at this hot day was good and the price for such a pleasure for a dollar was excellent.

We went on and I was listening to music again, eventually we scanned throw radio stations. Some of the stations stumbled among the mountains, but it was ok. Suddenly one station had a program about the upcoming Solar eclipse, and all of us started listening very carefully right away.

We were still divided into two parts, and again we were looking for a place to dock. At this part of our road everything was full of trailers with American, Californian (just in case you don’t know, its main symbol is a grizzly bear) and pirate-type flags. The beach was nice and this time almost everyone went for a swim in the ocean, we made wonderful pictures, we wet pants and went to our previously booked motel. We had to do laundry and make a soup for dinner. The laundry room was hidden on the second floor, and there was no detergent there, but it turned out to be able to buy it from vending machine at the motel reception, the Tide was hidden between different chocolates and other snacks, very cleverly invented! Others cooked sausages, rice and more for dinner. We put a pile of ice in our cold bags with food supplies, since there was only one small refrigerator located at the reception, then we washed ourselves and went to bed.

Going to Yosemite Valley

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03.08.2017
Laura writing:

Departure from the motel is shortly after 8:00. Today the weather is with us, in the morning already + 31°C degrees.
The first part of the day goes by arranging everything we need – the camping mats that Walmart did not have in stock at 23:00 and gas canisters.

Some travelers are concerned with the count of the camping mats for the tent (we will spend the next two nights in tents). Therefore, the excited ones are comforted: “Do a deep breath and take up the form of a bowl”. Without having found everything needed, Salvis’/ Imants’ cars went to Target to look for butane gas canisters but they did not find them, so the road leads back to Walmart, where they bought 2 of another type of camping stove and propane cylinders.

Waze tells us to drive 100km straight. On the road there are fruit trees that are not familiar to Latvians. If you will not try it, you will not find out what is it! It turns out that those are almonds! Everyone got one, Salvis tried out the skin and threw it out – bitter. The almond lies inside the stone :)

Hay grows on both sides of the road. It is not necessary to dry it. A little bit rugged fields with dead brown grass. The impression is not as expected from the USA. Rather Tunisia/Morocco. If a green tree appears, it’s like a miracle – in a brown wilderness. At 11am the temperature is F°99 (to make it easier to understand: 38°C).

Mariposa is a small town on the way to Yosemite National Park, in the middle of nowhere. On both sides there are souvenir shops. Look! This is the American glamour that fits the expectations.

Gleb is not coming with us today – he does not feel well, so both his relatives in LV and the US have arranged for him a plane ticket to Los Angeles to be there for a few days and heal.

Yosemite National Park
Latvian thinking points to “opportunities” where it would be possible to cheat. Also when entering the National Park.
Impressive rocks and a two-lane unidirectional road. Impressive.
Parking is truly overwhelming. There are armies of cars but the park can not accommodate everyone. For more than half an hour we were looking for a place to park.
Lower Yosemite Falls – with an opportunity to come close to the waterfall.
On our way to Mirror Lake we were reached by a bit of rain that cooled the air and made it easier to breathe.
Mirror Lake – gave an opportunity to swim and enjoy the views of the beautiful cliffs.
To get to our camping site at around 18:00, we spent 5 miles in a traffic jam. USA without congestion is unthinkable!
We are going to the 1h far camping site along serpentines, reaching it when it is already dark.
We have dinner and then go to sleep to get started early in the morning.

Agnese comments:
To buy a butane gas canister in California for the instant stoves we had got for ourselves was almost impossible. That is – we managed to get one whole 8oz canister even though we were looking for them in every shop that we visited. We were also thinking of ordering from amazon.com, but it turns out that in the state of California ordering gas online with delivery is not possible at all. There were no such issues with the propane gas canisters – those were available in every shop that we visited.