Fires and Drought - Redding, California - August 18 - 19, 2021
We didn’t want to leave our friends or our lovely mountainside RV park … the flowers graced us with a gentle farewell.
Off we went, down the road (again). This time headed for Redding, California where we had booked a two night stay (mainly to get some laundry done). We got a call from the manager of the RV park as we were leaving saying that PG&E had cut off the power to their area as a precaution due to high winds in the area that might take down power lines and potentially start a fire. She thought that the power might be back on in the late evening or early the following morning. We didn’t have a lot of options, so we headed to the RV park hoping that her estimate of the return of power would be on the earlier side.
We arrived … no power … and no sewer because the pumps run on electricity. The air quality index was in the “definitely unhealthy” range due to the California wildfires and the strong winds pushing the smoke into these valley areas. It felt a bit like driving into the “heart of darkness” with the hazy skies and powerful winds … we even wore masks while in the car.
Fortunately, the power did return in the middle of the night (which meant we could use air conditioning)! And, we were able to do laundry in preparation for the continuation of our trip tomorrow.
We did do a short hike up a trail into the hill until we decided that the air was just too polluted to just being outside much longer … eerie colors in the sky as the sunlight filtered through the smoke.
Ready to get back on the road tomorrow …
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