Labor Day Apocalypse?

It all started in Portland when on Saturday it all began with a "leisurely Drive to Ashland?"

But, instead it was a traffic jam from hell from Portland to Eugene because of Labor Day weekend and two foot ball games at colleges in Corvalis and Eugene. In fact, two fans trying to get to Eugene for the big game all dressed up in Eugene Colors smacked into someone who stopped to fast and there engine couldn't work because it was pushed back into the car too far. Two College kids.

Then somewhere between Corvalis and Eugene we noticed the traffic "Finally" thinning out only to be replaced from "Smoke from hell" that grew and grew until by Roseburg and Grants Pass the sun turned red and the sky grew dark from the smoke so thick and so deep. So, we turned on the recycle air button in our car with 107 degrees expected in Ashland. I don't think it made it because the sun couldn't hit the ground really and it was sort of like being late sunset and dark all day. So, as we pulled into a Best Western in Ashland we noticed when we got out of the car people wearing masks and coughing from all the smoke. Then we heard it was better in Mt. Shasta but the only difference when we actually got there was instead of a blood red sun during the day it was a yellow orange sun because though the smoke wasn't as high up it was all thick and gathering on the ground like low fog which made it just as bad as it had been in Ashland on the ground.

But, since Mt. Shasta is at 3500 feet the combination of smoke and altitude wasn't going to work for me at all because I live at sea level on the ocean. We had horrific memories of my wife about 10 years ago spending the night in the hospital because she wouldn't listen to me about not exerting herself while a fire and smoke was going on at 6000 feet at Lake Tahoe. So, as an older person now I have to be careful of altitude and smoke too because I'll be 70 next year and I need a couple of days to adjust to the altitude to go climbing above 6000 feet or go skiing any time of year. (But once I spend a week there for the next month I would be good at any altitude from 3500 feet to about 10,000 feet.

So, we realized rather than potentially having me spend a night in the hospital on oxygen the point of wisdom would be to drive south to Redding which turned out to be 113 degrees between REdding and REd Bluff as we drove by. My 4 wheel drive Truck has a great air conditioner and by putting recycle air combined with the air conditioner on we were fine.

However, smoke only slowly slowly lessened until we got to Stockton and still had an orange sun with almost no light at all in the sky. So, even though we could now see 5 to 10 miles instead of only a block or two like we could in Ashland, there was still smoke all the way to STockton of at least 10% of what is was between Roseburg and Grants pass and Ashland.

So, Imagine all the millions of people trying to breathe through out  Oregon and Northern California where if you weren't coughing and having your nose run you were also sweating to death in over 100 degree heat in Ashland, REdding or REd Bluff!

So, what I'm saying is most people outside between Corvalis to Stockton are in some kind of breathing hell.

Even where we live on the coast was 95 degrees again to day and is still 70 degrees at 11:15 pm (we got home about 45 minutes ago by the way.

But, here's the thing. we live on the ocean and now we can breathe fresh air off the ocean as long as the wind stays coming off the ocean for now. Thank God! We can breathe once again.

And Breitenbush Hot Springs had to close in Oregon for Labor Day Weekend and Detroit had to be evacuated in Oregon too. So, not only did the Breitenbush folks lose any money to be made this weekend all the people who worked there had to evacuate their homes or get burned up.

So, not only didn't they make any money they might have had their homes burned down too.


So, Oregon and Northern California including near Yosemite, and Los Angeles in Burbank and La Tuna Canyon up by Sunland and Tujunga are all experiencing an Apocalyptic Weekend with ashes coming down around them at the same time people are trying to survive what happened in Texas. Crazy!

By the Way, this was the longest train of smoke I have ever seen from Corvalis to Stockton and beyond in my whole life.

564 miles of continuous smoke. That is incredible. And the smoke still didn't end then.

I think the record for me was about 100 to 200 miles of continuous smoke that I have ever seen before where everyone was choking on the smoke and people with Asthma were going to the hospital and on oxygen as a direct result.

Imagine how many animals and birds and insects will be wiped out from not only the fires 15 to 20 of them but also the smoke. How many plants and trees will be dead or adversely affected too. Also, smoke and fires affects the weather too in various ways.

Note: Monday: the next day:

We woke up to fog which was nice and weather is only going to be in the 70s today but as I went out to unload the truck somewhat I realized there was a slight amount of smoke and haze even here. But, it is about 5% of the problem it was from Roseburg to Ashland and the smoke is coming from the Sierras where we are here in the vicinity of Yosemite National Park. So, there are about 15 fires in Oregon but there are fires to our east in the Sierras and fires 300 miles to the south of us in Los Angeles and possibly San Diego too.