No Crater Lake Century for Me This YEar

🔥 Change of plans: I'm definitely NOT driving all the way up to the Crater Lake Century, which is still slated to take place on August 18, 2018. This was going to be my first big road trip since Katie and I took our underutilized (but awesome) Sprinter cargo van on a camping & cycling journey through Nevada and Utah in 2010. That's a long time to go between multi-state road trips, so my sadness and disappointment feel pretty profound at the moment. I shall limit my whining about this predicament because the reason for the cancellation of this trip—at least in its original form—is that California and Oregon are on fire. Firefighters are risking their lives, some people are losing their lives, and many people are losing their homes to these blazes. 

Crater Lake Forecast: Drive through multiple fire zones to get to a long, smoky bike ride? Me thinks not.

When the fires initially broke out, I thought I would shift my focus from cycling to relief efforts along the way. But the Red Cross refused my application to volunteer because my home address is too far from where they need help. I've also canceled my lame ($0 raised) goFundMe campaign intended to supplement my own contributions to help assist fire victims. Now, instead of hands-on volunteering and direct relief fund distribution, I'm reverting to our usual means of helping: making a donation, which I encourage everyone to do. The Red Cross will direct the funds exactly to where you want them to go.
✚ American Red Cross 

Katie takes a candid photo of me and our van in Zion (Utah's 1st national park), planning our journey through Bryce Canyon, Arches, Moab & Canyonlands. May 4, 2010

The smoke in Oregon at the site of the planned "century" ride is just the icing on the disaster-cake of a trip this was starting to look like. My northbound route to Oregon, mostly using coastal California Highway 101, has a couple fires near/around it (Mendocino Complex). And my southbound return path along Interstate 5 with a planned detour to Sequoia National Park has its own set of fires still burning, as shown on the fire incident map below. Maybe August 2018 is not the best time for a big road trip? Sometimes I have a hard time giving things up, and this is no exception. I'm looking for a compromise—finding new places to ride that aren't covered in smoke—but we'll still have to play this by ear.

Major incidents in California in which CAL FIRE is either the lead agency or assisting, as of August 10, 2018.

Meanwhile, back home on the ranch, we're still in the thick of a Caribbean-style hot & humid weather pattern that is so unlike the California weather I once knew. The LOW barely got below 80°F last night, but as they say, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." OK, no whining about this or the "running toilet issue" one of our tenants brought up yesterday. (I  do wish our tenants were at least as handy as I am.) 
Right. Repeat after me, "I'm all about gratitude." I'm alive and well. My family is alive and well. Our house is not burning, and I installed a mini-split air conditioner (yes, on my very own!) a couple years ago so Katie and I slept comfortably last night. I hope you did, too. 
​🍀