Today, we began our longest camping trip so far. We have planned a 5 1/2-week trip that may be extended to six weeks. Our main destinations are Mt. Rainier and Olympic National Parks. Our goal is to hit one or both parks when the alpine wildflowers are at their peak. We're "hedging our bets" at Mt. Rainier by shooting five days on our way north in late July and then for eight days on our way back south.
In addition to Mt. Rainier and Olympic National Parks, we are spending two weekends with Matt & Jackie in Ashland, Oregon, and a week along the Columbia River Gorge.
We got a late start today, and barely escaped the traffic in Los Angeles. We made it through Glendale before 4:00 and reached the 134/I-5 merge just before 5:00. Then, it was over the Grapevine and down into the Central Valley. That is when the blast furnace hit us. It was 101, and we had the A/C as high as it would go. It was 95 when we left home, but this was another whole level of heat.
When we reached our favorite Best Western in Tulare, it was 102 and miserably uncomfortable. And that was at 7:30 in the evening. We continued our tradition of walking down to KFC to get dinner for tonight and leftovers for tomorrow night. By 8:00, it finally dipped below 100, but we were glad KFC wasn't any farther from the motel. At least we didn't have to unhook the Explorer to get dinner.
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