A Big, BIG Road Trip

Days 11 - 18 North to Oregon

The story so far: I’d been dumped in the Nevada desert - no job, nowhere to go - after an upcoming contract had been cancelled. I’d been planning to visit my mother in Oregon after the end of that contract, so I called her: “I’m halfway to Oregon anyway. Do you mind if I come visit now, instead of in a few months?” She assented, and I began heading north on US 95.

Day 11 Bishop, California

I had spent the night in Bishop, California. Hint: NEVER take NV 266 / CA 168 in an RV! Bishop is nestled up against the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. I came in well after dark, so never got to see the place until morning. I awoke to an almost-flat tire and new snow on the Sierras. I filled the tire, knowing it would leak out again, and headed north to Fallon, NV where the nearest Les Schwab store was - because the moho had their tires on it, installed brand new at the beginning of this trip. I got this shot on the way out of Bishop:

East side of the Sierra Nevada range with new snow. Bishop, California

So, I was able to scratch the Sierras off of my bucket list. Truly beautiful mountains.

The famed photographer Moose Peterson lived in Bishop at that time. No, I didn’t go see him or even call him. I had a leaking tire and had to “get out of Dodge.”

I took no more pictures that day or the next.

Day 13 Mt. Lassen, California

Two nights later, I was approaching Burney Falls, California which is along the route that cuts through northern California from Reno to Interstate 5. It’s a beautiful area that I highly recommend. That road takes you right by California’s Mt. Lassen, which is the southernmost of the volcanoes on the Pacific Northwest’s Cascade Range. It, too, had new snow on it:

Mt. Lassen, northern California

I had a little bit of trouble after taking this shot. I came to a crossroads, didn’t see the signs, and took a wrong turn. I had to make a U-turn in a motorhome towing a Jeep on a two-lane road in the mountains. I almost didn’t make it; even swinging as tight as I could, one front tire was threatening to drop off the far shoulder while making the turn. It was dark by then, and I had to crawl a few inches forward, get out and see where that tire was, get back in and crawl a few more inches, etc. while traffic piled up on both sides of me, waiting for this idiot (me) to get out of the road.

I would find out a few days later why I never saw the road signs. I took no more photos for the next two days.

Day 15 At my friend Dave’s

My friend Dave, the same Dave that once commented on how fat I was, lived in Medford, Oregon at the time. I stopped by for a few days to visit.

The weather was terrible. Whatever was dumping new snow on the Sierras was also dumping rain on southern Oregon. It was gray, gray gray outside and there was nothing to photograph except his cat, who took possession of my motorhome and came over all the time to hang out:

Tom Servo the Cat

He is named after a robot in Mystery Science Theater 3000. A very intelligent cat. I asked Dave the other day about Servo, and he is still alive.

Dave and I were eating at a restaurant when my phone rang. It was my sweetheart, back in Colorado. I picked up. “Have you been talking to my boss?” she said.

Now, THAT was a strange question. I didn’t even know the man’s name.

“Well, they just called me, and said they need me in Portland for a week before Christmas. So I’ll be coming to Oregon to join you.”

The first Good Thing that had happened since my world collapsed a few days earlier! We would meet up in Portland, she would do her job for a week there, and then we would go home on a road trip back to Colorado. Things were looking up.

I headed north from Dave’s toward Tillamook, my next stop. Driving north up Interstate 5, I had trouble reading the freeway signs. In daylight. “Dammit, ODOT [Oregon Dept. of Transportation] needs to make the letters larger on these signs,” I thought. Then I remembered that I’d been on this stretch of freeway hundreds of times throughout my life, and had never had trouble reading the freeway signs.

Something was wrong with my eyesight! I had missed a crucial sign in California the week prior, leading to me blocking traffic on a rural highway while I turned the motorhome into a pretzel. Most of my photography (which I’m not sharing here) since Death Valley was crap. Muddy photos, and out of focus to boot. What is wrong with my eyes?

Day 18 Visiting my mother

If I remember correctly, she was 86 years old. There was a certain cushioned rocker she liked to sit in to read, and as soon as she sat down in it, her Kitty would be right there in her lap. She asked me to take a photo of her that she could put into that year’s Christmas letter.

I kept it simple. I used her reading lamp for a main light and hair light; it was a tungsten bulb so the light would be warm. I sat in a chair directly in front of her and metered for what light that existed. Then I set my flash to “fill” and let the camera figure out the flash’s exposure. The result was rather pleasing:

My mother, 86 years old, with cat. Christmas photo by me

I’m no portrait artist, but I think I did well. It was the last time I saw her. It was also her last Christmas letter. I had come to see her just in time.

To be continued…