Day 33 - Another day another mess

Yesterday we screwed up already made plans.  Today we tried to change the plans that were made back in June with equally bad result at least as far as timing goes but again we got to see a very interesting place, Crater Lake National Park.  It all began when Larry saw that there was a free plug at Crater and that we would only have to get a small charge at most to get in and out of it.  What he did not figure on was Michelle not wanting to backtrack on a day that we had already a long drive and worse there was a fire in the park that necessitated an extra 25 mile detour to get out of the park going north.

Where there is fire there is smoke

And helicopters dropping water

Notice how the closed section means taking the long way around to get out the north side

So here is how it played out.  We showed up in the park at our usual 1pm with a depleted battery due to the 6000 foot climb to get into the area.  The car still indicated that we could make it back to the Supercharger if we backtracked.  We toured the park and then assessed our options.  It was about 4:30 at this point so we decided to plug into the charger at the gift shop/ restaurant just outside the guard shack and grab some food and souvenirs.  Even with the slow service that stretched the stop to two hours we had only gained 50 miles which we thought based on the miles the car said we had versus the number of miles to the charger.  Now we wasted another 20 minutes debating what to do which gained us very little charge but put us in a gambling mood.  So we took off for the closer of the two Superchargers with the car set on Range Extender mode.  Going downhill and on secondary roads and with Michelle driving very slowly we soon realized we had plenty of energy to get there.  Even picking up the pace did not solve the time problem we had now created where we would show up at our motel in Portland at 1:30am.  We hooked up to the Supercharger in Bend, cancelled the reservation in Portland and stayed in Bend.

We knew northern California had a reputation as the pot growing capital of the country but did not know they had a town named Weed.  You can sell all these things and innocently claim that they refer to the town not the plant

The scenery along the road was spectacular

Now for the good part of the day.  It was worth all the trouble even if some was of our own creation to see Crater Lake.  It has the clearest water in the world although access to the water was not possible due to the fire raging on the west side of the park the color was a gorgeous blue.  The views to the west were somewhat hazy due to the fire and there was the constant racket caused by planes and helicopters fighting the fire did make the scene a little less peaceful but it was amazingly beautiful.  As usual we will include pictures but they do not come close to capturing how fantastic these views really were.   

Some views of Crater Lake

Regular Features

Statistics Corner

States involved: Yea, We added Oregon!

Charging

Mt. Shasta CA -  This stop comes with a picturesque mountain.  We remet a couple from Oregon we had met in Roseville four days before.  They had been on a trip to look at a used Tesla in San Francisco that it turns out they didn’t buy it because it had a small dent.  I am tempted! It was an insane mode one.  Who cares about dents!

Annie’s Creek Restaurant – A destination charger that made us widh we had sprung for the extra inverter so we could have charged twice as fsst.

Bend, OR – This was behind a store named Fred Meyer which was the biggest store we had ever been in.  It was like a mall under a single roof.  They had everything from plants to food to jewelry but most importantly had restrooms and wi-fi.

Coolest car of the Day – OMG this will never be beat on this trip.  My next trip across country will be in this rig.  As we approached this it was hard at first to figure out what they were towing.  Then it became, “Is that really a 2CV?” and finally, “It is a 2CV!.  That is beyond fantastic!  This was a day that saw a ’63 Vette convertible and a first generation Toyota Land Cruiser.

Church of the Day - Not a real good one today

Song of the Day: Smoke Gets in your Eyes - The Platters - This has been done be a lot of people including Al Jolson whose version popped on the playlist as we drove through the smoky haze  in Glacier but this is the one that was in American Graffiti so has a special place in my heart

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Coolest Thing of the Day – Larry – The view below  This spot was enchanting.

Coolest Thing of the Day - Michelle – Seeing Wizard Island in person as it is part of her school curriculum