Day 20....problems

Day 20
Here it is, day 20. We spent a pleasant night at the KOA in somewhere Oregon. Breaking camp once again.

Up to this point things have gone very smoothly. Last night we were checking the bikes as we do every night, and as we had previously noted, my back tire was wearing fast! This was a new tire only 3 weeks ago. Actually, I removed a tire that had more tread than this one does now. That tire had more than 10k miles on it. This one is nearly dead after just 4500 miles. Oh well. Nothing to do but get a tire. We stopped at the Harley dealer in Bend OR. this morning to buy some small parts and see if they had the time to put a tire on for me. They couldn't do it soon enough so I called around until I found another dealer that could do it tomorrow. SOooooo....we shifted plans a little, we rode to Crater Lake this afternoon to see this awesome sight.......
This is Crater Lake....Impressed? We sure were. The gray part is the lake....I think. It's not every day you get to not see the deepest lake in America....At least not when you're looking right at it.
There were a couple of "controlled burn" forest fires going on. The smoke was tremendous. It covered everything. From the turn outs around the lake you could not see the lake at all.
The smoke covered everything for miles and miles!Smoke out the wazoo. It was actually difficult to breathe at times.
This was one of them.....smoke so thick ......
This is what most of the ride today was like. Not blinding, just a thick haze.
Here's Pam...notice the helmet?.....viewing the lake....or,more exactly, the bowl of smoke.
Here's what the lake should look like. In one of the previous photos the "this is Crater Lake" photo..... this is what you should see..but.... Oh well.
Here's a picture of Doug, Jim and Pam,(notice the hat?) overlooking the lake....sort of.

You know...in the last few years I've seen several serious forest fires up close and personal, and ALL of them set by Govt. employees as prescribed burns, that got out of hand. Maybe we shouldn't set "prescribed" burns on the DRIEST DAYS OF THE YEAR, HUH! What are you thinking? I'm just going to set a little fire here in the MIDDLE OF A TINDER DRY FOREST ON THE DRIEST DAYS OF THE YEAR. I'm sure it will help......Wooosh.....What were you thinkin' Skippy?
Wandering again....couldn't help it, don't you think SOME things should be obvious?
I think I'll open a beer while the cops writin' me a ticket.....Obvious right?
I think I'll light this cigar and wait for the gas company to come fix this leak...Obvious right?
Is it just me?.......Still wandering.....For some reason the Darwin awards keep coming to mind.

Back to the normal stuff.
Local wildlife at the lake overlook
After "viewing" the lake for a while we decided to go to the park village and get some lunch. It was surprising how many people were in the park when nothing could be seen. We were there....
Anyway, lunch was good, pricey but good. Plastic wrapped sandwiches soft drinks and cookies. Not bad at all.
From there we checked the maps and decided it would be best to find a campground for the night. Doug called a few and found us a KOA and we were set. He and Jim also called to arrange a room for Jim and Pam for Saturday night near the airport in Reno. Pams flight leaves around 8AM. Doug and I will get a campground somewhere east of Reno.
This in the meantime, is home for the night.