Getting on the road felt good. I put the a/c onto recirculate so that we didn’t have to keep breathing the smoke from outside. The kitties were quiet in their carriers and Hulunani was happy. I was surprised but grateful that there wasn’t more traffic. This is what the freeway looked like as we started out.

Already the trees were starting to turn.

This is how bad visibility was.

I think this was around Kalama. Which, by the way, was named for John Kalama, a native Hawaiian man who was famous in the area. His story is well worth reading. Which is why, even though practically everyone around here pronounces the name of the town KaLAma (like cat), those of us from Hawaiʻi pronounce it the right way, KaLAHma.

Train!

The Columbia River.

It was an eerie feeling, driving through all this smoke.  Visibility was really bad, and we were surprised at the number of people driving ‘way over the speed limit. It was 70 mph here, and people were passing us like the wind.  I don’t get it.

The closer we got to home, the worse the smoke was getting. We could barely see the river here.

I think this was shortly after we got onto I-205.

We tried to see the airport from the Glen Jackson Bridge, but didn’t have any luck. The air was really this color.

PDX is really out there, but I couldn’t prove it from this photo.

This might be the tip of Government Island, but I’m not sure. Because the smoke was so thick, it was easy to get disoriented as to exactly where we were.

We were now on the country road in Sunshine Valley not too far from our house.

We felt so relieved that our valley was untouched by fire!

This is just before Sunshine Valley Road.

Tower Hill. We were home. And our house was still standing. Thank you, ke Akua.

Mahalo plenny for riding shotgun with us… next time: at home.