On Sunday, M-O-M called our room and asked if I had spoken with Lithus. No, no I hadn't. Turns out, he had been sent to Lakeview, OR and they weren't sure he was going to make it back because of the weather and M-O-M was here to pick up the truck driver's bag. When I asked if I was moving he said "No, well, not unless you want to..." Oh. Okay. So I asked if he had a minute to let me gather a bag for Lithus. He did. When I ran it down to him, M-O-M's response was "you should have come along, just for shits and grins." But you told me not to come...No I didn't, I told you you didn't have to come...Do I have another five minutes? Of course. 9 minutes after my phone first rang, we were off.
2 hours later, we arrived in Lakeview. Mind you, I had no idea where Lakeview was, but we were there. The last 30 minutes, we had scanned the skies in case Lithus was flying back to Klamath Falls. When we got there, we had no idea if we would be turning back around immediately, or if we would be spending the night. It was that vague, that uncertain, that great.
In the end, we spent
2 nights in Lakeview, in
2 different motels. Sadly, I didn't get pictures of the motels, breaking my own rules. Ah well. The second day ~ the one full day we were there ~ was spent in the middle of a field. No internet. No phone. I had grabbed a Sudoku book, a crossword book, and downloaded the information I needed to research for work onto my phone before I left town. Oh thank goodness.
At one point, Lithus and M-O-M piled into the truck and took naps. At another point, M-O-M and I went for a drive and found
a great winery. There was wandering, looking for snakes, scoping out the fire, and even a tornado sighting. Seriously. Eventually, the rain came and was heavy enough to run us all into the truck, and get the manager to call in and ask if they could be released. They could be.
We spent another night, and we officially released that next morning. 2 hours later, M-O-M and I pulled into the Klamath Falls helibase, where Lithus and the helicopter were waiting. An adventure in the middle of an adventure. With laughter, friendship, support, camaraderie, and conversation stuck in between work.
I do love my life.
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| Lakeview helibase |
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| Supermoon peeking out from the clouds for a moment thanks to Heart's Heart |
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| Dinner restaurant the first night |
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| Breakfast restaurant, first morning |
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| Refueling the fuel truck. They'd already put in $99 and then had to reset so it's actually $99 more |
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| The still at the cool winery |
Lithus coming in for more water:
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| Approach... |
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| Dip |
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| Lift |
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| Begin flyaway |
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| Flyaway |
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| scoping the fire |
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| Tornado. Seriously. |
