| Regardless of anything else, the team only worked for as long as the regular first responders were absent. After that there was little reason to hang around. Especially if there was risk of the volcano exploding again. That only meant you had a chance of dying if you hung around. So I got my Honda SUV started up and I drove over to the on ramp going south. I pulled the SUV over to the side of the on ramp and got out. It took a few seconds for Bert and Earnie to come out but they did. They were very excited yet weary of the vehicle. Curiosity and my encouragement won the day and they both got into the back seat. Again they were amazingly well-behaved about everything we did. I will forever be beyond impressed with the children or their raising of bigfoot all due to how well-behaved the babies acted. It took a few hours to get to Shasta. We were out of gas by the time we rolled into the little town at the bottom of the mountain. We exited I-5 and found a gas station where I could fill up without somebody saying something about my passengers. I bought some sandwiches and fruit to go with the gasoline. Because we were now almost there I figured if I had to take off and hurry to a spot to let them go, it wouldn’t be that hard. People were too concerned about their own plight to be bothered about what I was doing. next page |  |