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I got your post before I left , did a printout stuffed it in my pocket and left. I saw Dry Creek in time and took it going in. What a nice road. Going up the smoke was so bad, traffic headed south from Santa Rosa was bumper to bumper all the way to Cotati.
Rashad and I made the best of it. Things looked so bad, we thought we might be in the best location as it seemed we might be just north of the worst of it. He was already there and set up when I arrived. Rashad seemed glad I showed up, I liked the spot and set up. It was about 45 min until sun down. Suddenly over a ridge to our east, we saw a ball of smoke, I mean- a real ball of smoke.
Things were so bad we entertained ourselves looking at Moon detail, swapping lies about eyepieces and barlows, the stuff.
On the far side of the lot there were some older Kids drinking beer, and there this pounding radio. A couple off them walked over before dark and asked if we were there for a meteor shower or something special. We had stated, " No it was more a matter of being a darker place then in the city, and a better place to do astronomy." They eagerly sniffed up a few photons from the big scope. Looked at the moon, pretty much said thanks and went back over to where there friends were.
By 10 o'clock they were bombed enough to drive home and on the way out the one with the big white pickup, had to show his girl friend what a truck feels like doing three sixties. He managed to pull off four times around. We quickly covered our scopes and waited for the dust, there was no time to put things away, we covered up the best we could and waited for the dust to clear. You can imagine this Butt-head made a big ball off dust about the size of a small house. A very tense few minutes passed mumbles about "sons of B----es", and Rashad said "see what I mean, where's the dust? What did I tell ya? Didn't I tell ya?" And sure enough, he was right -- the dust had settled down we didn't get a bath.
We waited till the moon went down, and it was drive back or stay? The seeing was good we were pushing the power, and were congratulating one another about how good our gear was working. But in the end we just didn't have any visibility and why stay? We would drive back and sleep at home. On the way out I tried to get Rashad to go Dry Creek as I had learned coming in. I saw his brake lights, he had made the turn already and continued on, so I followed him. His way might be quicker as you spend more time on the freeway. I think Dry Creek might be shorter and very pretty way to go.
Over all I like Lake Sonoma, Rashad is great company, and a bigger group would make it worth the 117 miles from Redwood City. Maybe you'll join us next time Bob?