For our two nights in Redmond, Oregon, we stayed at the Deschutes County Fair and Expo Center RV Park. It is a modern complex with many buildings for various uses sort of like a large fairgrounds. It can host very large meetings and has had as many as 4000 RV's there for a rally.
We stayed two nights because Dave read in the AAA book that there was an interesting tour of the Redmond Air Center.
We called right away Monday morning and they took us on a private tour before 90 school kids were scheduled for 9:00. They primarily train Smoke Jumpers, but also have a Hot Shot crew there along with being an air tanker base.
Smoke Jumpers are parachuting firefighters.
This was our tour guide, Josh. Equipment they need (axes, chain saws, etc.) is dropped to them. The large red bag behind him is called the Pack-out Bag, and they have to carry everything out with them. Once they have done their job and are hopefully able to contain the fire, they have to hike out.
This is an example of a meal box that would be dropped them. It also contained water and many batteries for their radios.
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