So our plan was to head out of Gold Country today and continue north but, as luck would have it, we got delayed... Last night, Aili came down with a bit of a tooth ache and this morning it was even worse. We called a local dentist and were able to get a morning appointment. As it turns out, she needed a root canal! What a nice way to spend a vacation day! Well, the dentist was able to do it right away and Aili was numbed up, fixed up and out by noon! We filled the post-procedure prescription and headed up route 49 through Sutter's Creek then headed back west toward Sacramento. Several brush fires burned in the area filling the horizon with a fog-like cloud. At one point, the road was closed and we had to take a short detour - fire trucks lined the road and we got within a couple hundred feet of the burning grassland. Through the stop-and-go traffic, the transmission in our car started acting funny and since we were about to head into the middle of nowhere, we decided to have someone take a look at it. We used some points to check ourselves into a Marriott Courtyard and made an appointment for first thing in the morning. We didn't expect for the whole three-month trip to go by without a delay or mishap, but we didn't expect them to start so soon! Still, our schedule is flexible and we'll be on our way again soon... hopefully.