Good read, thanks for the ping.
At times the road ventured southerly into the places where a blanket of ash covered the ground. There, everything, in all directions, looked much like the surface of the moon. It took several days to wash the stuff off of the road surfaces. Today, some 30 years later, you can still find traces of the ash in the branches of trees in the forests.
If that volcano does what it did last time it erupted, many will long for the good old days.
This eruption might take several years to clear up the mess it is making.