Yikes!

After eating lunch and devouring the dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts with Grandma, the Bartletts, and the DisneyLunds, we were just hanging around chatting while the kids played upstairs, passing time until it was time to leave for Riley's science fair.  At one point the phone rang.  I looked at caller ID and saw it was from the County.  Thinking that was odd, I answered, but heard silence on the other end.  I didn't think anything of it until a bit before 3:00 when a friend from work called and asked if we were okay.  Puzzled, I answered, "Um, yeah."  She said she wasn't sure if we had to evacuate or not.  At this point I told her I had no idea what she was talking about.  She explained there was a wildfire down around a town near us, but from the sound of it, it was pretty far east of us.  But then she said the magic words, "It's right by Ponderosa High School."  Well, we can see Ponderosa High School from our house.  A field of grass, trees, a herd of cows, and a narrow two lane road is pretty much all that separates us.  In other words, a natural path for the fire.  While she was still on the phone, I ran upstairs and looked out a window and immediately saw what she was talking about. 

Ponderosa High School

We turned on the news to get more details. All the news crews were filming from Ponderosa. Several surrounding areas were being evacuated. That was about the time Grandma suggested the phone call from the County may have been a reverse 911 call. It was almost time for Riley's science fair anyway, so we started bundling all the kids up and loading them in the car. Jeremy stayed behind to load up some of our priority items if it came to that - pictures, documents, etc. As we started to leave, our neighbor's mother pulled up. She lives in the subdivision closest to the fire and received the reverse 911 call. When she looked out her window, it was practically in her backyard. She and her husband came to seek refuge in our neighbor's house, so I enlightened her we may be kicked out soon too. Grandma and the Bartletts followed me out of our subdivision. As we headed up the state highway that runs along Ponderosa, I was amazed to see the amount of traffic and congestion. People were parking on the road to watch the show. In a stretch of road that usually takes just 2 minutes to drive, it took nearly 15 minutes to get through. A line of trucks with horse trailers were coming out of the closest subdivision, with the entrance blocked off by police. It was crazy. We definitely won't forget this birthday for Connor!