Doesn't seem like it was this morning that we drove back from Idaho.... it has turned out to be
such a loooooong day :) After having to turn around yesterday I set the alarm for 4am to check road conditions and get an early start on the day. Still closed. 5am...still closed. 6am....still closed. 7am...one lane open with a pilot car, expect 20min to 2 hour delays. Perfect. Loaded the kids in the car and got going. The turn off to Marsing hill had a large signs stating the delay. Wish it had been there yesterday ;) we made it thru Joardan Valley and thru Burns Junction. We could see smoke in the distance, but I never imagined it would have been as bad as it was.
We drove past this little blaze still going and then there it was.....miles and miles and black as far as you could see...right up to the road... power lines burnt down and some still smoking
At Basque Station (there isn't anything there other than one house and some equipment) we stopped. We were second only to this semi. So we waited. They told us about 30 mins. So the kids and I ventured off to some unburned sagebrush and went potty. By the time we were back and changed our clothes out of pajamas it was time for us to go!
We drove for 20 miles behind the pilot car....black and smoke all around. Betsy said that the highway closed again this afternoon...I'm not suprised with how many little fires we saw everywhere
The no a/c wasn't as completely awful as I had thought. It only got up to 97 before we were home...and the kids had fun "floating" things in the air.
We came home to a sidewalk welcome :) Abb thought it was pretty great. Jb had his first day of work today, so we had a couple hours to veg and shower before he got home :)
A trip to the library and to WinCo for groceries, and I knew we were back...
and back to it all we go again...
