Not Completely Uneventful

With as much traveling as I do, I often get the question "How was the trip?" And I often answer "Uneventful, just as I like it." It is not, however, always uneventful. Sometimes there's a little something interesting thrown in.

I had peered at the horizon and realized I was looking at fire smoke several miles back. This was when I called my mom, though.

Since she and her husband live in CA and know how to get CA information, I asked my mom to see if there were road closures on the highway ahead of me. She went to her husband, said "Mame needs us" and they dropped everything and settled down in front of their computers.

No road closures according to CalTrans (California Transportation) or CalFire. So I knew I could keep driving. Eventually though, I came around a corner and needed to get off the phone.

Because I was driving into this:

It was a grass fire and CalFire was on it. 

Once I got through it, I called my mom and her husband to assure them all was well. But it was nice to have been able to make the call.

In a move that, had it happened in a movie, none of us would have believed, the moment I hung up with them for the last time and turned back on my radio, the very first thing I heard was, 

"All right, some news; there's a grass fire on 580 backing up traffic, so expect some delays, but CalFire is on it, so everything should be moving again soon."

A little excitement for the trip to My Favorite and his fire..

This is when I realized I was looking at the real fire

Yep, real fire.

What I found out last night is that the fire I'd been referring to as "My Favorite's Fire" actually is his fire. He was spotted it and called it in first. One of those little things that make me proud.

Another thing that makes me proud...back before we had ever met but were just words on computer screens, he told me about saving horses, so that has always been a priority for him. Yesterday, he was watching deer and rabbits scampering, running scared, in front of the fire. As he puts it, there was nowhere for them to go. So, he took his bucket and cleared a path through the fire for them. They ran back through the fire and into the part that had already been burned over and was now out (known as "the black" as I learned) where they would be safe. 

Yeah...not only does he protect people's homes, but he saves Bambi and Thumper, too.