Never a dull moment

[garyde]

The Fires in Santa Barbara have been burning for several days now, last night the winds changed and threatened my neighborhood. We stood outside and watched the helicopters dumping water on the fire a half a mile away.Borate Bombers had ceased operations an hour earlier. I could feel the heat and the wind gusting to 35 mph.
I went thru this 18 years ago almost to the day when our neighborhood was burned to the ground and only mine and a handful of homes were left standing. Back then our youngest daughter was 6 months old and the other two girls were 3 and 5 years old.
Now , my 3 daughters & son, dogs and cats all had to be evacuated. the fire engines are parked on my street and they are asking everyone to leave.
My oldest daugther was packing her clothes ,can't leave those, the other two were moving our valuables and keep sakes into cars and trucks.
I had moved my bus onto the street an hour earlier anticipating the evacuation.
The smoke and ash was dumping everywhere, it was time to go.
My wife and the kids headed downtown to Grandpa's.
I drove the bus down to the flat lands by Goleta Hospital. The Ash and smoke was worse down there but no threat of fire. I took the two larger dogs with me. Parked the bus and went to sleep.
Morning was clear and the smoke lifted, and the fire was calm for lack of wind. We'll see how tonight goes. I moved the bus home. I'm thinking the threat has passed , we'll see.

[dalej]

Jan and I will pray for your family Gary. We have been watching it get close to you but didn't know exactly how far it was. It's hard to believe that there is that much burning out there.

Talk to Harry yesterday and he said it was really smokey around him because of the fires.

[rmboies]

How frigthening Gary! I have several friends in CA and they have been sending reports to me regarding the smoke, the ash, the inability to breath, just terrible. No end in sight for at least the northern fires. My concern in our area is that we are in extreme drought conditions and they have not banned the use of fireworks for tonight! I may have to sit outside by the barn with a couple hoses!

Take care and stay safe......

[Ray Davis]

Gary, glad to hear that it's better today. Prayers are with you that the worst is past!

If there is anything we can do to help, you've got the number ...

Ray

[MangoMike]

Gary,

When you said "never a dull moment" I'm figuring you added a plexiglass shield to the front of your Liberty. NOT your house is getting ready to burn to the ground with all your worldly possessions. That headline was a little understated. Glad things are working out.

MM

[jack14r]

Good luck Gary,save that Liberty!!!!

[sawdust_128]

Hope all this works out for you and your family.

[Sid Tuls]

Gary & Family, you are in our prayers, thats one Great Thing about this country we have the FREEDOM to Pray and they can never take that away!!
We live in the Central Valley and see the effects of the fires! The thing I can't figure out why they are allowing privite fireworks? I know the firework stands in Visalia are flat dead. Anyway thats my opinion. Happy 4th America!!






Sid & Judy Tuls
2007 Thompson XL 2 45'

[truk4u]

Hope all is well Gary, we're all thinking about you...

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Gary,

Di and I are thinking of you. We hope the fires are ended.

[garyde]

After 3 days of escalating fires, the fires have moved further North-East from my neighborhood. We had B-52 type Bombers, military helicopters, DC-10 Jet and over 1100 ground personel working around the clock on ths one. Its still raging (6500 acres burned) burning 50 to 100 year old chapperal. We were all evcuated thursday night but I managed to get back in yesterday and spent the day watering everything down and maintaing a watch. My wife and kids were not allowed back in until today.
The Governorator (Arnold) showed up today. He said there were over 1500 fires in California started in the last 17 days.:D

[rfoster]

Gary: That certainly is a better post than the last one! So glad to hear that you and family returned to your home safely. Micki and I are thankful for that news and I know you are too!

[merle&louise]

Gary,

Karen and I are glad to hear that you and your family are o.k. We will be praying for you and yours, we can identify with natural disasters. Hope everything comes out good.

[garyde]

Thanks to everyone. The news said we were priority one in Federal and State assistance for fighting this fire (9000 acres buned to date now), there were over 1200 homes threatened at the height of the fire. Now the fire is still raging but it is further away from major neighborhoods.

[jello_jeep]

That is too close for comfort Gary.

If you need a place to escape we are not too far off, but I imagine you want to be closer to home. If you need a hand let me know.

[Steve Bennett]

Gary, we were thinking of you when I heard about the fires up there. I did not see your post until today, and we are thankful everything is OK. I was listening to the news on the way in this morning, and it sounded like they had a good handle on the south end. Our prayers are with you.

[MangoMike]

GaryD,

Nice pix of your house. Is that Lew I see in the left seat?

2974

mm

[Darl-Wilson]

Wisely my son planned a vacation at Lake Shasta and invited us and another son plus a lot of grand children. They are in a house high on a wooded hill and we are at Mountain Gate, a little north of Redding. We have several brave firefighters at an encampment just across the road from the RV Park where we are staying. They are working on the Shasta-Trinty Lighting complex fires (http://www.fire.ca.gov/index_incidents_shasta.php). While searching for information on this fire I found some info about the Los Padres fire (http://165.221.39.44/incident/1384/) at Goleta near where Gary and his family live. There are several links at these sites to get more info.

We were happy to leave Reno last Saturday because all of the smoke from the CA fires that Harry talked about. Now we are much closer to some of the fires but we have less smoke. Go figure! Although the winds were predicted to be fairly calm ( 6 mph) we're currently having strong gusts rocking the bus. The temp here yesterday was 111 degrees and is projected to exceed (http://www.wunderground.com/US/CA/Shasta_Lake.html) that for the next 3 days. At least, at this point, unlike Gary, we are not in any danger and don't expect to have our vacation seriously impacted.

Hopefully you will have a happy ending Gary and like the rest of your fellow POGers, if you need anything just call. (everything is on Dale's map)

Darl