Red world in my backyard (and my front yard) Sunday mid afternoon. It was 2pm about an hour after the Malibu had fire started. Now I live dozens and dozens of miles from Malibu. But it was scary.
I had planned a Seaworld trip with my kids for the Monday/Tuesday as school was out for the week. We headed to LA to stay with my MIL and my hubby and the dog went up to our weekend property (he had taken a couple days off). Good timing, so we thought, to escape the smoke. And there was a fire started far to the east near I5 as well to escape.
Down to LA, no problems there. Monday morn we got on the road after rush hour and went through another orange world in Orange County, (no pun this time). Not fun. Then into San Diego where a fire had started in Northeastern SD County. Our hotel was under mostly clear blue sky (except for a little smoke) but things were getting pretty hairy. More fires were starting by the hour and evacuations drove people to fill every room in the large area filled with hotels where we were.
Everyone was in good spirits but things were definitely getting worse. By Tues dawn I consulted with my husband via cell about the practicality of going to Seaworld. We absolutely bailed and got out of there by 7am practically flooring the gas pedal to make sure we could get north before something forced closure of I5.
We didn't stop until Sta Barbara and went to the zoo. Whew. Back home that evening things were in much better shape than I'd worried.
And the winds are gone. Thank goodness.
Where there's smoke...well you know the rest
October 24th, 2007 at 01:10 pm
October 24th, 2007 at 01:14 pm 1193231684
October 24th, 2007 at 01:28 pm 1193232483
October 24th, 2007 at 02:29 pm 1193236190
October 24th, 2007 at 02:36 pm 1193236572
We were down south in November 2003 and that is about what it looked like. (Seems to be becoming a more common sight in So Cal).
My out of state coworker mentioned good thing I wasn't in So Cal and I just replied - oh this is normal. Then I turned on the news and heard how awful this round of fires was. Wow! Take Care and be safe! I have been worried about many people on the boards and many friends down south since...
October 24th, 2007 at 02:58 pm 1193237883
October 24th, 2007 at 06:11 pm 1193249466
The only way to imagine is that everything was the color of a reddish crayon. Very weird.
things are amazingly normal today whew
October 24th, 2007 at 07:56 pm 1193255807
October 24th, 2007 at 08:03 pm 1193256239