Gosh, it's been forever since I've updated you. There has been so much going on.
So, let me see...I guess I'll start with the most recent and perhaps, I will elaborate on things past, if I have time.
As many of you may have heard, (or if you haven't, here's your chance) there was a massive fire storm here in Colorado Springs. The Waldo Canyon Fire started on Saturday, June 23rd around noon. Both Mike and I saw it, as we were leaving Home Depot with some new plants to plant in our backyard to make it more pleasing to the eye for the potential home buyers, as our house went up on the market the Friday before. We saw the smoke just billowing off the mountain, and thought, well, it's still pretty small, however, it is pretty far from any civilization, so I hope that they can get to it quickly before it gets worse...
It got worse, but we wouldn't see how bad it would get, until Tuesday, when I came home from our drive out to Craig.
See, on that Sunday, Mike and I packed up both of our cars, and headed to Craig, so that Mike could start his new job at The Memorial Hospital out there. So, on Sunday afternoon, we headed out towards Craig. Before we left, we filled up the cars, and started the 5 hour drive. Once we got out of Denver, I started having major car issues.
The first moment of my problems was having trouble getting up the hills in the pass. Suddenly, my traction control light came on, and my car was rapidly losing power, on a three lane highway. I quickly hit the hazards and pulled over, turning the car off, and pulling out the manual. Fortunately for me, Mike had seen that I was slowing down, and then pulled over, so he did the same, just a little further up the highway. There were two other cars pulled over as well. Mike came over, and I explained what was going on. After waiting for a little bit, I started the car, and led this time. The temperature outside was about 101*. A few miles up the pass, and my car stuttered again, and I pulled off the highway. Mike told me that if we could just get to Silverthorne, on the other side of Eisenhower Tunnel, that we could get it looked at, or worse case scenario, I get a hotel room, and he continues up to Craig and comes back for me the next morning. He joked about trying not to stall out in the tunnel, as it's a hazard to do so.
So we take off again, and I'm hesitant, as I can feel the car struggling to get up hills, and I know that I'm losing power. I enter the tunnel, and shortly in, I lose all power in my car. Hazards on again, and the car shuts off completely. No power at all. I began to hit my steering wheel, utterly and completely frustrated, shouting a few profanities, as cars a whizzing by me in the tunnel. I look up and see the signs in the tunnel telling me that help is on the way. I'm grateful for prompt help, but again, it's a terrible hazard to be stopped in that tunnel as people will most likely speed through and cause accidents if they are not paying attention. The nice guy came to my wind, cracked a few jokes and pushed me out of the tunnel with his special bumpered truck. He explained to us that it was most likely vapor lock, as he sees this all the time, even with the men who work at that tunnel. We popped the hood and opened the gas cap and waited about twenty minutes. After that, we drove to Silverthorne which was about another ten miles from the tunnel and we stopped at the Target there to buy some fuel injector fluid and then fill up with premium fuel.
After doing that, we didn't have any more issues with my car all the way to Craig, which was another couple hours away. So the 5 hour drive to Craig was actually more accurately 7.5 hours.
Mike and I viewed a couple of houses in Craig, found some that we liked, and a few that we didn't. We ate at a few places, and found a place that we will most likely frequent when we are both living up there.
When we got to Craig, we picked up the keys to the temporary housing that Mike will be using for the next three months, and we walked in. The place was so hot inside and reeked of smoke. For two days, I was stuffed up and unable to breathe. We made sure to bring the air filters up the next trip up so that we could work on getting that smell out, as I am allergic to it.
I left that Tuesday morning, as Mike had to start work there for the first time, and I made the lonely drive back. I still struggled up the hills, but didn't have to stop on the side of the highway. As soon as I crested the hill of Castle Rock, which is halfway between the Springs and Denver, I could see just how bad the fire had gotten. It looked like we had been bombed.
The highway, the closer you got to the Springs, slowed down. People were pulling off to the side of the highway to take pictures, and the traffic slowed because of those people who were looking at the smoke and not driving. Because we were having our house shown by realtors that afternoon, I ended up going to my mom's house for a few hours, to allow these people ample time to view the house. Once I knew that they wouldn't be there, I headed home.
When I got home, and double checked all the doors to make sure that they were all closed and locked, I let the cats out of the locked room that we had placed them in for safety. After that, I turned on the news, and saw just how horrible this fire had become. Our back yard and every windown on the west side of the house, you could see the smoke, and the fire. I took several pictures, but then the smoke erupted so thick and heavy that I couldn't stay outside. The smoke had engulfed the city, sending this eerie orange glow throughout the city, and the smoke was so thick that I couldn't see past the apartments that sit right behind our back fence.
Once I got back inside, I could hear the news station informing people that they were evacuating sections of town, and I ended up texted the friends that I knew lived in those areas to make sure that they were okay. The fire was heading down the mountains in record speeds and began to burn through houses.
It was then that I began to freak out. I was crying and calling my mom, my friends and even Mike who was in Craig, just getting off of work, in tears, freaking out, and asking where do I go? What do I do? I knew the answer, and I was already preparing for the moment in case I needed to evacuate the house. I locked the cats back up in their room, so that I didn't have to chase them around the house, got their crates out and stacked up in the living room, packed all of my clothes, food and water from the pantry, important documents and statements, as well as my computer and camera, and asking Mike what else I should try and pack.
For the next several hours, I would cry as I watched the news and looking out of our windows to see the fires blazing.
When I got back on Tuesday afternoon.
You can tell it has grown here.
You can make out the flames as they crested the ridge.
This is when it started to erupt over the ridge.
The flames have gotten bigger.
This is how much smoke that was blowing across the sky.
It started to come into town.
It had hit buildings in this picture.
Again, it had hit town here.
This is when it hit town, and the smoke died down.
This was taken at 8pm thereabouts. The fire is burning in town.
From every west facing window, I could see the blaze, and how much damage it was doing. I was terrified, and feeling so alone and scared. Despite knowing that the fire was far away, relatively, the perception of distance was deceiving as it looked to be much closer than it really was. I was glued to the TV for updates, and I was hearing places like the Flying W Ranch, that has been in this town for over 60 years, had been completely leveled. I was hearing that people were fleeing their homes, and I was hearing things about wildlife running into town for safety, as they had no where else to run. I was crying so much, praying so hard, and just hoping to see a miracle before anything worse could happen...unfortunately, that is when the news station announced that the fire had struck town. It was burning through houses. Within a few minutes, they were expanding the evacuation zones, and in my head, I am viewing the area and trying to determine how close I would allow this fire to get before loading the car. I ran to the gas station earlier in the afternoon to get gas, just in case something horribly wrong would happen, and there was utter chaos. Turns out after I got my gas, that gas stations all over the city were over run with people and they were running out of fuel. I was one of the lucky ones to be able to fill up on gas.
Later that night, I heard on the news that a church right off of Woodmen (which is our biggest cross street) and I-25 had caught on fire. All I kept thinking was, if they can't put that church fire out, and if it jumps I-25, it will travel quickly up Woodmen and towards me. Luckily, they were able to get it out.
That night, I barely slept. I had a ten minute nap on the couch, fully clothed with shoes on, TV still on for updates on this fire. I kept texting my mom asking her if she was evacuating yet. The evacuation lines stopped near her house. The rest of that day, I spent my time in front of the TV, waiting to hear if they had contained the fire in town. They were still working on it, but they were making great progress on it. It wasn't until that late afternoon that they were able to put it out in town completely, and start working on it up in the pass.
The next few days, I was stressed, and my nerves were shot. I felt sick to my stomach, still freaking out that the fire could explode again, and wipe out whole neighborhoods again. It took them a few days to finally release information that it had destroyed 347 houses and killed two people who refused to leave their homes. The pictures that the news stations were taking and showing to the public had me in tears again.
They are still working on it even now, and I hope that we can get it out soon. There are no leads as to what started this fire, but I know that in Teller County, they had an arsonist, or more than one, setting twenty fires in that area. I truly hope that if it is an arson, they catch that person and give them some hard hard punishment.
Mike had come down this weekend, as he was off work, and we both agreed that it wasn't a good idea for me to leave the house, just in case the fire exploded again, so he came down to visit. It was a short visit, but much needed. He and I kept in close contact the entire time this was going on, and I had to do a lot of my communicating with loved ones through texts as the city was asking that we refrain from using our cellphones because of large volume was creating issues in the networks.
Before Mike came down on Friday, I was heading over to my mom's house to help her with Willow, my niece, and because the house was having a showing for a couple hours. As soon as I started my car, it sounded like I had a disel truck. I knew enough about cars, especially mine, to know that it wasn't supposed to sound like this. When I got to my mom's house, I asked my step dad to take a listen, so we drove to get lunch, and he popped the hood to my car and found the problem. Now, when I got to Craig when I was having so many issues on the drive up, we took it to the Chevy dealer to have them look at it. Supposidly they didn't find anything wrong. They reset the computer chip and washed my car, all of this cost us $48. The problem to my car was that the ERG pipe, which is basically the exhaust mainfold that leads from the engine down into the exhaust was broken off, causing all sorts of problems. I took it in that Friday, and this last Saturday, the dealership here had fixed it. It sounds like it's supposed to, and runs smoothly. Granted, I don't have mountain passes to be testing the power of my car, but I think this is what was cauing my "vapor lock" issues when driving to Craig.
Mike headed back to Craig this afternoon. So now, I get to wait another 5 days before I see him again. I miss him, and it's tough to be seperated from him. If anyone knows of someone looking for a house to buy in the northeast part of the Springs, send them our way!
I'm so happy that Mike has this new job at this hospital in Craig. It is a small 25 bed hospital, but the people are so much happier and friendlier and they are a great company to work for. To see Mike come home everyday, excited about his day, and looking foward to work the next day (as much as work is exciting), and it makes me smile and know that this is the best thing to happen to us. I haven't seen him smile this much in a long time. I'm very grateful that he is loving what he is doing again.
What else is new? Hmm....
I got a new haircut, but I don't really have any good pictures to post. It's a darker brown, and the cut is short and I have bangs...I didn't think I would have bangs again! It's still taking me some time to get used to them.
I won't be posting much in the sense of recipes, as things have been crazy busy, so just be patient!
Hopefully things will calm down around here, and I'll be able to make more of an appearance in life!
Until next time!
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