Eleven and a half hours. Wow…what a drive! At least this time we didn’t have to drive through rain. It was a perfectly gorgeous day. The colors were a bit muted from the recent hard freeze, but the sky was clear and the air was crisp. When we crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains, I could see what looked like wildfire smoke in the distance. The further we went, and the lower the sun set, I became certain that was what I was seeing. I’ve seen enough wildfires in Colorado to know the difference between clouds and smoke.
When we got to Tamarack on the West Virginia Turnpike, we could actually smell the smoke. I checked online and there were no fires in West Virginia or the surrounding states. It had to be from Colorado! When we got home last night and I had time to check the government’s air monitoring website, there it was…clear as day. You can follow the plume of smoke in a straight line from Colorado to southern West Virginia where the sun was going down blood red. How eerie…and so sad…and scary. What is happening to our atmosphere from all these wildfires? I really have no idea.
We finally arrived home about 8:30pm…way past dark. The first thing we saw when we pulled in the drive was tire tracks through the grass alongside the house. We got out the high beam flashlight and followed the tracks all the way around the house and out the driveway on the other side. We checked all the doors. Not a thing was out of place. We looked at each other, baffled. Could we have driven around the house before we left and not remembered? We were trimming branches but that was the week before we left. These tracks had to have been made earlier in the day because the leaves were mashed down. We decided maybe it was time to put up those security cameras we’ve been talking about. But for the time being, there was plenty to get done and we got to work emptying the truck.
Later in the evening, one of the kids called to say they had come out to get firewood yesterday but they couldn’t find any. Mystery solved! I know it sounds odd, but we live out in the country and our “yard” is actually more of a field that surrounds our house. These people never think twice about driving on what you might think of as a lawn. Things are different in the country. We always parked in the yard at Grandma’s house.
Now comes the job of unpacking and putting everything away. NOT my favorite part of vacation. But, we are so grateful to have had time away spent with family and to be delivered back home all safe and sound. Thanks for coming along with me!
❤️
“You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.”
Deuteronomy 28:6 NIV