The Wallow Fire

On May 29th, the Wallow fire started in northeastern Arizona and has been going on since. June 2nd I attended this MS event at the Sheraton at Menaul and Lousiana. Got there around 6 pm and left a little after 8 pm. As we walked out of the hotel we could smell smoke and see smoke all around us. Oh my, we were wondering if the Bosque was on fire. Someone said it was smoke from the fire in Arizona!! That smell stayed through the night. Next day it was all clear, no smell of smoke, either. The weathermen said that the smoke and smell will be back once the sun goes down and explained how it happens. So since then we had smoke and stinky campfire smell. One evening it's really bad, the next evening there's nothing and then the next evening it's bad again. I wish it would make up it's mind!! Monday around 4 pm it got really orange outside and was just plain weird to see the whole sky orange. And the smell, most people were wondering if their neighbor's house was on fire. I thought it might be the Bosque. The smell was so strong. By 2 AM the smell was gone. I am happy with the clear blue skies during the day but once it gets to sunset, the smoke settles in and brings along the ashes. The next morning the vehicles are covered with ashes. I wonder how long this will be. I hear it's really hard to contain the fires out there. And it's about to cross into New Mexico! People in Luna are not ready to leave home. They are packed up, but the would rather stay there. That's gotta be a tough decision as they've been living there for years and years.
Country singer Trace Adkins had his house burn down over the weekend. It was weird that I was thinking of him on Saturday afternoon (during the time the fire was supposedly happening.) I was thinking of his older daughters and wondered how many he had at home. He has two daughters in their 20s and knew that there's one at home. Then I remembered somewhere reading or heard he's got a total of 5 daughters. So there are three little ones at home. His wife wasn't at home when the fire started but was alerted and went home. The nanny was with the girls and because one of them had a fire safety class at school the family decided to draw up a plan in case of a fire. And it came in hand. When Rhonda returned home, there they were at the tree they were to meet at. I heard the neighbor went to rescue their dog and got bit. He didn't get mad about it because he knew the dog was probably disoriented. He's ok, too. Trace was on his way to Alaska for some fishing before his shows today and tomorrow. He immediately returned home when he heard of the fire. I am sure he made it back to Alaska for his show today and tomorrow. He returns to Nashville for Fan Fair. He's just perforiming at the nightly concerts at the coliseum.
Today we were stuck in traffic due to a car accident. Well, I was going to get off the interstate at Rio Bravo but decided not to get off. In the meantime I saw these two police cars in the two inside lanes coming up behind me. I thought it was weird thatthey were coming up side by side. Never seen that before. By the time I got to the top of the hill I noticed the cars were slowing down and then knew there was an accident down at the bottom of the hill. And those police cars never came over the hill. All of a sudden I noticed that there were no more cars coming over the hill. Hey, they had stopped the traffic at Rio Bravo. People had to get off there. We slowly made our way down the hill and around the accident. 3 cars involved. A truck with a trailer was hanging off the road over an arroyo. I think he flipped his truck several times. He didn't seem to be hurt at all. the other two drivers seem to be ok, too. So after we went by the accident we were going up the hill and over it. I looked over to Broadway and saw that there weren't many cars on that road. I wondered if they closed Broadway for some reason. Did the people think it was going to be slow on Broadway and headed more to the west to get the interstate? Not many cars were coming up on Broadway, where we got off. On the way back to the city, we noticed they just opened up the road. The vehicles were moving really slow as we went by. Up by the Rio Bravo exit, a semi-truck had stalled in the middle lane and was holding up the traffic there as well. The traffic was backed up all the way to Central Ave!! I was glad I was going the other direction. I know there are times I am sitting in traffic and wishing I was going the other way!!

Well, we'll see how long this fire continues and how long we get the smoke. No rain in the forecast, either. It's staying to the north. But our monsoons start up around June 20th, hopefully we get some of the much needed rain.
Joella Kivina Begay is now 2 months old. I will try really hard to get picture or two of here before she's 21