Old Friends and Forest Fires-August 9th

We left the house at 7:30. Our route was to take us into Ketchum, where I arranged to meet an old friend for lunch. Chris was one of my favorite friends from the gym where I worked in Seattle. She is almost old enough to be my mom, but has always seemed like a peer. I was drawn to her initially because of her cheerful smile and positive disposition. We became fast friends when it came out that we were both Idaho girls. She also became somewhat of a role model of a mom who didn’t let her body go after having kids. By chance, she ended up selling James and I our first house, and after Christine was born, she babysat for me so I could go to they gym. I was so excited to meet up with her again after six years. The reunion was great. Since I saw her last, she has changed her career from real estate to personal trainer. We had plenty of time to exchange our ideas about fitness and recommend books and other tips.

After our visit in Ketchum, we headed toward Stanley and over to highway 55 which would take us to McCall, where we would pick up Amber from Girl Scout camp. The road between Ketchum and McCall was one that I was really looking forward to. We have driven it once before, and I remember remarking that it was one of the most beautiful roads I have ever been on. However, when we got a little bit out of town, I was disappointed to find that the smoke in the air was so thick, the view was severely limited. When we were about an hour from McCall, we got turned away by a fire crew who informed us that there were several fires burning in the area and a new fire had developed just ahead that was burning high on both sides of the road. The road we were on is so remote that the only way around was to go back the way we came, putting us five hours from McCall. The kids weathered it well. We stopped for sushi in Boise and pulled in to our campground in McCall at about 11:30 that night.