6 February '08
Wednesday
Well it was time to say "Goodbye" to Mark, Susan (see their new home???), Yuma, and Pilot Knob again for another year. I also had a wonderful birthday celebration to be thankful for this last Saturday...number 68 and it's going to be great to have the rest of them going backwards in the future (I'll look forward to seeing 67 again). As we pulled out of Pilot Knob the weather was getting better and we were heading into the California mountains were it was to be getting cooler...what is this???? We traveled west on Hwy 8 until we were about 20 miles east of San Diego and then we turned north and headed another 25 onto Ramona. The mountain pass topped out at 4200 feet and there still was some snow up there. Ramona is still up in the high hills east of San Diego and is supposed to be a little cooler but fortunately it hasn't proven to be. This whole area was hit hard by one of those tragic range fires that was driven by the 100+ Santa Anna wind storms.
All around us is evidence of huge losses, even here in the campground. Then to top off the fire damage, the following rains have swept in and caused a lot of damage as well. There is a small river that flows into a small lake here in the campground and the color of both is "dirt brown"...not too pretty. On top of that the trees have all been touched by the fires and have left the leaves dead on the branches and the trunks blackened and still smelling a little bit of a wet fire pit. There are many homes around here that were lost in the fires and even some cars and pickups are scattered here and there looking like they were caught in a war.
