Thankful ... And there's no place like Home!

We're home.  After 6 days of refugee living, Happy Trails Central is re-occupied!  We are extremely thankful and blessed that our home, and those of our neighbors, were completely unharmed.  There is so much going through our hearts and minds right now that it may be a bit before it can be composed into a meaningful post, but we have to thank all our running peeps who have emailed, called, sent texts, etc. offering help, encouragement, and at times, humor to help us through these past days.  You guys are awesome.

In the mean time, as we celebrate our safe harbor, please continue to remember the 347 families who lost their homes, all within 1 - 2 miles of our house.  And also, we would be remiss if we did not give a huge shout out to the 1500+ people who are battling this fire on our behalf.  We are unbelievably grateful.  Here are a few pics to help you visualize their efforts and thank you so much again to all the firefighters and law enforcement who have fought to keep us safe!

Heroes...

Fighting the blaze in Mountain Shadows

Sleeping on the front lines...

Waldo Fire continues......

Just a quick update.....  We have not been evacuated yet.  But the fire continues to grow.  It is estimated to be at around 5100 acres, currently.  The smoke is hanging in a haze across the region and the smoke smell, at least at our house, is super strong.  We are both headed into work today.  Our cars our packed with essentials, documents, photos, bikes and running gear (priorities, you know), and not too much else.  What do you take???  It's just "stuff".  Anyway, that's just a quick update.  Here is a link to our local paper's website which has done a great job keeping the site updated regularly.  We are considered north Mountain Shadows neighborhood.  Peregrine and the Air Force Academy are to the north and Rockrimmon is east.  Thanks for all of your warm and kind thoughts, prayers, and offers of accomodations.  We've gotten lots of emails from you and it is encouraging for us.

Gazette Link

Not so pretty good.....

UPDATE:  Our voluntary evacuation order has currently been lifted, so we just have to watch the news and keep the phone close by.  We got some cloud cover, and the winds died off.  We really hope they can get a handle on this quickly as that beast got out of hand really, really fast!  Fire is now over 2000 acres as of 8 PM news conference.

There is a wildfire burning out of control in Waldo Canyon, just west of Colorado Springs.  Our neighborhood has just been put on voluntary evacuation alert.  Mandatory evacuation line is currently only 2 miles south of HT central.  We are currently sitting in front of the computer with our vehicles loaded, ready to head east.  Not a good feeling in the pit of the stomach.....

Latest pic from the end of our driveway - not good.  Fire is up to 1,000 2,000 acres and just started at noon.  We are still on standby...

This is not going to turn out well...

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