We got some sprinkles yesterday and the fire is now 50% contained!

It was cloudy and extremely humid here yesterday and there are already clouds again this morning.  By 9:30 a.m., I felt sprinkles outside!  :-)  They did help the firefighters to contain the fire in the San Bernardino mountains and it is now 50% contained and all evacuations are lifted!  FINALLY!!!  However, now residents will have to worry about flash floods and mudslides.

I took this photo from the parking lot at Trader Joe's.

 Looking back toward New Mexico as we headed toward Arizona.

 Pretty lake in Arizona, near Show Low.

 Osprey at the little lake.  I love to hear their calls.

 We took a drive down our favorite road.  This road is on Apache territory, but visitors are welcome...or not...Somebody didn't like our presence there and drove by us, kicking up rocks and dust.  There are campgrounds and camps on this road, so I don't know what his problem was.

 Beautiful meadows.

One horse and one cow were out in this meadow.

After we left the 3 elk, we continued on the road toward Arizona and Show Low.  Along the way, we saw spots where it had poured earlier that afternoon and we finally hit showers about Alpine, AZ.  We continued and turned on Highway 260 toward Show Low.  This is in the Apache National Forest, which is absolutely breathtaking!  Unfortunately, right after this, we got a call from a neighbor that our black lab, Ripley, had escaped through the front fence and she was a block away!  ACK!  We live only 1 block from an extremely busy street and it has always been my nightmare that she would dig her way out of the front fence and get out, which is what she did.  Fortunately, this neighbor also has a black lab, and he walked her back to our yard, stuffed her through the fence, and covered up her hole.  I called our handyman and he came the next morning and replaced 6 boards on the fence and she was in the yard when we got home, but I spent a sleepless night worrying about her!

Elk!

 On our drive to Show Low this week, as we were nearing the Arizona border (from New Mexico), hubby spotted three elk by the road.  I was amazed to see them out about 4 p.m., but there they were!  After this, we hit Arizona and RAIN!

VLR (Very Large Array), New Mexico

As we wandered down the mountains from Santa Fe this week, hubby plotted a route to Show Low, AZ, where we were to spend the night.  One route took us past the VLA (Very Large Array), outside Socorro, NM.  We had never been on this road before, so off we went!

I believe that some filming of the movie, "Contact" was made here.  However, the VLA is NOT used to phone ET!  Actually, it is a series of radio telescopes which listen to such deep space objects as pulsars, quasars, supernovas, planets, galaxies, and black holes.  They then transmit the data into images.  There is a self-guided tour, but we still had another 2 hours of driving to do, so we didn't take it.  We did spend some time walking around the VLA, which has a nice gift shop! :-)  Thunderstorms were developing all around us, also, and we had some heavy mountain driving to do.

Here are some photos from the VLA site this week.  Enjoy!  The radio telescopes can be changed since they are all on railway tracks.  They can be put further apart (as they were this week), or closer together.

 Our first sighting.  The telescopes were VERY far apart this week!

 Getting closer...

 One near the Visitors' Center.

 Poster from the movie, "Contact".

I was really moved by all I learned here.  It really is out in the middle of nowhere and you HAVE to turn your cell phones off, so that they don't interfere with the radio transmissions of the telescopes!  I did not know that, but there are plenty of signs telling you to do so, so we did!  I bought a t-shirt and some items for the kids at school there in the gift shop.  They have nice bathrooms there, as well!  If you go, take plenty of water with you as the desert is quite dry.  We did see one antelope on our way there, and some horses, but it is high, dry desert.

Fire update

Well, it seems the two backfires are not out of control and the fire is spreading....sigh...


Hubby and I may take a drive later, with our cameras, and take photos.  In the meantime, here is the latest update, as of 5:45 p.m. today:

http://www.sunrunnersw.com/#!Lake-Fire-Updates/cjds/558c77f60cf2ef0f928ca5ac

There are some pretty awesome photos here.  The one of the horse trailers all lined up is pretty scary, though.

Here's another update, especially about folks who are moving their animals out of harm's way:

http://www.kesq.com/news/residents-evacuate-pets-in-midst-of-lake-fire/33779414

FIRE!

There is a huge fire up in our local San Bernardino mountains, above the Whitewater Preserve (which is now closed).  It started the day we left on vacation and has been burning now for one week.  It is only 30% contained and with gusty winds in the forecast, who knows what will happen next.  As we came down Interstate 10 to Indio yesterday afternoon, we were horrified to see all the smoke from it.  The smoke is now drifting toward Arizona.  Apparently firefighters set several backfires in an effort to control it and we were seeing those.

These mountains are not the ones I drive through, up by Deep Canyon.  Those are the Santa Rosa mountains, which are part of the San Jacinto wilderness.

This fire is up by Big Bear and is 11 air miles from Pioneertown and Morongo Valley.  Another fire swept through Pioneertown a few years ago and residents there are, of course, extremely worried.  This one is burning up Highway 38, the road to Big Bear and Mt. San Gorgonio.  So, it is across the valley from us and is moving toward Joshua Tree National Park.  I believe the park is still open, but there is a health advisory from all the smoke.

Here is a link to one of our local news stations' reports:

http://www.kesq.com/news/photos-of-lake-fire-burning-in-san-bernardino-mountains/33653860

Here is also a link to the Los Angeles Times article.  According to them, it is now up to 21,000 acres that are burned.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-wildfire-san-bernardino-mountains-grows-winds-shift-20150624-story.html

Santa Fe, Part I

Instead of driving anywhere yesterday, we puttered around Santa Fe.  We went to the Georgia O'Keefe museum and I was really awed by her work.  I've seen her artwork before, but never so close.  There are certain works that you cannot photograph, and you cannot use flash, so hubby and I used our cell phones (without flash).  That worked out just fine.  Next, we walked around the area by the museum and took photos of the buildings there.  Eventually we found the U.S. Courthouse and even the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assissi, which was very peaceful.  We also found a French cafe and bakery for breakfast!  We stopped at Whole Foods, bought dinner, and by 2:00 p.m. we were back at the hotel for the rest of the day.