Lightning and Fire

We are having unsettled weather tonight due to all the heat we have been experiencing. We had a slow and active thunder and lightning cell pass through a bit ago. There was only a smattering of rain with it, which spells trouble. As I was in the kitchen doing dishes, I kept looking out and up the buttes at what first appeared to be rain. But I soon realized that it was smoke. We watched it increase and began to worry a bit about the fire that must have started. That smoke wasn't very far away and we are on a dead end road. You start to think about what you will do if you have to leave. And about what you need to take and which vehicle to leave in. Tramp 1 decided to drive down the road and see how close the fire was and where. When he left, I stayed in the kitchen doing dishes, watching and listening to my scanner. I picked up the fire crew - they were talking on their hand helds while trying to find the source of the smoke. It is rugged terrain and extremely hot out - not an easy job. Tramp 1 returned and said he ran into a number of neighbors that had come up to the main road to try and see what was happening. Just after he pulled in, a small fire unit came roaring up the road, turned around and went back down. Tramp 1 ran out to try and catch them but they were gone. While on his exploratory drive, he drove low into the valley rather than high and could see that the smoke originated behind a hill and was following the fingers of the valleys giving a false impression as to location. We are still watching smoke and the wind has picked up - not good. But from what I am hearing on the scanner now, it sounds like the search crew is finally headed in the right direction. I hope they find the fire - Tramp 1 has been sick and his head is all plugged so he can't smell the smoke. That leaves me to stay up tonight and keep my sniffer going! And to think about pulling together some of our things should we need to leave. I asked Tramp 1 what he thought we should grab to take if we had to leave in a hurry. He said his guns - not at all what I thought of. I was thinking along the lines of documents, check books, address books and my grandparent's old Waterbury kitchen clock. Guess we need to make a checklist together! One thing that would not make it out would be his 1956 Chevy. Maybe now he will get a new battery for it and fire up that hot 427 engine so we can drive it to safety should the need arise!!!