Wildfires

I had to run on the "dread"mill this morning. *sigh* I was so excited when I checked into this hotel and asked for a running route. They handed me a premade card with a 7 mile route on it along the river! Yea! Got up this morning and it was cold, wet, and rainy. I didn't have any gear for this weather and didn't really want to carry wet shoes around either. Oh, and didn't want to catch a cold. I went down to the fitness center in the morning and I couldn't believe it! Every cardio machine had a person on it (well, except for a stationary bike - I love bike riding, but a stationary bike to me seems like the epitome of futility; I never feel like I've worked out).

Luckily the treadmills were awesome, nice cushy platforms and there were TVs in the consoles. Very cool. I was watching CNN and they talked about the California Wildfires. This was quite a coincidence because I had taken pictures there on the second day of my tour. Obviously they have gotten worse. As we flew into Van Nuys, it was pretty clear, but as we got closer to the airport, we could see the smoke coming off the hills. It wasn't on the approach side of the airport, so it didn't affect our ability to get in. On the ground, you could smell the smoke, kind of like a campfire. And you can see how thick the smoke is over the hangars. As we departed, I took pictures (after we were above 10,000feet!). Here is the whole CNN story: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/14/calif.wildfires/index.html?section=cnn_latest