What did I do????

June 23, 2008

My daughter has been looking forward to summer camp for months. This year two of

her best friends got to go so she was so excited. We live in the city at the

bottom of a valley and Saturday it was 110 here so she was really looking

forward to getting to the mountains. She is currently a few miles from Yosemite,

about an hour drive away from me. On the drive yesterday we saw a sign that said

the camp was closed so we turned around and tried to find information. We

noticed some air tankers flying overhead but that's not an uncommon sight in the

summer here. We finally got info that the camp was open and we headed up.

On the way we noticed three very large plumes of white smoke but they looked so

far away and white smoke usually means the fire is out, or nearly out anyway. We

started to notice the smoky air as we climbed the mountain but it was hard to

distinguish from that normal smoky mountainy air. When we arrived at camp there

was a definite fire smoke to the air. The director told us they were evacuated

the night before but were told the next day that it wasn't even necessary and

that the camp was never in danger. The fire was on the other side of the ridge

heading the other direction and was contained. They expected the smoke to clear

by Tuesday. So I sat down with the nurse and went over all the meds that I had

originally brought just as a precaution but now wanted her taking daily. I

started her on her pulmicort right then and she was told to take her albuterol

every four hours...NO ARGUMENTS!!! The nurse was awesome and promised to keep a

very close eye on her. She gave me her personal

number and said to call her after 9:30 if I wanted.

Now I am a complete wreck. The newstories are now saying the fire is worse and

there is now ash. My husband keeps saying they would never put the kids at risk

and would evacuate WAY before there was any danger. But how are they gonna get

400 kids down a one lane road? I need to stop watching the news and reading the

message boards because I am making myself a nervous wreck. I am so worried she

is going to come home sick...and I LEFT HER THERE!! She would have been so mad

if I made her come home with me but I am having a hard time not getting in my

car now and driving up there! This doesn't help:

I need a drink.

Rhonda who is worried sick about her 9 year old.

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