Santa Barbara Gap Fire

I spent the weekend with my family up on the Russian River in Healdsburg, CA... floating down the river and getting sunburned! And I did a marathon drive back home last night. I left at 9pm for a 6 hour drive. On the way home, I got a text message from a friend in Long Beach wanting an update on the Santa Barbara Gap Fire, of which I had heard nothing about. Trying to use my phone with no hands to abide by the new July 1st Cell Phone laws, I was trying to find out if the 101 or the 154 would be closed as I came into town or not. I decided to take the 154 anyway and just hope that it would be open. I figured I could always stop for a few hours to play cards at the Chumash Casino if I got stuck.

I was able to make it all the way home, but had to stop on the side of the road to snap a couple picks of what I could see of the fire. I really wish I had kept going, because the view was MUCH better just another mile down the pass. Oh well... It looks like we have an active volcano in Santa Barbara.