It was around seven am when Eden and I woke up, neither of us having slept very well. We filled up the Patriot and headed the last two and a half hours back to Fort McMurray. The drive was uneventful, the evacuation order for, Gregoire lifetime and the fires seemed to have taken a rest.
We made it back to our house, the neighbourhood still mostly empty, only a few die hard holdouts still there. The house was empty, something that hadn't happened since we moved in. We unloaded the Jeep into the living room and made our way across town to where our family was staying.
At the time Gregoire was clear, blue sky, no smoke, just any other day. As we came down Beacon Hill towards downtown it was clear things weren't yet back to normal. Thick grey smoke coated the downtown area like a fog from Hell itself. Visibility was, extremely reduced and it became hard to breathe so I kept the air conditioning on in the Jeep.
The smoke was thinner in Thickwood as we stopped at the Tim Horton's there for coffee and food but the air still had that aroma of campfire gone wrong. Unlike Gregoire the people north of the bridge seemed to be going about their business as usual, the drive through was busy and people came and went everywhere you looked.
We made it to our family who we were happily reunited with; Xavier, Cindy, Jax, Rosie, Fritz, Lil Bear, and Zombie. My son, mother-in-law, shepherd, chihuahua, two cats, and Betta. Crammed into a fifth wheel travel trailer. After Cindy finished giving us shit for making the journey Eden and I fell quickly asleep still in our clothes from the day before.
It was a short restless sleep and I awoke over heated and soaked in sweat. Leaving the animals at the travel trailer we decided to go get my trailer; a ten foot wire mesh Canadian Tire special we bought off my Dad. We were going to sleep in our own beds that night, which on top of being the last time for long while would also be the best decision we made.
The rest of the day passed without excitement as things seemed to return to normal. We packed up our animals from the travel trailer, thanked our host, Jamie and went home.
At home we brought everything inside but I left the trailer hooked up to the Jeep, my spider sense still tingling. We didn't bother to unpack from Calgary, leaving all our bags packed. All my survival gear still sat on the shelving unit where I stored it. I don't remember when we went to bed, it seems so unimportant at the time. I just remember that it was a really deep sleep and the last decent one I've had. I didn't dream but according to most people day three was the beginning of a nightmare that hasn't yet ended.
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