The Interlude Concludes

After over a year of travel, we have learned that we are not at our most productive when in the bed of a truck. We have excellent brainstorming sessions around campfires. We enjoy lively debates on ad placements while hiking. But when the time comes to sit down and code, it helps to be indoors. We aren’t that picky: a public library or coffee shop will do. But, generally, we need to take a break from traveling to get a few weeks in of good, honest coding.

With our latest coding sprint complete, however, it’s back to the road we go. We haven’t changed much: we are still sleeping in the back of the truck. Just this time, we are headed north along the coast.

Even when we are heads down in the middle of a coding sprint, the world keeps on turning. The Trailhead Fire popped up the night before we left our friends in the foothills. While we were relaxing after a final day of coding interspersed with packing, acrid smoke began to fill the house. Fortunately, the fire was still a good distance from us but the winds had just shifted and were blowing the smoke towards us. Sleep was delayed as we rushed to close up the house. The responsibility fell upon us to prevent any more smoke from winding its way into the house. The following hour was spent reading up on the Trailhead Fire, an as yet uncontrolled fire that had already consumed 300 acres.

At one point in fighting the fire yesterday, fire helicopters had to be grounded when a drone was spotted near the fire. In a remote region such as this, there is limited access for firefighters.  A lot of the offensive is conducted from the air. Drones endanger these aircraft. The time spent searching for the drone’s operator was time that could have been spent bringing the fire under control.

Currently, there are 12 fires raging in California. It’s important to remember how dry trees, brush, and grasses can be. Campers should be doubly sure to douse their campfires and keep an eye out for any fire dangers.