Ocala’s On Fire

The drive to Palatka from where I live in Lakeland is about two hours.  Most of which is on highway nineteen, which runs through the Ocala National Forest.  As I drive through the forest, I typically pay little attention to the small Smokey the Bear signs that read. “Today’s Fire Hazard”.  They are a little hard to catch at eighty-five miles per hour.  Which is by the way the understood speed limit through the forest.  At least that’s what I told an officer ”slash” park ranger a few weeks ago who did not agree to the tune of $208.50.  Anyway, there is a rotating sign under that which either reads low, moderate or HIGH.  HIGH is in all caps and red letters.  Very dramatic.  However, on my jaunt through the forest this week I noticed the signs were a bit hard to make out.  There seemed to be smoke evrywhere and it smelled like it does on the first day of winter when you turn your heat on for the first time in eight months.  I knew that this was not a good sign for Smokey.  I soon passed trees on fire alongside the road and fire trucks racing passed me in the other lane.  Apparently about four hundred acres of the Ocala National Forest is ablaze.  So, Ranger Joe and the rest of the gand choose to close down highway nineteen.  A maze of detours spun me into a demension of rage that I had never experienced in all my life as well as making the usual two hour trip into a four and a half hour trip.  Needless to say, next time I am driving through the beloved forest, which doubles as a wildlife preserve, it is very likely that there will be another forest fire that starts not as a result of lighting, but as the result of a burning Smokey the Bear fire awareness sign.  What can I say? I’m angry.