Ian Granger, Rosamond Smith and their son Matthew live in Limbo. Also known as St. Albert.

Our brother’s family has hunkered down in St. Albert while they await word on when they can return to their home in Fort McMurray.

Wildfires were threatening the oil boom town when Rosamond went out to pick up a few things and do some errands on the morning of Tuesday, May 3. Matthew was in class at Westwood Collegiate while Ian was working at Suncor.

Rosamond returned home about 11 a.m. and noticed the blaze was getting awfully close. It looked almost apocalyptic as she looked down their street, Cornwall Drive. She snapped a picture and posted it on Facebook remarking on how close it was.

The radio said some subdivisions had been ordered to evacuate. Although there was no outright alert for their area, she decided to start packing up some stuff and prepare to hit the road.

Matthew came home from school and began throwing things in bags. Then the order for the whole town to get the heck out of Dodge. Rosamond and Matthew did just that. They didn’t panic and just did what they knew they had to do. But the exit was not as fast as they wanted. Cars crawled along Highway 63 while the fires burned around the city. Fortunately, their gas tank had recently been filled because the lineups were long – very long – at the gas stations heading out of town and on the way to Edmonton.

During the trip their phones were going nuts as numerous family and friends frantically sent worried texts and emails. Matthew tried to answer as many taking dictation from his mother as she drove. But there were so many it was an impossible task.

Finally they reached St. Albert where some old friends opened their doors for them. But Ian was still stuck at Suncor and had to bunk down in the company’s work camp quarters. They didn’t let him out until Friday when he was allowed to join an escorted convoy of about 600 vehicles, with a cop car every 50 vehicles to make sure everybody obeyed the rules, as they moved through Fort McMurray. Fortunately, Rosamond had thought to pack a bag for Ian so he had changes of clothes when he rejoined his family in St. A.

Matthew is in Grade 12 and they had to await word on what was happening for marks before any further decisions could be made. Turns out they won’t have to write diploma exams and their class marks will count toward their final grade. But they did have to get back in the classroom. All schools in the province were required to accept any Fort McMurray students who came calling. (Despite the uncertainty, Matthew fully expects everyone will be back in Fort Mac for all the fun graduation stuff for the Grade 12s before the end of the school year.)

So they headed to the nearest high school with French immersion. The principal and its administrators couldn’t have been better say mother and son. That meant they needed something a bit more permanent, so to speak. They’ve rented out some space in a home in St. Albert and set up a base there awaiting word about when they can go home.

They don’t know what’s up with their house in Fort Mac. Although they believe it’s still standing, they fully expect there could be some water damage. Their lot is right across from a green belt, so they think there’s a good chance some preventative measures might have been taken by firefighters on their street to avoid having the fire attack their neighbourhood.

However, they won’t find out if that’s the case until they’re allowed out of limbo.

Limbo is where Clive and I found them. Believe it or not the fire had a side benefit. It meant we could get a good visit in with them.

While there had been some tentative plans to come down to Edmonton to visit with us as we passed through, we actually ended up spending a lot of time with them.

We arrived in St. Albert last Thursday afternoon to bunk down at Clive’s brother-in-law’s place. Brian Menegozzo wasn’t home but son Brant let us in. We contacted Rosamond and the family was over for a nice visit in a jiffy. We got reacquainted for about 90 minutes. Then on Friday – our rest day – we went over to their temporary digs for lunch and munched on delicious barbecued bison and beef burgers.

Having two cars available came in handy for Clive and I, especially me. I’d suffered the trip’s first flat on Thursday and in the process of fixing it we discovered a loose spoke. We thought we’d bought the right replacement at a St. Albert bike shop aptly named Cranky’s.

After much frustration as Clive tried to repair it Friday we found out it was too short. When we returned to pick up what we assumed was a fixed wheel the shop advised us they didn’t have the right spoke.

They were gracious enough, however, to send us to another shop that could custom cut spokes for us, Revolution Cycle. But it was quite a bit further south in Edmonton. Ian was kind enough to drive us through Friday afternoon rush hour traffic to get what we needed, at half the cost of the ones I had bought the day before. (I did get a refund.)

They also came over to the Menegozzo’s home for dinner to meet the other side of Clive’s family. Brian’s wife, Ruth, commented how she had been introduced to Rosamond at Bryce and Breanna’s wedding but they’d never hooked up to talk. Well that was remedied on Friday night and the talk flowed freely between families.

Ian’s limbo took another twist. He left early because he had a 7:30 plane to catch the next morning. Suncor was picking up a bunch of employees in one of its planes and flying them back to the oilfields.

So, for now, they are in limbo in two places.

Kilometre count

Grant: Day 12 (Edson to Entwhistle) 101 km Total (9 days riding): 1,116 km

Clive: Day 9 (Edson to Entwhistle) 101 km Total (7 days riding): 856 km

Grant: Day 13 (Entwistle to St. Albert) 108 km Total: 1,224 km

Clive: Day 10 (Entwhistle to St. Albert) 108 km Total: 997 km

Grant: Day 15 (St. Albert to Vegreville) 133 km: Total: 1,357 km

Clive: Day 12 (St. Albert to Vegreville) 133 km: Total: 1,130 km