Praying for rain?

Who in their right mind prays for rain on an outdoor vacation? Well, just outside of Ft St John Yukon (or was it British Columbia?), we were getting gas and ran into some folks traveling to Fairbanks. They were from Minnesota! Imagine that. They told us that the Alaskan Highway was closed due to a forest fire. It was Friday and the road was scheduled to remain closed until Monday morning. Man, sitting for nearly 3 days in Ft St John with nothing to do. So, pray for rain! Just as we got to the town, at about 2:00pm local time, the road reopened. No delay. We continued to drive but got stopped with a line of cars about 5 miles out of town. No what. But a pilot car showed up with a line following from the opposite direction. We then were led through. The fire had burned one side of the road and there were firefighters actually running hoses into the woods and pumping water from pools next to the highway. Two helicopters were dipping in the river, the smoke got thick. Kim said "are we supposed to be on this road?" I was beginning to wonder myself. Visibility was down to around 500 to 800 feet. But the pilot car should know what was ok so we continued and made it through.