Don’t you know that flying into a volcanic ash cloud doesn’t sound like a great idea? Whereas flying into a usual cloud may at times even be a fun (if it is not a big CB though), getting into a volcano eruption plume warrants dealing with a serious trouble.
It looked incredulous, - that kind of telex, received all of a sudden in the middle of an uneventful flight, - warning you to watch the volcano ash cloud somewhere in the middle of North America continent, but it may be as true as it may seem to be not..
Well, it was certainly not a case where you would consider ‘taking chances’ as an option, - ‘based on mere skepticism and disbelief’ 
- so, we simply plotted position of the plume trail on a map display using information with coordinates from ACARS message, and, approaching that line (shown on a picture by a sequence of ‘VA-points’), asked ATC for descent down to FL 320. SIGMET advised the bottom of ash cloud laying at 35 thousand feet.
I believe, on that day (July, 19) it was the very first appearance of volcano ash cloud over mid-continent this summer. Amazing, they appeared a few more times after, and in many cases the most busy routes over Western/Central Canada, as well as over some part of the US, were affected.
Shortly after, we found out a ‘culprit’ that has somewhat disrupted smooth operation of aviation over the continent - a volcano located in a chain of Aleutian Islands.
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