A Watery Ride

I'm home (from Zachary). Yesterday afternoon amid the pouring rain, Carrie and I loaded up all our possessions from the hotel room and headed home. I plugged in the GPS and let it guide me back. It was really an experiment with that GPS to see what routes it chose for the return trip.

Sailing through Baton Rouge, we crossed the huge bridge which got us across the Mississippi and soon were crossing the basin. The speed limit across the basin is 60 miles an hour and strickly enforced. After the 100 car pile up several years ago on the basin, the speed limit was lowered and enforced so I set my cruise control and watch all those people with Texas plates on their cars pass me by. I wait to see which one is going to be tagged by the friendly State Police officer.

We crossed the basin without incident. The GPS instructed me to exit at the Cecelia/Henderson exit just a mile up the road. We did.

The first thing we see at that exit is a semi truck broken down and being hooked up to a huge tow truck. The street was blocked and traffic was directed by a local law enforcement officer. He waved us through and we continued on in the rain. A few miles down the road, a blockade was set up and the traffic wasn't allowed to travel through. The water was covering the road and many of the houses had water creeping up to their porches.

I'm beginning to rethink this decision to get off interstate. Will the roads ahead be under water? How many detours and where will they take me?

The next street, the water covered the road and the 4 wheel drives were creeping through. I watched closely to judge the water depth. Have I mentioned I was driving the roadster? Not much clearance in that little car. I took the middle of the road and forced the cars on the other end to wait until I passed through. I could barely make out the bright yellow striping in the center and that's where I drove, straddling it until I got to the other side.

I didn't encounter another flooded road but there was lots of water standing on each side of the highway. When I got home I reset that GPS to take me on the "Quickest route"  instead of the "Shortest route". No more back roads for me!

Today has been another day filled with rain, soggy shoes and wet umbrellas. I made a few grocery store stops and headed home to get into some warm dry clothes.

Inside is the best place to be today and Carrie is of course keeping me company.

It's lunch time for the girl so I'm off to put together her favorite meal. Ramen Noodles. By the time she gets to college she will be totally burned out on this old standby of the college crowd.

I'm done!