Wow. What an astounding rainstorm this has been. I remember seeing something like this back in the 80s when a friend and I ventured down to Shelby Park, but honestly, this storm trumps even that.
On our trip to the park during the 1980s flood, the water was up to the roofs of food buildings, the ball diamonds were under 4 feet of water, and you could see fish flopping over the road as water poured back out into the river. How stupid were we? Very. I recall climbing one of the ball diamond fences then venturing across the “under water creek” to make it over to our first love of the park, the metal playset. The trip across the creek didn’t go so well as the ground just dropped out from beneath us for several feet. Swimming in full clothing…not a good idea, but we made it. We were fortunate not to have crossed closer to the river where the suction of the water feeding into the river would have doomed us for sure. How did our adventurous trip end? With my parents driving up one of the accessible roads and me with 2 weeks of grounding. Yes the grounding was unfortunate, but at least now I have the memories. ; )
So how am I experiencing this round of flooding? The family and I got out last night to hit a restaurant. I’m a strategic sort of guy, so a time like this says to me “people will stay at home, eat anywhere you want without a wait.” However, my plan didn’t go as…well, planned. Our first restaurant of choice was Pei Wei up in Maryland Farms Brentwood, to which we found the interstate closed. We headed over towards Franklin road where the traffic was bad. Next we tried Logan’s where we found there weren’t many people, but they only had 5 servers…45 minute wait. With a hungry wife at 7:00…you don’t wait. Next up, Chili’s, which had apparently been flooded. They were closed with chairs on the tables and lots of trash washed up against the building. Then we headed over to Sportsman’s Grille. Closed. Water problems in the back. So where did we end up? Swanky’s. The service was great as usual and the food delicious…a chicken/steak taco salad.
So how did our house fare? During the last rainstorm, my basement made it through without a problem. However, this storm has overpowered the drainage system on our property and so I was left with a growing puddle in the basement. On the positive side, it gave me an excuse to go buy a new higher capacity wet dry vac complete with drainage pump. : )
No trip like this is complete without a few pictures.
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