wash out...

... is what we found when we got back to town. Left Chattanooga around noon on Friday, riding in the pounding rain most of the way to Atlanta, about a two hour drive, when the weather finally cleared up. And itty bitty glimpses of blue showing through patchy clouds gave hope that we might eventuallyget past the steady slap of windshield wipers. It was actually sunny by the time we made a quick stop in Decatur and got back on the road - happy to see blue and sunshine.

Uneventful drive down I-85, and back into middle GA. Just out of curiosity I asked to drive down to the 'west coast' to see how high the Chattahoochee River really is from all the rains of recent days. The Riverwalk is flooded, to the point that the water is about a foot or eighteen inches below the glass fixtures on the light poles along the edge of the walkway. So at least fifteen feet above normal.

I asked to drive across the river, so we went over into Alabama, and back, across two different bridges, just looking at all the voluminous water everywhere, far out of the bounds of the riverbank. There were places along the highway north of Atlanta it was gushing out of culverts under the road, and since it all runs downhill, headed towards the Gulf of Mexico, gravity is still in effect. It will eventually all return to where it started in the oceans.

When we turned on to our street, finally getting home about 6, after driving for 8 of the past twenty four hours: it is barricaded. Cannot get a half mile down the street to go home. So we went around the long way - at least five miles out of the routine route. I was so curious, wondering how early I will need to leave home in the morning to get to work at 6:00, I moseyed down the street to see if it is still flooded. And yes, it is. Not as badly as some years ago, when it flooded the shed and tractor of the neighbor who lived closest to the creek that runs under the road. But looks far too deep to traverse.

And now - with my computer plugged in, I see a notice from the Police Department saying the Road is Missing. Washed Out. Gone. So, yes, I will have to get up and going the morning, and leave early enough to take the circuitous route around both elbows to get to work on time.