Bah … a little water never hurt anyone

CNN: Louisiana flooding: Nearly 5,000 homes damaged

FOX: Widespread flooding from severe storms plagues Louisiana, Mississippi

Jackson Newspaper: Flood waters collapse southern Mississippi roads

Yup, a little water never hurt anyone, but this wasn’t a little water…

Our entire journey has been either wetter and colder, or hotter and dryer, than normal. Well, now we’re getting hotter and wetter … much wetter. We’ve driven into a flood zone!!!

We had left Brazos Park on our way to the start of the Natchez Trace in Natchez Mississippi. But to get there we had to travel over 700 km (partly to avoid driving through Houston … I’d had enough of that insanity already 🙂 ). We knew this meant a few motel nights, but what we didn’t count on was the weather.

I guess we should have clued in given the steady stream of traffic travelling in the opposite direction, but it was my lead day, and I wasn’t going to let these little annoying hints deter me from getting away from Houston and making some distance. So we made our detour around the big city, and stopped for the first night in Huntsville TX.

The motel was typically nondescript, but the nearby Mexican restaurant served an excellent margarita, so Ann was happy (very, very happy 😉 ). The next morning we awoke to questionable weather forecasts, but still a burning desire to get further east. So off we went, INTO THE MAW.

Actually, we were having a wonderful ride. The storm clouds that had been threatening all day never did open up on us, even though we drove through areas that had been drenched with rain not 1/2 hour earlier. But our luck ran out on highway 63 when we ran straight into a road block just before a bridge over the Sabine River near Burkville.

“No, No… you can’t go this way,” says one of the two highway workers in a thick Louisiana accent. “Why,” says I? “Bridge is awash just up ahead. You gotta go this way…” At that he rattles off a long string of directions and highway numbers. When I look up rather desperately he pauses and asks: “You know where all that is?” “Nope,” says I rather feebly. “I don’t know where any of that is … I hardly know where I am now!”

He shakes his head as if he’s looking at a poor, soon-to-be-drowned kitten. And then he takes out a written list of the directions and highway numbers. I study it while other cars are flying past us, heading down the detour. I finally nod and say I’ve got it … but I don’t really got it.

Oh hell … I’ve never let my lack of grasping all the details ever stop me from doing silly things in the past, and damn if I’m going to start being wise now 😉 So off we head, with me in the lead once again.

As we drive along the detour in search of a non-washed out bridge, we pass increasing signs of the seriousness of the flood; fields inundated, houses and buildings with water over the windows ledges, water lapping at the edges of smaller bridges, and the Toledo Bend spillway that was a torrential flow of broiling frothy whitewater.

Suffice it to say that due to my near-symbiotic and deep connection with Mother Nature, I managed to lead us through the disaster zone, and safely to our next motel in Leesville, Louisiana. We found a warm bed at what, for us, is an upscale motel (Super 8), and settled in for a couple of nights so we could let the storm move on, and the waters start to drain. We even did a little laundry, and of course drank a few IPAs at the local steakhouse.

By the third day we decided to press on towards Natchez. Although the rains have stopped, the rivers are still cresting. It’s going to keep going up for another day or so, but nothing appears to be blocking our path now, so on we go.

We crossed the Red River and the mighty Mississippi and are now in Mississippi. Tonight is hopefully our last motel night for a while. We’re tucked into another fancy motel (Days Inn) which proudly boasts about its GENUINE SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY. And it sure feels true. They not only offer a warm breakfast feature “the best darn grits around!” But we were also invited to a hot dinner meal of beans, rice, corn bread and collard greens. Yum!

Tomorrow we head into the Natchez Trace. Hope we can find non-soggy ground to pitch our tent.