Day 338 (Flood)

To say that today was interesting would be a severe understatement. It started out rather tame; we went to the Huntington Art Museum. They don't allow you to take pictures there, but I was able to get some pictures of their conservatory. They had some pretty cool plants there.

For lunch, we went to Hillbilly Hot Dogs. This place was a riot! Anyone in the Tri-State area absolutely MUST, MUST, MUST pay it a visit! We went to the original one in Lesage. There are two other locations, but the original has the most outrageous decor, including two old school buses for seating!

Jamie Oliver says Hillbilly Hot Dogs is "A" okay!

We went home for a while, then went to a Chinese buffet for dinner. After that, we went to JC Penny's to "walk off the calories." It started to rain really hard, and when the store closed, a lot of the patrons were taking shelter from the rain, staring out into the parking lot in disbelief.

Little did we know, this was only the beginning of our problems. We finally gave up on waiting for the rain to subside and made a run for the car. The rain continued to pour during the 20 minute car ride back. There's a little creek that runs alongside the rural road leading up to my aunt and uncle's house. This little fella' had swollen many times it's normal size and was now flooding the road. It hadn't been raining all that long, so my uncle thought we would be able to get back to the house. As you can probably guess, water got up into the car and it died. We stayed in the car for a few minutes, trying to figure out what to do, but the water was rising fast, and when water started seeping to the cab, we decided we needed to get out of the car as fast as possible.

Luckily, the car had stalled out across the street from one of their neighbor's homes, and we waded through the road-turned-creek towards her car port. My Uncle knocked on her door and she joined us outside as we watched helplessly as the water level continued to rise. My uncle had left the emergency lights blinking and another neighbor showed up to see what had happened. The seven of us watched from the car port as the water level kept getting higher and higher, the water eventually sweeping over the hood of the car.

After about an hour, the rain lessened and the water level dropped. We went out to the car to see the damage. The emergency lights were still blinking, but the water had ripped up a 2' x 2' section of asphalt which was now leaning against the grill of the car, along with some logs and various other forms of debris. Unfortunately, it was too dark for me to get any pictures of any of this.

Another neighbor drove by and help us push the car off the road. He left to get gas with the intention of coming back to tow my uncle's car back to their house. By the time he did get back, we decided it would be best just to push the car onto the neighbor's driveway and leave it there for the night. So, in the dark, in the pouring rain, my uncle, my dad, the two guys from the truck and I heaved and shoved and pushed that car up onto the driveway. Then the guys gave us a ride back to my uncle's house in the back of their truck. I would never wish for this to happen again or to happen to anyone, but damn if it might not end up being the most exciting part of this trip.

We are all showered and dried now and the rain is still coming down. According to the guys in the truck, the rain has washed out a decent chunk of the road, so we are stuck here until it gets fixed, but my uncle assures me this will happen first thing in the morning.

Tune in tomorrow to see what happens next on "Charles & Nora's Trip Across America!"

PICTURE OF THE DAY: Some of you will get this. Some of you won't.