Today's Misadventure...

The more I think about our day today, the less real it seems, the more freaked out I get and the more grateful I become all at the same time.

We were returning home today from my parents' house. The shlep northward has become old hat to us. We can guess our ETA based on the landmarks that we pass. We have also become well acquainted with the times that we should and should not try to make it through the ATL with the rest of the whole cotton-pickin world. (after 9am and before 3pm, respectively)

We knew we were pushing it...but today is Wednesday after all and maybe people won't be in such a hurry to get home on a Wednesday and we will be in the HOV lane...yadda, yadda, yadda.

Turns out traffic is not what we should have been concerned about.
Nope.
Flooding.
We should have been concerned about flooding...

Okay...so it was raining-ish. Here and there. Pockets of rain. or maybe buckets of rain in parts. But we can deal with a little rain...Kevin is from Washington State after all. Except I was driving.

Still. It's raining. I am dealing. We are moving right along.
Traffic begins to slow a bit. I tell Chloe: 'look over there at the wall under the underpass...it looks like a waterfall!' And then, 'yeah, looks like a river over here in the shoulder.'

The traffic in front of me is merging to the right.
In my mind, 'oh, the water must be too high on the left shoulder, we will all need to move over to the right.'

No problem. Turning signal on. Creep. Wave. Creep. Wave. Merging right slowly but surely.

Jacked up pick up trucks barrel somewhat carefully through the deep water...some SUVs just make it through with the water now up to their tale pipes. A semi truck in front of us sludges his way through the high water to reveal that not only are the left 2 lanes filling with water, the right 3 lanes are quickly following suit. We are seriously watching the water rise before our eyes. A car tries to make it across and is abandoned my 3 people in the middle of the newly forming lake in the heart of I 75/85.

I am freaking out a little inside. I can hear water splashing against the side of our van as trucks attempt to pass. Vehicles all around us are lame ducks wondering what the heck to do.

A woman pulls her car head on in front of all the cars from an on ramp and attempts to turn around. I look her straight in the eye (because the front of her car is maybe 3 feet from the front of my car) and mouth, "what are you doing?!?!?!"

At this point, I am watching the driver and passengers of the abandoned car attempt to walk to the side of the road. The water was easily up to their knees and at one point one of the girls was up to her armpits in flood water. I start to vision Kevin and I carrying Chloe and Eli and our DOG through the flood waters. How on EARTH are we going to keep our dog with us in this mess?!?!?!? More internal freaking out...trying to appear calm for Chloe who is giving us a play by play and announcing every few seconds, "I am getting scared." Eli, bless his heart, slept through the entire misadventure. He will remember this story only second hand.

Meanwhile, crazy-turn-around-lady is in fact turning around in front of me. If I could see her now, I would apologize and tell her she is a genius. Because, not only did she turn that car around, she drove right up the on ramp in the wrong direction, but to higher/drier ground.

BRILLIANT! I inch her direction. Pause for a split second for Kevin to take this photo and follow her all the way up that ramp in the wrong direction.

We wove through the city and eventually found our way back to I85...farther north...where it was dry.

I am sure that this day will be burned into Chloe's memory for the rest of her life. I know it will be mine. I thought it was scary. Kevin thought it was cool. We are all thankful to have gotten out of that mess just in the nick of time.