Stranded...

Saturday was a very, very, very rainy day in the Bluegrass of Kentucky area. We were inside all day long. That little red smoker was on the move again. This day it was on the front porch so it could be under cover while Claude smoked us a roast for dinner. It was nice to know it was on the front porch because we put it there instead of it making its way there on its own.

I did get some computer work done in the morning. We ate dinner and watched the Kentucky Derby on the big screen TV in the basement. It's always fun to watch the Derby and all those ladies hats. One of our local newscasters had on a pick hat that looked like it could have easily fit in Alice in Wonderland. I contemplated putting on a hat to watch the Derby just to get in the mood and feel of a Kentucky lady at the Derby. But they were upstairs and I was in the basement so it didn't happen.

The evening was spent listening to the Eagles in concert in Australia. Just love hearing Timothy sing 'Love Will Keep Us Alive' and Don Henly sing 'Dirty Laundry'. I honestly don't think any living, breathing human could listen to 'Dirty Laundry' and not try to dance...no matter how bad you were at dancing. Just gotta move with that song.

Sunday we got up at 7am to get ready for Claude's early morning meetings before Church. I did not look out our bedroom window at the creek (I usually do this for some reason each morning). I knew we had lots of lightening and thunder during the night.

We climbed in my car at 8am to head to Church. There is one entrance into our development. It has a bridge that goes over Eagle Creek. As Claude and I approached the bridge we were amazed that the creek was way over its bounds and was right under the bottom of the bridge. Now I was wishing I had looked out our bedroom window at the creek before we left. I told Claude I wished I had done that. He said he did and the creek didn't look that bad from our home. We have only seen the creek get that close under the bridge one other time. When it does that the water coming over the dam a bit upstream from the bridge is not even visible.

We headed on to Church. As we went down I-75 we noticed a lake on the right side and we commented how it would not take a lot more rain for that to flood onto I-75 making traffic on that busy Interstate difficult, if not impossible. There is not normally even a stream visible at this location.

When we got to the Church I left Claude and headed to the nursing home to visit mom before our meetings.  Mom was back in her bed after breakfast. Her bedroom window was open letting in a little bit of a breeze. She was asleep but I felt it was a little cool so I got the blanket Katelyn made her and covered her up with it to be sure she was warm. 

Of course that woke mom up. She was a little talkative. She would dose off and then wake and mumble a few things. She was happy having that little blanket over her. I believe she loved the bright colors.  One of the CNA's came in to give mom her morning meds. When mom saw her she got an enormous grin on her face. The CNA said they were talking of closing part of Hwy. 25 into Lexington because of the standing and running water over it.

I headed back to the Church and Pocohontas (one of the road to the Church) had a place that was now flooded on it. There was water bubbling from the ground in front of one of the neighborhood homes. I told Papa about it when he got to Church. He reminded me that sometimes where there is this much rain the water finds a grate in the ditch and will bubble up like that. By the end of Church the priesthood was warned not to take Highway 25 back to their homes in Lexington. It was definitely closed. I learned from a friend that the north end of Highway 25 that heads to Sadieville had a church along the road that people could not even get to their building because of the flooding.

Claude and I were to have gone to Andie's on our way to the temple on Friday afternoon. We ended up not having time for that on Friday so had changed our visit until Sunday afternoon. We were going to have dinner with the Marx family and then return home Sunday evening. So after Church we headed toward LaGrange.

As we drove down I-64 the traffic was being diverted at one of the Frankfort exits. There are a couple of places around Frankfort where the Interstate was cut through the little mountain. You have a rock face on either side of the road. Coming out of the layers of limestone rock that make up this mountain were streams and, often, gushing waters. As we drove through our lanes going west Claude commented, "If feel like I'm Moses crossing the Red Sea." Since the highway is divided here we couldn't tell that the lanes going East were completely shut down. Only when we returned home could we tell that a car must have gone off the side of the cliff and into the trees on the other side of the mountain. This is why the traffice was diverted into Frankfort. Later we found another car that slide into the railing. It was a nasty drive and Claude just took his time. We determined not to go down the country roads to LaGrange in case they were flooded and stayed with the I-64, the Snyder, and I-71 to get to the Marx home.

The kids were so happy to see Pa and Ma. Claude picked up Bailey when she finished her nap and I thought she was never going to quit hugging him. She does have a thing for her Pa. Hayden was sharing his litany of facts about the solar systems when I got a call from Judy, our next door neighbor, on my cell phone.

Judy asked where we were. I told her we were visiting Andie and Michael in LaGrange. She said, "Stay there. Don't try to come home. The bridge is completely covered in water and we are afraid the road is washing away on either side."

My first concern was for Pete. He and Nancy live on the other side of Judy. Pete is on oxygen 24/7 and I was very concerned that he have a sufficient supply to get through whatever had to happen to get us a road back up if this one was washed away. Judy told me all the neighbors in Eagle Bend were accounted for. The only ones not land-locked by this flooding were Claude and me and Ray, our neighbor across the street. He manages the Golden Corral restaurant in Georgetown and had been away when the water got so high. All the neighbors were fine. Pete had enough oxygen on hand to get by for a good while.

We determined we would spend the night with the Marx family and see if we could get to our home on Monday. This met with great approval by the mini-Marx's. Andie and Michael got an unexpected date night. Claude and I got a bit more time for hugs and snuggles than we figured we would have.

I called Papa and warned him we were not going to be home that night. I had to tell him I might not be able to take him for his birthday lunch on Monday. Papa was ready to drive out and check the roads for us. I told him not to do that since the neighbors were going to call us regularly and give us updates.

I called home and checked the voice machine for messages. There were two for the Mayor of Sadieville. Claude kicked into Mayor mode and did all the calls necessary to be sure citizens were okay. They declared a state of emergency for all of Scott County. They shut down several of the country roads outside of Sadieville. One of them, Jerry, our police department, put a yellow caution tape across. Some idiot, and I do mean idiot, cut the tape to drive their car over. I do not understand this when it puts you in a position to be swept away and then you expect some other poor soul to risk life and limb to rescue you. Even if you are headed to give someone else aid, you should realize you can't help them if you are floating down stream with your life in danger. Amazing what stupid things some people do.

Once we were sure that all was under control we settled into playing and enjoying the kids. Andie and Michael headed out for their date. We put Hayden and Bailey to bed. I was reading the last paragraph of Hayden's book when my cell phone rang. It was Judy to tell me the water receded enough to get across the bridge. Ray was home now. Only Claude and I were out. Jerry was there to check the bridge with a few of the men in our neighborhood. We could definitely get home on Monday.

Monday we determined to watch Bailey so that Andie could help at Hayden's school. His teacher, Miss Amanda, is due to have her baby any day now. The kids and their moms had a baby shower for Miss Amanda yesterday. The kids made cards for her and they decorated bibs for the baby. Our staying and keeping Bailey left Andie free to help decorate and run the party.

Bailey is just a fun little strong-willed creature. She wanted to wear Hayden's old horse costume from Halloween a couple of years ago. She played outside for a long time in this cute little costume. She is so tall it is short on her but she loves wearing it to play in anyway. It is like a capri horse costume. Here is a picture of her in the back yard heading to the new playset. I didn't take my camera so these are all from my cell phone.

In the picture on the right Bailey is playing with a worm. The poor worms and roly poly bugs need to take cover when this little girl is out.  Bailey carried this poor worm all around with her. She found it in the front yard where the picture was taken. Then she took it to the back yard. She placed it on a swing so it could watch her ride the glider. Then she carried it as she climbed the ladder to the top of the little house part of the playset. Then it took a turn going down the slide. It was a dear friend to her all morning. Amazing.

It did make me think of Katelyn though. When she was a little one about, 3 years old (Bailey's age), Nissa and Katelyn lived with us. Claude would go on business trips. When he would leave he would ask Katelyn what she wanted him to bring her when he returned. Without fail Katelyn would say, "Erms Blampa. I want Erms." Katelyn loved gummy worms and that is what she was asking for. Many a gummy worm was consumed by our little darlin' after Blampa got home from his trips.

I was sharing with Nissa this morning on Instant Messaging how short a time ago it seems it was that Claude would be packing for a trip or unpacking after getting home, Katelyn would be in the room making sure everything was going as it should. Claude would pick her up and put her in the hanging bag and zip her inside. She would laugh and really enjoyed being in his luggage.

But...I digress...At one point Bailey wanted to play on the monkey bar part of the playset. Since my surgery last year I am not supposed to hold her up for that long. I reminded Bailey Gramma could not do that but Grampa could. Like a flash she raced across the back yard and requisitioned Claude to stop watching old sitcoms on TV and help her on the monkey bars.

Bailey found his shoes and I gathered his socks and we headed him out the door.

We had fun finishing playing outside with Pa. Then we headed back inside for a snack, coloring and Play-doh action.

Andie and Hayden got home and Claude and I gathered things and headed for home. I called Papa and we determined to meet him at his favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch on our way to Sadieville. We had a wonderful meal. I told the server it was Papa's 82nd birthday. He asked Papa if he wanted ice cream. Papa said, "That would be alright." They brought Papa a tortillia made into a bowl like you would have a taco salad in. It was full of ice cream and topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Papa was in heaven. I was very happy we got to be with Papa on his birthday.

Then we headed to the Scott County Emergency Management office. Part of the stuff Claude called about Sunday afternoon was the declaring of Sadieville and all of Scott County a disaster to get assistance from the county for helping people and roads. By the end of the day the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky was declared a disaster and our governor was requesting Pres. Obama call it a federal disaster to open those lines of money for assistance.

Elkhorn Creek that flows near the restaurant we ate at was way over its bounds still. It was up to the buildings. The parking lot in front of the stores near it was completely flooded still. The parking lot at the end of the restaurant where we ate was also flooded. As we drove down Highway 25 to the Scott County EMA the park across from Cardome Center was completely under water. Clearly there was still a lot of water not under control yet. This morning I heard that the Kentucky River would not crest until today.

Claude signed the documents needed to officially have the state of emergency. Then we headed home. Our creek was very full but within its bounds when we drove over it.

Our neighbor that called us in LaGrange has a 4 year old son. They also purchased a playset like the one Andie and Michael got this year. Dan spent about a week putting it together after work. They set it up on the flat part of their property as close to where the hill starts to go up as possible. They anchored it but did not set it in concrete. It had only been up maybe 2 weeks. The flood waters got to the top beam of this playset where the swings attach to that beam. The waters lifted it and floated it down stream toward the dam and the bridge. Ironically it stayed on the land side as it flowed and Judy and Dan were hoping it would float past the dam and bridge. It made it past the dam staying on the land side but then it was swept into the creek after the dam. We are told it made an awful sound as it crashed into the bridge and broke into a lot of little pieces. Makes one feel for them. Claude and Michael spent 2 days with both of them working to get the Marx family playset together. There was great empathy on their parts for what they had lost.

It was an eventful couple of days. We needed water. Just didn't expect to get it all at once. I would have loved to be home and taken pictures of it. Dan was nice enough to post some on his Facebook page for us to look at while we were in LaGrange. We still have our road although some of the dirt around the base of the bridge will need to be re-worked. It was another evidence of the wonderful neighborhood in which we live. They all checked on each other and made sure we were all in a safe place. It is very comforting to live with such good people.