Daunted, But Not Defeated

Those of you on Facebook already know about today.  Those who have not seen it there, today was a day like no other for us, and possibly like no other for me since I was a child traveling through North Dakota with my family through a gully washer of a storm on the way to Jamestown.  Only this one was worse, much worse.

We left Lindsay and Jeremy Reynolds' home in Baton Rouge this morning at about 9:30.  After making two stops, one for gas and the other to get trailer tire pressure checked, we set out on the short fifty-two mile trip back to Lafayette.  We were returning to the KOA in Lafayette where we stayed last Thursday on our way east.  We figured an hour's drive and we would be able to set up the trailer in the campground in time for a long nap before a swamp and bayou tour by boat at 5:00pm.  I had made reservations for the tour by phone just as were leaving Baton Rouge.

Not for a minute did we think it would take us four-and-one-half hours to travel the distance.  But I should backtrack just a bit to explain that the rain started last night, on Sunday about midnight.  Then came the lightening and thunder, sometimes so bright and loud that I jumped in my bed in the Casita.  I was getting to bed late as it was, after finishing our laundry and the previous blog post.

Neither Duffy nor I were very awake come this morning for lack of sleep amidst all Mother Nature's drama around us.  When we left the home of our friends, it was sprinkling.  When we left the gas station, rain was falling in giant capsful.  As we hit I-10 heading west, the daylight skies lit up even more with enormous bolts of lightening all over the sky, sheet lightening that seemed to less dramatically illuminate the entire sky, and all followed by thunderous drum rolls reaching deafening crescendos.  Duffy was driving.  I know if it had been me at the wheel, I would have been so tense, a massage would have been called for at the end of the day.  With crazy Louisiana drivers passing us by on the freeway awash with storm waters, Duffy kept an even pace at a reasonable speed.  Louisiana drivers are much worse than any I have seen anywhere, save maybe New York and New Jersey.  At times visibility was down to just barely being able to see a taillight in front of us.  Much of the time, for a good two-thirds of the drive, traffic moved at a crawl, alternating between a dead standstill and creeping along.  We turned on a book on CD to while away the time, since we were not going anywhere fast.  However, there were times that the storm drowned out the voice of the reader and we had to pause the story until the thunder and rain subsided.

A little over halfway to Lafayette, it was clear that we needed to get off the freeway.  We pulled out at the Atchafalaya Swamp Visitor's Center and sat in the car for an hour or more.  (This area experienced flooding as well, but we were on high ground.)  Since our plan to stop at a restaurant for breakfast on the way had fallen through, I zipped back to the trailer for our travel beverage & soup warmer that plugs into the accessory port in the car, Starbucks Via coffee packets, yogurt and granola to give us some sustenance.  Good idea, coffee water was nice and hot, but we must have blown a fuse in the car, because after that neither the GPS turned on when plugged in to the same port as the beverage warmer, nor did my cell phone charge when plugged in to another port.  So once we started out again, we had no working GPS (to help us find the location of the swamp tour) and no cell phones, since batteries in both Duffy's and mine were discharged.  Fine kettle of fish.

When the rain abated, we started out again.  It did not take long for us to catch up to the heavy rains and thunder storm again or the slow-moving traffic.  Inch, inch, inch.  So much for the nap.  Inch, inch, inch.  Do we go to the KOA or directly to the swamp tour, if only we knew where that was?  I had gotten the address over the phone from Cajun Country Swamp Tours to put into the GPS, but now we were dead in the water (no pun intended).  Inch, inch, inch.  As we approached Lafayette, driving past the stalled traffic backed up for miles in the right lane, I looked to the right, or north, to see a blockade at the first intersection, closing travel up Highway 49 to towns and neighborhoods north of Lafayette.  Later, when we reached the KOA, we learned that 12-18 inches of rain had fallen in that direction in the past six hours or less and homes had flooded, people were stranded.  We could believe it, but were surprised anyway at the quantity of rainfall that fell. 

At this point, we considered ourselves very fortunate, even blessed, to have made the drive successfully through the raging storm.  Reports I read just before writing this blog indicated that the amount of rainfall was unexpected and record breaking; the storm was worse than anything, even hurricanes, some people had seen in over forty years.  NO, WE DID NOT BRING THE RAIN!!!

Nevertheless, forgoing our naps, we set out immediately after disconnecting the trailer to find the site of the swamp tour (still not fully understanding implications of the force of the storm), and a bite to eat, since we still had not stopped at a restaurant.  We had just over an hour before we needed to be at the boat launch someplace near Breaux Bridge, just east of Lafayette.  Now, that's not much of a clue to help find the location.  And given the number of bodies of water in the area, it could have been anywhere.  I had the address, but no GPS.  We stopped numbers of times to ask directions, but no one, NO ONE, knew where this place was.  I was starting to get a bad feeling about following through with the tour.  Our instructions were to arrive fifteen minutes before departure, and when we finally found the boat launch, only after asking the Breaux Bridge Police Department when three or four other folks could not help, we were three minutes early and no one was there.  Not much of a surprise.  The woman I spoke with earlier when making reservations said he (the tour guide) was often late, so just to wait for the white pick-up with red lettering to drive up.  Well, we waited.  Twenty minutes or more.  We had pretty much decided not to go anyway, feeling like if anything more would go wrong, it would, and being in an alligator-infested, bloated swamp wasn't the way we would choose to end it all.  Should I have been reassured by the promise of a discount on the tour rate if I lost a finger or two to an alligator?  (I think the woman was kidding...at least I hope so).

We loped back to the KOA and fell into bed for the, by now, requisite nap.  No matter that it was 6:30pm going on 7:00.  Oh yes, and we had plugged in our cell phones to the power source in the trailer before setting out on our scavenger hunt for the swamp tour.  I had a message:  the swamp tour had been canceled. 

Will we try again tomorrow?  As much as we want to go on a tour of the Louisiana bayous and swamps, prudence cautions us not to.  Flash flooding is forecast for tomorrow in the surrounding area, so we are thinking about hunkering down and staying put.  If we do go exploring, it will be with advice from the weather service and those who experience this kind of weather on a regular basis, and will probably be to an indoor visitors center or museum.  With all the water, swamplands, bayous, bays, rivers, and lakes in Louisiana, and as flat as the land is, with potential for flooding, we think we can wait until another trip to explore the wild outdoors.

Check back for the next posting to learn what we decide to do.  Until next time...
Pam