I'll start with one by Wheatie! Wheatie, whats the story here?
"[SIZE=14pt]Hey, uhhh, just how deep *is* that water running?[/SIZE]"
My exact words...how did you know?
The guy in the truck was smiling in the picture cuz he just asked me, "if we were gonna give it a try." :lol: He had just turned around his truck with the chillins in the back down at the bottom of the hill :blink: (Notice the higher water encroaching more and more on the right side of the road!) If that had crested the road, he and his family would have been part of a very sad story.
Murph and I were on our way from Bonne Terre, MO to *******, AR halloween weekend for the 1st running of the AAD (500 miles of twisties). We had this route all planned using Smitty's backroads assuming good weather and all. We were on this county road for miles with a river encroaching more and more on the right side. We were on some roller coaster hills at speed and had just crested the hill, when HHHHOOOOLLLY CCCRRRAAAPPP!!!...put on the binders in a hurry with wet leaves and stuff in the rain. I was just glad 'ol murph was being vigilant as well!
After talking to the local, we decided not to wade through the loud, muddy, roaring river. If you look in the background, you can see the small bridge and the small river channel being spanned by it. We got ourselves tuned around on this slick hilly road. No sooner had we done that, when wooosh!!! another PU truck crested the hill and put on the brakes...right through where this photo was taken. :huh: We would have been dead on the scene...as fast as he was going.
As it was, we were about to turn off this little county road, just had to cross this river for our turn about a 1/2 mile ahead. You can see the emergency workers in the roadway on the opposite side of the bridge. They hadn't gotten to this side yet. Quite frankly, I think they positioned themselves poorly over there...I think they should have positioned themselves at the crest so traffic would see them more quickly.
As it was we had to back track about 10 miles or so to get a more major road to cross this river. When we did cross it, the water was just about to the bottom of the bridge beams.
Six inches of rain in 24 hours works wonders on these little streams and rivers. This photo was taken on a Friday by murph. Saturday, in Arkansas, there was not a cloud in the sky.
So that's the story of that picture...one of many pictures and stories from this past year.
Not a tough crossing as we didn't cross there. A little less sight distance and the story may never have gotten out.