Flash flood?

 8:33 am - Monday - February 26th - Newell House - Wittmann, AZ - 58° F, humidity 76%, wind 3 mph out of the northeast.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were dining at Manatee Island Grill near Stuart, FL....one of my favorite pictures of TLE and I......

Sunday morning around 11 am we bid adieu to Tom and Claire after 3 days of conversation, which was sometimes intense/deep, sometimes light, but always interesting.  Our hearts were full, and we really didn't want to say our 'until next times', but life continues to roll, so we did.

By 12 pm TLE and I were in the VW to begin a 4 hour drive to Wittmann, AZ to visit good friends Tom and Darlene.  You may recall our last visit here was in the Spring of 2021 when I replaced the shocks, and air bags on our 1982 Newell Classic.  Since we have Hunter to take over the rental operation Sunday we were able to leave early enough to get to Wittmann by 5 pm, and before sunset....we, of course, lost an hour to the Mountain Time Zone.

We took a different route than we have in the past, mainly because of our location on the east side of the Salton Sea.  There is no direct route to I-10, so the fastest route had us taking HWY-111 west to Mecca, which is 20 miles in the opposite direction from where we wanted to go, but it was the fastest route available by 25 minutes.  We then turned up a highway called Box Canyon Road which took up 20 miles back east where we connected with I-10 eastbound....

Box Canyon Road photos courtesy TLE

....the drive up Box Canyon Road was really quite scenic, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We made a rest stop, after two hours of driving, at the Flying 'J' truck stop in Ehrenberg, AZ (just over the Colorado River which is the border between California and Arizona) to use their bathrooms, and just walk around to stretch our legs.  From there we we continued on I-10 eastbound to the US-60 exit toward Wickenburg, then south to Wittmann, arriving at Tom and Darlene's around 5:10 pm....without incident....nice!

We were just in time for dinner, so we hauled our bags into the guest room, and sat down to a great dinner, and conversation.  Tom was at a board meeting of a local business when we arrived, but he was home by 8:20 pm, and he and I talked until pretty late before we both headed for slumberland.

Around 2:30 am I heard Tom and Wade (a friend visiting from Alberta, Canada) talking excitedly in the hallway outside our room.  I got up, and as I approached the door to our room noticed the carpet was very squishy, and WET!  Wait, what?  Apparently the rubber flapper in the water tank of the toilet had failed when last flushed, and the water had been running into the toilet for a couple of hours flooding the hallway outside or room, the bathroom (of course), the foyer, and the the long hallway leading to the living room and kitchen.  There was at least an inch of water covering the tile flooring in these areas, and the water was quickly seeping into the carpeted areas bordering both hallways, and the dining room.  I would estimate the water in the long hallway was about 1 inch deep....that is a lot of water!

Wade vacuuming up water in the long hallway

Needless to say, we all sprang into action to get rid of all the water.  Tom brought a 15 gallon Shop Vac to begin vacuuming up the water, Darlene pulled out her carpet shampooing machine, and I used a large squeegee to push the water down the hallway, through the foyer, and over the threshold of the front door onto the front porch.  TLE and I then began mopping up what water was left with old towels.  Finally, around 5 am we had done as much as we could do, and went back to bed....what a night!

As I sit here typing this morning (Monday) I am still a little groggy, and wishing I hadn't lost those 2.5 hours of sleep, but it is what it is.  At least everything is drying out, and we can walk around, and I'm enjoying a wonderful cup of coffee.

Thanks for stopping by!