The Ultimate Desert Adventure!  Rained Out and Caged In
                                                                                                   by Geri Rodin
 

Monsoon, to an X-Pennsylvanian brings to mind India; NOT Arizona and I “used” to smile when I saw signs along the highways “FLOOD AREA”.   Driving home Wednesday, July14, 1999 at 4PM along State Route 51, to Scottsdale Road and on to Cave Creek, I certainly had the ultimate desert experience.   At times rain came down so hard, I could only see the red of the brake lights on the pickup in front of me.

Plowing through dips in the road filled with 1 to 3 feet of water, I was sure I could make it if I kept my boating experience in mind.  Keeping close behind the  4 x 4 “off road” pickup ahead of me who was breaking the water, and pushing it aside, I drove in the trough of water, like the wake behind a boat. It allowed me to continue on my way home.  There were several spots on Scottsdale Road from Bell to Carefree Highway, where the traffic actually stopped, then one car from each way would slowly proceed through the huge ponds of muddy water.   I am sure that the pickup drive thought that I must have been attached to his bumper!  I stuck with him like crazy glue.  Several times the on-coming traffic completely drenched my car and windshield with muddy water so thick I felt like I was inside a chocolate milk shake.

I got home ahead of the 5PM traffic jams to watch with amazement the wonderful helicopter rescue of another pickup driver, and was sure that my adventure was over.

The next morning at 5:45AM seeing that it was still raining, I put my umbrella, raincoat, and a good pair of tennis shoes in my car (yes, I was a Girl Scout).  Waving good bye to my husband, I backed out of the drive way, and started down our cul-de-sac only to find not only a rushing torrent of mud, sand, water and huge boulders, but part of the road was missing! Seeing that there was no escaping the sea of muddy water, I backed up to our garage, and surprised Syd by returning home.  I was sure that within an hour I could be on my way, I waited until 7AM, and started out again, only to find not only higher, faster water, but a fellow who’s pickup was stuck in the sand and water, having collided with a huge boulder that had been submerged.  Again, I backed up and returned to our garage.

By 7:30 AM the rain had stopped, and a road crew of 8 men, a front-end loader, and a back hoe were hard at work trying to open at least one lane to let people out of their homes!  It took them until 9 AM to remove enough sand, boulders and debris to make it passable.  Again, I was on my way, wondering how the usual 1 hour ride would be today. It seems that our Cave Creek, Carefree area got much more rain during the night and early morning than Phoenix, and while I encountered many dips filled with muddy, sandy water, the road crews were really terrific with their fast clean up.

I think that the most important thing that I learned over this two day Monsoon period, was that water moving with such force could move huge boulders, and cover them.  It is really important to bear that in mind when entering a flooded area.  I would like to thank my unknown pickup driver who cleared the way for me to make it home that day.  Without him, I am sure that I could have been stranded in my “regular” car for hours.