Saturday, May 31, 2008

Ames Mess

It normally takes me 35 minutes to get home from work (Des Moines to Ames), give or take a minute or two, depending on the road conditions, the flow of traffic, the mood I am in, the number of idiots on the road, and the speed that I am driving. The other day, Friday to be exact, it took me 80 minutes! That’s enough time for me to drive to Des Moines and back and have a piƱa colada in between, if I drank that is. But really, those record setting times are expected in the dead of winter when snow and ice demand longer driving times. The odd thing about it was that it was a sunny, nearly cloudless, 80° day in May, which was a nice surprise after a week or so of clouds and rain.

Due to all the rain we have had and the amount of rain that has fallen north of Ames, I was not completely surprised to see a digital orange sign above I-35 read that Hwy. 30 was closed west of I-35 due to flooding.

For the Ames natives or those familiar with Ames, you should be able to follow, for others, bear with me for the time being or follow by way of Google Maps.

Actually, after reading this to Shantel, she told me that people wouldn’t care and I needed to shorten my description. Needless to say, it took me 40 minutes to get from 13th St. to Wessex, due to the result of closed roads, car-packed streets, and a flooded town. (If you would like the long, drown-out description, let me know and I will post it. Beware that it is pretty long and dry)

After eating supper that Shantel had ready, I suggested that we go for a walk/bike ride/run to check out the flooding.

The top picture is taken from S 4th St. looking towards the Intramural softball and footfall fields. The middle pictures is Target on Duff Ave. Can anyone guess where the last one is taken?


5 comments:

Kristen said...

is that Duff Ave?

I can't believe how much water is there! What a crazy mess! Hey, too bad it didn't flood during school! You could've gotten some days off! :)

Heath said...

I'm perplexed as to how it's flooded north of 5th St but not south of it closer to the creek.
Crazy amount of water. How's the city coping without a Target? And when did Walmart move to S Duff? That turned out to be a good idea. ;)

Be careful. Don't get tetanus. Shower in DEET (I've heard the girls dig it).

Andrew said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Andrew said...

Target was only closed yesterday. It was reopened today, but Walmart on Duff was closed today.

The Walmart on Duff opened in March, but the other one on the north side is still open.

Anonymous said...

That's what I like to see... a closed Wal-Mart.

Crazy flooding. Nice pic of south duff :)

-T