Happy New Year!

This New Year's Eve was definitely memorable this year. Late, the night before, the napa river and all it's tributaries crested at several feet above the flood mark. The result was a heck of a lot of water up and down the valley. It had been raining all week, but we had no clue how bad it was until we tried to get Bob and Nancy to the airport Saturday morning. We got to the bottom of the mountain and the intersection of Deerpark road and the Silverado Trail was covered in 2 feet of water. I got brave and drove through that one. The next road was Highway 29. It had 3 ft. and the water was moving. Cars were being washed down the road. I decided the Expidition was not that tough and turned back. We spent the next 6 hours trying to find an open road to the airport in Sacramento. We were just minutes too late on most of them. I even tried a couple of little back roads to sneak past the blockaids. No such luck. One little scary road had several washed out places. I crossed 2 of them and chickened out on the third. We turned back again. Finally I had to go to work that night. I anguished while Heather took her parents to the airport that night. They had found 1 open road. It was open, but still treacherous. Needless to say, a lot of prayers were offered. Thankfully she was able to drop them off at a hotel that night and make it back home before all the drunk drivers came out from their parties. They say this place floods every 10 years. A big reason is because the environmentalists won't let them clean out the river bed. Something about endangered shrimp. I am just glad we are high up on the mountain. A lot of damage was done to Napa and some to Saint Helena. Fortunately no damage was done to the church buildings. The movie theater got a little soggy though. Guess we'll stay home and watch DVD's.