TD-5

What was left of Tropical Depression #5 came barrelling right through New Orleans early this morning, bringing some truly impressive thunder, lightning and torrential rain. I guess it was before 5 am when the really heavy rain started, and by the time it finally let up there was a fair amount of street flooding in the usual places. Feeling kind of desperate for a ride, considering I'd missed both Monday and Wednesday, I decided to take the rain bike out for a quick 20 miles before work. I left around 7 am, but which time the rain had eased up considerably and there was just a light drizzle falling. I put on the rain jacket and headed down the street. A few blocks later I could see that Carrollton Ave. was flooded, so I turned at Short Street. The only problem was that the intersection there was about three feet deep, so for a little while I was up to my water bottle in water.

When I got to Montecello, just a block from the levee, traffic on River Road was practically at a standstill because of flooding on either side of the railroad tracks. Once again I dove into the deep water, riding the last block of Monticello in about two feet of water, which BTW is like riding on a trainer with the resistance set to high. Once I got up onto the levee, though, I was high and dry and had the entire thing to myself. I took a couple of photos and then got in eight or ten easy miles with my rain jacket flapping in the wind before turning around. By the time I got back the flooding was already subsiding as the pumps started to make some headway on the rain. Even so, I had one more stretch of deep water to circumnavigate (I rode on the sidewalk for a block or so) before getting back home where I immediately cleaned and lubed the chain. I'll have to re-grease the old classic Campi hubs and bottom bracket tonight since I'm quite sure that water got into them while they were submerged.

I just signed up for this weekend's Mt. Driskill Omnium in Ruston, about five hours away, which features two very hilly road races for which I'm feeling quite ill-prepared and possibly over-geared. I have to bring some of the LAMBRA equipment up there anyway. Mt. Driskill is the highest point in Louisiana, towering some 535 feet (yes, I said "feet") above sea level. I hope the altitude doesn't get me! Actually, the steepness of the climbs up there is definitely something to be worried about.