Day 4 – Lake Charles – Stir crazy

Today was something of a contrast to the sunshine of yesterday. So there we were all morning, taking it in turns to pace up and down the hotel room muttering, “We’re not supposed to still be here”! The road outside the hotel was alternately a river, a road and then a river again. Every time the rain seemed to be slackening off there’d be another massive clap of thunder and down it would come again. The tv weather channel (between adverts featuring wildly grinning oldsters expressing their joy at the cheapness of their life assurance or the efficacy of their new medication) upped the projected size of the expected hailstones from golf balls to tennis balls. If it got to bowling balls I was planning to head for the basement. We were also getting flash flood and tornado warnings at regular intervals on the TV. By some strange alchemy I was also getting the warnings flash up on my phone screen unbidden, presumably sent automatically by the phone company to anyone in this area. It was obvious that we weren’t going to get anywhere on the bikes today. 

Apart from the sheer mind-numbing boredom of being cooped up in a hotel with nothing to do, there was an alarming lack of food and drink available. While I’m reasonably confident I could get through 24 hours without food, I’m determined not to go that long without a beer or two. There were apparently no bars within walking distance, even if we had been willing to walk through torrential rain and even taxis seemed to be struggling to get through because some of the roads had closed. This is a worry for tomorrow as, although the storm should have moved on by then, we don’t know what damage has been left behind and whether the roads will be open. Another day of this and we’ll probably be reduced to cannibalism. I’ve already caught Mark watching me and licking his lips when he thinks I’m not looking.

Eventually a taxi did manage to get through to us to take us downtown. However we got about 500 metres from the hotel and realised that there was no way we could get any further. We had only just managed to get under a bridge where the floodwater was about a metre deep and it was looking worse up ahead. The taxi driver dropped us at an Exxon station by a small convenience store adjoining an even smaller Jamaican takeaway food shop. So at least food and drink were taken care of, although the realisation that getting back may be an issue began to hit home given that there were cars submerged up to their roofs just the other side of the gas station

After we’d stocked up on beer, wine and unhealthy snacks from the convenience store we ate some very agreeable jerk chicken at the takeaway (who very kindly allowed us to eat in and drink our own beer) and took stock of our predicament. The rain was still coming down and the situation had moved beyond mere inconvenience to what might be termed natural disaster territory. Big pickup trucks and school buses were getting through the floodwaters without too much trouble but cars were struggling, with a few breaking down by the side of the road and others seeking refuge in the gas station – all of which led us to question how we were going to get back. The hotel was only a short walk up the road but between us and it flowed what appeared to be several million gallons of floodwater. At that point the rain had stopped and the waters were subsiding somewhat and we debated whether to wait to see if the route back became passable on foot or whether to just wade through it there and then. As there was further rain predicted, it was a trade-off between getting wet feet or taking the risk of wet-everything if the rain started again. Ever the pessimist, I decided to head back – taking my shoes off and paddling through the muddy water. Once I’d got back to the hotel, prised off the leeches and washed the raw sewage off my feet, I was feeling fairly smug, only to see Mark arrive half an hour later relatively dry-shod and unrained-on!

So that’s been our day really. Not quite what we’d planned when we arrived here yesterday. It’s just started raining heavily again (8.30pm). Fortunately, so long as it’s dry and sunny as predicted for tomorrow, it shouldn’t have messed up the schedule too much although we’ve had to make some adjustments. We’re now planning to make it to Galveston in Texas and stay over there tomorrow night by the sea.