So kind of like Insha'Allah, there's a saying in the south: "Lord willin' and the creek don't rise." Today the creek rose.

We're currently on vacation at the beach with some friends, and as we got up this morning it was raining. So we chose a place for lunch, and got the kids ready (all four of them!) to head out.

We were leading the way. Turning out of the parking lot, it looked like this:


This was the view from the driver's perspective with the car as close to the street as possible. So now comes the question, what do you do? I inched out, and couldn't see anything, but there were no cars coming so I was OK. What's your other option? Back up six feet? Not much use:


Back up another six feet? Still no good:


Or back up about twenty feet? You can barely peek out:


It turns out our friends were not as lucky as we were: they waited, backed up until they could see through the trucks at least a little bit, and watched. No cars. So they pulled out. Turns out you can't see a Camaro very well when there are large trucks lined up along the street. The Camaro ended up hitting our friends' SUV.

They're all OK. The driver of the Camaro had an injured leg and was taken to the hospital. Both cars were towed - the Camaro was damaged pretty badly, our friends' car appeared drivable but it's being looked at to tell for sure. But now all eight of us are here with one car. The creek rose, indeed. Plans change. Life happens.

Everyone we've talked to here at the place we're staying have said they've had similar trouble about pulling out. We asked the police officer to get them to move their cars -- these were all guys parked there while working at a nearby construction site. The officer said he'd talk to the foreman, but I don't believe he did. Then when the cop pulled into the parking lot and tried to pull out, he almost got hit. (Funny, would he have written a ticket to himself for failure to yield?) Those cars were still there until about 4:30pm.

What would you do in a similar situation? We now know what we'll do when we pull out again -- someone will stand by the street and let us know when it's clear, and then we'll pull out, and wait for that person to get back in the car.

I also know what I'll be doing tomorrow if those trucks are parked in the same spot - calling the cops.

Labels: life