Irene Adventure

OK, don’t get mad, this isn’t a 100 mile adventure, but it is a wild and crazy 10 miler and it was an ADVENTURE! The morning the storm hit, I had to get to RT 1 in Guilford, to KC’s Pub (my restaurant), to turn on a generator. My wife wouldn’t let me go during the night when the storm hit, and since we hadn’t lost power yet, I agreed. However, by 7am I wanted go. We had moved all of the food into the beer cooler and I new it would be OK for a while, but now I was getting nervous. At 8am I said screw it and told my wife I was headed out. She reluctantly came with me. Up one road, trees blocked the way, up another the water was too deep, the final way out was also blocked by trees and water. We had to turn around and go back home; we couldn’t get off the Head. I told Deb, ahh the hell with it, I’ll run to the Pub! She said I was crazy, I got dressed, txt Jerry, Cathi and Forrest. Jerry and Cathi both said I was crazy (crazy from Ultra runners? hmmm). I ran into town, having to detour several times, simply because of trees down, poles and wires down (lying in water is not a good thing) and just plain flooding. I finally ended up on Rt 1 which really wasn’t bad; it didn’t even look like a storm was raging. At the Pub, I was able to start the generator and survey any damage (none I am happy to report). The return trip took me through the Green area (what a mess) and an attempt to go down water street. When the water got above my knees, I had to turn around and push up through River Street (which it was). Course now I has the wind at my back, smooth sailing. I tried to go down Mulberry Point and got as far as the causeway; which was washed out. The town had a front end loader trying to make a road through for the ambulance. Somebody had broken a hip on the other side and was cut off. I offered to help with a gurney, but they were bringing in a high wheeled dune buggy to make the crossing. I ran on top of what was left of the sea wall, waded some and made it to the other side. When I finally reached home, the ordeal had taken close to three hours (including time spent at the Pub). Not a long trail race, but certainly an adventure that will be on my “tell the grandkids” list! BTW, no pictures, I was having a hard enough time fighting the wind and sideways rain. Sorry folks!