My Aunt Sarah and Uncle David arrived in Denver Friday night. My aunt was recovering from altitude sickness. We walked to wahoo's in the rain. So much for the drought. As soon as they showed up so did the rain.
Which leads me to the adventure...Saturday we went to Roxborough and did a hike.
On the way home we were talking about what to do for dinner. Initially we were thinking to walk somewhere. But then we decided to go to jason's deli because my uncle wanted a salad, it has a salad bar, and I'd never been there. I found the closest jason's deli, which was on union street in Lakewood, and got directions.
As we had been hiking a storm was moving in. As the afternoon wore on the sky got darker and darker. By the time we were ready to go to dinner a torrential downpour had started as well as a pretty spectacular display of lightning.
No worries, I thought, running to the car. I can drive in this easily. But as we drove down my street we saw manhole covers that had popped off. Water was bursting out of them like a street water feature or something.
I got on the highway and water from other cars was splashing on my windshield, momentarily blinding me. And traffic was terrible. I turned off on 6th Avenue and there was standing water everywhere. Cop cars were blocking some of the exit ramps because they were flooded. My aunt saw a car submerged in the water off one of the exit ramps. I started thinking maybe going out in the storm was a bad idea.
We finally got to our exit (I was looking at east bound 6th avenue, which had stopped traffic, thinking "that's going to suck on the way home"). Feeling relieved I told my aunt and uncle "so it's only two blocks from here!"
EXCEPT the fucking street was barricaded by cop cars. All traffic was being routed down a side street. Since Lakewood is a suburb I never go there and had no idea where we were going. Hoping the designers of Lakewood might have at least made some of the streets on a grid, I started making a bunch of turns figuring we'd get to jason's deli from the other side of union. Meanwhile my uncle was putting the address in my gps.
We got to union street finally and that was when the gps came to life. We were driving past a gas station and the gps said "you have reached your destination!" But it was lying. I drove behind and around the gas station. No jason's deli. I drove around the other side of union street. No deli.
So I called them and asked where their location was in reference to the gas station. They were a block away. And I also asked if they had power because a lot of the buildings on union street didn't have power. They did so I got back on union street and drove a block.
There was a cop car blocking the road AGAIN and we couldn't see the deli. I pulled an illegal u-turn, drove down an alley behind a bunch of office buildings, drove through another parking lot and FINALLY there was the deli.
We parked catty corner to the deli and got out in the still driving rain. We crossed the street and arrived to some employees who were very happy to see us. It was virtually empty inside the deli. They seemed a little surprised, actually, that we had made it with the blocked roads.
As we sat down with our salads I watched the cop car drive away. Really? After everything we had been through and walking through the rain to get there NOW the cop car decides to leave????
The rain finally stopped, we finished our salads, and walked back to the car...EXCEPT that the sprinkler system around the sidewalk we had to use kicked on after the rain and was spraying water all over the sidewalk. My uncle and I chose to walk on the street but my aunt ran through the sprinklers with her umbrella.
Earlier in the day my uncle had asked why I didn't get a newspaper to find out about local news. I replied "local news is stupid". So we had to laugh when we got back to my car because farther away in the parking lot was a channel 9 news truck broadcasting.
Is a blocked road that exciting if you aren't trying to get to Jason's Deli????
