Fun in a Puddle

We had heavy rain all day today.  The water was running down our street like a river, as it always does during periods of heavy rain.  So I decided that a walk in the rain would be fun and maybe I could find a photo for the blog. I put on my hiking boots and my biggest raincoat and got a large umbrella for the walk.  I was not disappointed when I got to Shore Road!  In heavy rains there is usually something like 12 to 18 inches of water on the main road.  The first car that came by surprised me.  Most cars see all the water and maybe come to a stop and then decide to proceed slowly.  Not these cars!  The speed limit is 30 MPH but no one goes that slow.  These SUV's and trucks were hitting the water at 30 MPH or faster!  I couldn't believe it!

In the "old days" if you made this much of a splash by driving through water this deep usually the water that splashed up inside the engine compartment would short out the distributor and the engine would quit right in the middle of the puddle!  I guess these new electronic ignitions are well sealed against water and none of these cars and trucks seemed to be affected.  I couldn't believe it!  One truck saw the water and actually accelerated!  I thought they were driving in an unsafe fashion.  One thing that can happen to tires when there is maybe half an inch of water on the road, is that the tires can "hydroplane" like a speedboat and suddenly the driver can't steer at all because the tires at high speeds are not in contact with the road, they are "water skiing" on the water on the road.  In this case, a car could drift across the road and have a collision with an oncoming car.  But everyone was lucky today.

This car wasn't speeding really but he sure was going through some deep water as he turned up Laurel Avenue.  I did have a fun time watching and shooting this, and I am glad I can give you a bit of excitement on the blog for a change.