Rain, hail and hardware stores

I almost forgot to share the hardware store with you!  On one of our trips back to the hotel, we might have missed a turn....or maybe we were taking a shortcut.  I'm not sure I remember which, but I know we stumbled upon the coolest Ace Hardware there is.  As we approached, we thought the store was actually inside the rail car, but as we passed, we could see there were SEVERAL rail cars out front...

with the store in a regular building at the back of the lot.  Darned camera, I click it, but it just doesn't react fast enough to capture the actual photo I want. The line of rail cars is just out of frame, to the right.  Sorry about that.

Along the same shortcut, or mis-route, whichever, we saw the prettiest tall hardwoods.  As you know, we don't ever see forests like these down in FL or Texas.

The roads were winding and narrow, and it was like being in the jungle.

Of course, we got to admire another Tonka Toy.  I swear, one day, I'm gonna get to that big dirt bowl out west where they teach you how to operate these things, and let you dig a hole and fill it in.

But, somewhere along the way, the bottom fell out.  Oh my. It poured and poured and poured.  And then there was the hail.  When the visibility got so poor and the water started pooling on the roads, we pulled off into someone's driveway.  We figured they weren't going to come all the way out in the pouring rain and hail to ask us to leave....and they didn't.

After 10 minutes or so, the rain let up enough for us to get back on the road, but we were concerned about the low-lying areas and the many creeks we would have to cross.  So, trusty Google maps came out and I found a way back to the main road.  What I didn't know was that it was a right-turn only intersection, and that was the opposite direction from the one I really wished to go.  But, since we couldn't hop the barricade, we turned right, and went the wrong direction.  I hate when that happens.  We managed to make it through the lane closures, and several intersections, where the power was out, therefore, the lights didn't work, and we were almost all the way back where we had started from, when we found a spot we could turn around.  We did, in fact turn, and headed back to the hotel, staying pretty much on the main roads.  When we finally ventured off, onto the back roads, we found lots of standing water.  We were very glad we had waited it out.

Obviously, we got back to the hotel safe and relatively sound, but I'll be glad to get back to flatter land.  Not to mention, drier weather!  Thanks for riding along with us!