So today I was supposed to go to my parents house relax and grill out with them. Instead as I arrive my Dad tells me that my Uncle needs to get his boat out of Pewaukee Lake. Today the lake was coming over the beach and into the street in front of my Uncle’s condo. The lake was so high that their pier was just floating on the top of the waves. Well it wouldn’t be fair to call this a pier anymore, it was just the frame of the pier that was riding the waves and slowly shaking apart, the deck boards were mostly washed away already. My uncle was afraid to go out onto the pier, his boat is in the last slip about 50 feet out, so I put on a swimsuit and headed down to his boat. After I got to his boat I couldn’t get the motor to turn over, so he crawled along the frame to check it out. His battery was completely dead. So we go back to the shore and my Dad and Uncle try to figure out how to get a new battery to the boat. They are thinking up some scheme involving a neighbors kayak and ropes, which wouldn’t have been that bad if there weren’t still boats in the way along the pier and the wind was making whitecaps moving quickly to the shore. My Dad is always good for a joke so he suggested we push start it, I told him if he can get it to the top of a hill, I’ll pop the clutch. Finally after thinking about my first tightrope walk to the boat, I tell my uncle to get the battery and we’ll put it in a backpack and I’ll walk it across. My mom whispers to me, “don’t do anything stupid that could kill you” and my dad says we shouldn’t do this cause if I fell over with a 50 lbs battery in a backpack I’d go straight to the bottom. My dad is NOT a swimmer, in fact he drowned and had to be pulled off the bottom of the pool in high school. I felt that I could keep my balance and if I did fall in, I would be able to get the backpack off and get back to the surface in time. But at the last minute, my Mom convinces me to only put the pack on one shoulder so it would be easier to get off if I fell. The problem with that was it really threw off my balance so after about 2 steps like that I threw it over both shoulders. I walk to the end of the pier again, my uncle follows crawling and we get the battery changed. While we rode to the launch to get the boat out we saw a lot of debris in the lake and many piers were already destroyed from the waves. I would be surprised if his pier is still there tomorrow the way is was already shaking apart from the waves. My Uncle then took us all out for a nice dinner afterwards as a Thank You. He said he didn’t know how they would have gotten a new battery out there without me just taking it. So I missed a grill out with my Dad, but instead got to spend a more memorable day together during a once in a lifetime flood. But this is only part 1 of the flood fun, more after the pics.

My Uncle trying to walk on the pier and me behind with the backpack. The wood on the other side of the sandbags was a pier from somewhere else that is sitting where there should be grass.

And this is my Uncle after he decided not to try to walk it. Sorry for the quality my Mom decided to snap these quick with her phone.

Flood Fun Part 2

I knew there were going to be problems getting back to Madison as I was driving to my parents house. Westbound I-94 was closed and at one point the Eastbound side had water coming right up over the shoulder. The State DoT was redirecting traffic down to Beloit then up to Madison. This would have been at least an hour out of my way, so I thought I would be able to find some country road that wasn’t effected by the flooding. Unfortunately almost every road was shutdown that crossed the Rock River. I called one of my co-workers that lives in that area and he told me there was one way he knew that was open yesterday and he would direct me to that. One of the first directions Chris gave me was cut off by a “Road Closed/Bridge Out” sign. But he stayed on the phone and navigated me around this down some other back roads. Then he says “alright the next mile will be the make or break point.” I come over a hill and see road barricades guiding you to the opposite side of the road. I don’t see any cars coming so I get over and had to drive on the opposite shoulder as the water was completely taking up the road. As of tonight the Rock River is 15 ft above normal with it projected to top out at 15.5 ft on Tues. So after getting across the Rock River it was just a matter of Chris giving me directions back to the Interstate at the first on-ramp that was open. It is eerie being on the Interstate with no other cars going the same direction as you, but I made it home safe and have a day full of memories. Again I promise not to neglect this blog and will try to post more often. Here is a pic of the flood stages and heights of the Rock River, taken from the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service.