Home From Arizona Before Downpour Return From Dallas

Left Arizona Monday morning, stayed in Alamogordo Monday night, made it to Wichita Falls early Tuesday evening.

The route to Texas from Alamogordo was via Ruidoso.

Ruidoso is a village in the mountains of New Mexico.

I had long heard of Ruidoso, and was sort of assuming it was going to be a mountain ski resort type place, and sort of unique, like Taos. Maybe I missed the main show as I drove through Ruidoso. I saw no chair lifts waiting for snow such as I've seen in other ski zones.

Nonetheless, Ruidoso and the drive over those particular mountains was scenic. The route north via 70 skirted the northwest fringe of Roswell, missing the main town. I had been at Roswell years ago, with my main memory being attacked by ironclad beetles falling from the sky at sunset at a Burger King. Locals had warned of the impending danger, but I ignored the warnings until an ironclad beetle landed on my head. And then my Whopper.

The drive back from Arizona was pretty much drama free, unlike the drive to Arizona, the return saw zero rain.

Unlike today's wet return from DFW.

I have known for a month that the day after I returned from Arizona I would be getting up early to drive to the Dallas/Fort Worth mess. I mean Metroplex. I thought this would be vexing, instead a third day of driving turned out to be a breeze. In more ways than one.

Heading out of DFW an hour after noon, heading northwest towards Wichita Falls, prior to reaching Decatur, what some might characterize as ALL HELL broke loose. The sky suddenly turned dark, like the lights had been turned off. Lightning began flashing, but not in bolts. Thunder boomed.

And then rain. In downpour mode. So much rain that driving slowed to a crawl.

The crawl lasted for about 10 miles. Rain lasted all the way to Wichita Falls, but has now abated, a couple hours after reaching my current location. I am waiting for the flooded landscape to drain enough that I can make it to my vehicle to retrieve that which I left there in my rush to dodge drops and reach shelter.

Tomorrow will be my first 'normal' day in weeks. I'm sort of looking forward to it. I hope sufficient drying occurs that I can go on a bike ride.

And below is video I YouTubed, whilst I was in the midst of that aforementioned traffic slowing downpour...