When I was a kid, I got caught in a storm that brought floods. It rained to point where it had reached saturation point and flooded everything. I could hear the Rio Salado from miles away. Lightning where all around me that night flashing and I could see the after math of the flood hours before. Debris had washed up high above my head in trees and I could make out the water line in the draws and canyons, one of many tributaries to the Salado watershed. The flood waters had reached over the flood banks and its width was over two football field’s length. The flood had swallowed up the Salado, water spread a forth of a mile beyond the banks in both direction. It was a monster to watch in the dark with lightning flashing giving you a few second glimpses. I could the rocks a rolling beneath the water. I rode in close to see and the horse was in awe of the site as I was. I might have witness a five hundred or a thousand year storm in the dark. That was the same night I slept in a one horse trailer with a rattle snake. Every time I moved to get comfortable, it would rattle in protest. I fell asleep like a baby and I didn’t hear anything the rest of the night. The next morning I rode back out to the Rio Salado and the loam that it left behind nearly blind me. The sun’s reflection was strong when it hit the glassy wet soil. Loam soil is the mud stuff that curls up like a Doritos Chip when it dries and I used to love walking on them barefoot. Salt bushes have a sage color and that morning it looked earthy .
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 20:11:30 +0000