Coming down from work at DMU last night it was clear that it rained hard in the valley. Up at the job site we have a sweeping panorama out over the valley. We could see it was raining but it didn't touch us. That one of the strange things about the retreat valley. Weather blows in suddenly or misses it completely. Anyway, the washes were running hard on Apache Pass. My Honda CRV galantly crosses the smaller ones. Then we came to a what looked like a small river. There was a poor dead cow pushed up onto the far side of the flow. The sky was apacalyptic orange. A mushroom cloud rose through the colors. Strange beams of light pierced large disc shaped clouds. On one horizon golden chaos, on the other, blue blackness. Lightening crossed the sky like skeleton branches or struck at the ground like plasma bolts. It was intense. As we sat on the side of the road huge four by four diesel trucks went by. Suddenly these trucks didn't seem over sized. They went though a fast flowing foot or more of water. We waited at our unpassable stream until a small two door covertable from the early nineties pulled up to the river, hesitated, and crossed with no problems. We crossed and almost reached home until we reached a wash out that was running with what looked like 2 feet of angry water. Mud covered the road where water had receeded. If no one came to grate this road it could dissappear back into the desert in a couple of wet monsoon seasons. Long story short, we made it home. Fairly hard commute from DMU
