Saturday, February 25, 2017 630 am, 46 degrees
As I walk through Fair Oaks Village streets on my way to the Fair Oaks Bridge, I hear the chickens’ good morning songs. It feels as if I am the single float in a parade and the chickens are the crowd along the streets cheering for me along the route. I hear their chants 50 yards away, hidden in trees. I leave my car and was startled to hear from a chicken standing alongside a bush a few feet to my left.
Dawn has broken, the sun has yet to rise over distant trees in this heavily clouded sky of deep blues and grays. Thankfully, no rain today!!! I hear the little bird that used to greet me on the bridge each morning hidden in a tree as I walk past.
A single cyclist greets me as I walk toward the bridge. No one else has arrived yet. The American River still flooded and moving swiftly. Release of water from the Folsom Dam created a river that was a raging torrent, so flooded that the boat launch ramp and the parking lot beyond were under five feet of water only two weeks ago. All that I could see was water, muddy, green water, whirlpools and white caps racing downstream with such speed, I was dizzy watching it. The bicycle/pedestrian bridge west of the Sunrise Blvd. bridge crossing vanished without a trace under several feet of water. Today, the bridge is still closed and I suspect will remain so for several more weeks. Water sits only a foot below the lowest edge.Read more