Mohawk River at Little Falls Photo by Christopher Hendrie

As you can see, we’ve had a bit of rain. Still being new to the area, we had decided to take an expedition to Utica/New Hartford to pick up cat food. This, as we were to later understand, was a Bad Idea.

Upon our arrival, we found that Highway 5 through Utica was closed. We didn’t think too much about it since there has been ongoing construction on that stretch of highway through Utica since we moved to the area. We just picked up 5S to Genessee Street and went that way. It was right about this time we realized why Hwy 5 was closed. Large stretches of Genessee Street were under water. It didn’t help that I got turned around and we spent over half an hour getting back on track. All the while wondering if the water would get too deep for our vehicle to handle. We finally made it to our first destination, only to run into another flooded street on the way to the second one. Flooded as in Road Closed.

Again found an alternative route, managed to finish our business but now it’s past time we got out of there and headed home. We couldn’t get back to Hwy 5, but 5S was reachable, even though we were up to the top of our hubcaps in flood water most of the way back down Genessee. Though I admit it was kind of interesting as almost all the side streets had turning into river rapids draining into what was starting to feel more like the Genessee River than the Street. Once on 5S everything was fine until we noticed a line of cars up ahead. Not stopped, but moving very slowly because a section of 5S was now under water. We got through that one–barely–and were almost home when the road got closed…again. One more detour and we made it, but next time? After a few days of rain, we’re just gonna stay home.