PT 3, DID NOAH HAVE THIS MUCH TROUBLE?

Like I said, by this time it had started to rain. Power was out all over Grove City, and it was approaching rush hour, and WE were approaching the 71/Stringtown split. Not a good place to be when it's freaking crazy-raining, and the power is out and the police aren't there yet to to direct traffic. And, you're hungry, and you're us and indecisive.

First, we decide on Vito's. What a great standby, huh? You really can't go wrong with Vito's. Tanya's a good Canadian-America, and a REALLY good Columbus-ian??, in that she wants to try new restaurants all the time and go explore. So she just said, "Where do you want to go? Where is some place I've never been?" Well, there are lots of places she's never been, but with the Level Four Flash Flood happening around us, driving all around town was becoming a bad idea, so I thought we better stay in the GC. (See how I just dropped the phrase "the GC" like it was someplace cool?)

So we drive all the way to Vito's from Grove City, and are in the car in the parking lot, staring at the restaurant. I really can't bring myself to go in, mostly because I know it's going to be cold inside (it always is), and it will be worse because we're already wet, and there's not a good parking spot for miles so we'll get even more wet on the way in. But it's also because she's eaten there a thousand times! (Well, only two or three, but still). It's nothing new to her! And she says that she's okay driving in the rain, so I say to her, "OK, let's go somewhere else. Somewhere you've never been. Smokey Bones. You've mentioned it a few times tonight - let's roll." So we start going BACK to Stringtown, when it dawns on us.

They don't have power. DUH.

Stop the car. Turn around. Figure out where the heck we're going to eat! No, still not Vito's for all the same reasons...OK! How about...Plank's? She's never been there. It's a Grove City local tradition, and though I personally wouldn't eat there more than once a year, she has to experience it at some point, right! Now is as good a time as any! So we're on our way! Yeah! Food! Come on, get happy! Oh...but as we approach Plank's there's a cop car right in front of it, and we miss the turn. No big deal, we'll just go up into this neighborhood on the right and turn around.

(cue that ominous sounding "DON'T OPEN THE DOOR BECAUSE THERE'S A CRAZED MAN IN A MASK HIDING BEHIND IT" music.) It would have been really appropriate right about now.

That was a VERY bad idea. There is a neighborhood in Grove City that floods, did you know that? By floods, I only mean that the water gathers in such a way as to swallow small cars. Like Tanya's. And Tanya, bless her heart, maybe they don't have these types of roads up north where she's from...so she doesn't know not to try to drive through deep water like that (you know, because you can't tell how deep it is until you're underwater with the fishies?). So we go to simply cut through this neighborhood and almost drown when the water is almost over the hood of the car. All I could was, "TANYA! NO! DON'T STOP!!!! KEEP GOING!!! OR BACK UP!!! BUT DON'T STOP!!! THAT IS NOT AN OPTION!!!" In the end, she backed up. It was very funny, but also a little bit scary for her car. Of course, we would not have drowned...but her engined would have if we would have stayed much longer in that deep water. It was already showing signs of seizing up. BTW - and I mean this in all seriousness. Tanya is an excellent driver. I tend to get really nervous riding with people during heavy rain, but she's a pro.

So, 10 minutes later, we've backed out of the high water, and are sitting on a patch of high ground on parking lot contemplating our next move. Go left, which means having to go through some more high water, or go right, which is dry. She's considering going left, believe it or not. I think she likes the thrill. She's IS a church girl, after all!

Instead, she opts for the dry ground (again, proof that she's a church girl), because we've settled on just going to Vito's. Tanya says it's fate that we're supposed to go there because nothing else is working out. As we approach Broadway though, I realize that we're close to Cate's Steakhouse, a restuarant she's never been to (one of the criteria for the night's eats). So, we turn right instead of left, and as we make our way there, it's again as if thunder and lightning outside stop, light shines down from heaven, and that Noah's ark that's been floating by?? it just sort of slinks off into the distance as the water recedes somewhere...again.

Dinner was great. After dinner, Tanya took me home. I felt so grubby from running in and out of the rain, all I wanted to do was take a shower, write a quick post and send an email. So I hopped into the shower, changed into my pajamas, walked over to my precious little Francesca (my laptop), and...