After a relaxing camping trip, we arrived back home this afternoon. The plan was to be home a couple days, do some laundry, do some grocery shopping, reload the motorhome and head out for another 9-days. I just called and cancelled our reservations. We arrived home and walked in ... the first thing I said was, "What's that noise?" It sounded like a "babbling brook" as well as that "sound" you can hear when someone is running a bath or possibly running the washing machine. We have a fairly big, tri-level house ... three bedrooms, large linen closet and full bath upstairs, then the main level with foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen and short hallway. Ok, nothing looks amiss, all is well. The lower level steps down from the kitchen entryway, a very large laundry room. a huge den (or tv room, whatever you want to call it), a large guest bedroom, a full bath and large linen closet. We walked into the kitchen, glanced down to the lower level and WTF!!!??? It looked like a swimming pool with a river running through it! The water heater is inside that linen closet and it evidently puked it's guts out while we were out of town. (Catastrophes never happen when one is home) The whole downstairs was flooded and water was running through the house and out the sliding glass door toward the patio/pool area! OH SHIT!

I ran out, shut the water off at the outside shutoff and came back in to examine the mess. F..K!!!! I have no clue when this thing exploded while we were gone, but once I checked out the back yard, it appears I might have an elebenty-bazillion dollar water bill this month! We've spent the last 4-5 hours with my shop vac and throwing down every towel in the house to soak up as much of the water as possible. It's the biggest frigging mess I've ever seen, even after going through a handful of hurricanes. Now to find a plumber.

This is NOT going to be a fun weekend and camping is out of the question for a while. Well, except for the fact we'll probably be moving into the motorhome tonight. We'll be in the driveway, but at least we'll have all the comforts of home ... including hot and cold running water. DAMN!!!