Ben dove Alabama.

Solo.

With no drysuit.

Next to a nuclear powerplant.

The original choices for Alabama didn’t pan out. And we were headed back to Dallas in a little bit of a rush. Our house had been hit by a storm, and we were eager to see the damage. (Thankfully, we have awesome neighbors that took care of us while we were away.). But we also had an agenda, we just had to keep on schedule. (Which never, ever happens!)

Anyway, remember:

Plan your Dive.

Dive your Plan.

….. unless the plan goes to hell. Then, new plan: Improvise?

The day was coming to a close, we were running out of time in Alabama, and forced to find any accessible point along our route.

With Ben driving, Tessa was real time looking at maps and depth charts, reaching out to the internet network for some sort of intel on sites 2, 3 miles or less, ahead of us. And getting pretty car sick in the process.

Then, we found a “boat ramp” and public parking area that looked pretty promising. Just down from the outflow of the Bellfonte Nuclear Power Plant.

The mud puddle Ben selected was 8 feet deep. But 6 1/2 feet of it was weeds and muck.

It was a warm early fall evening, the water was still warm from the summer and the outflow, and with the light was fading, there was no time to get all the gear out of the truck – just the basics and quick dip.

Tessa refused to make this dive. No way was she getting in no viz muck with just leggings, at an unvetted body of water, with no surface support, in a seemingly “unsafe” location, and with nuclear run off.

The mosquitos alone could have car jacked us while in the water.

So she sat “safety.” Like “I’ll watch the buoy in the car, make sure we don’t get towed, and I hope you don’t drown” type of safety.

At least it made for pretty pictures.

It also checked off Alabama for Ben (which was his only southern state missing at that point), and cost him a pair of shorts and nice rash guard. That went into the dumpster after.

Tessa was smart enough to dive Alabama on a cold, SNOWY day in October a few years ago. In a nice quarry. With no weeds, mutants, and a minion suit. But for that’s a different story.