We're Baaaaaacccccccckkk!!

Well we ran from Rita and now we are back. Let's see where to start, well last Tuesday my wife and I packed up all of the stuff that was important to us. Pictures wedding gifts and so on, we did this "just in case". Well on Wednesday they ordered the evacuation of Galveston and all low lying areas. They were composed of 4 zones, we were in zone 4 set to evacuate on Thursday at noon. Knowing that we had packed up everything and were pretty much ready to go helped out. I had filled the tank up on Wednesday morning and told my father in law to do the same. He brought his gas can and I had a half full one that we use for the lawn mower. Man we are lucky we did that. I called my sister in Dallas and told her to expect us that night. I kept up with the traffic reports all day, the roads were clear until about noon. That's when all hell broke loose. On the way home the news was saying that in order to speed up the evacuation from Galveston all on the entrance ramps to 45 north were closed. Well that posed a problem for us because that's where we needed to go. We got home and packed up and fast as we could. I strapped the gas cans on top of the suv and locked up the house. We didn't board the windows up because Lowes had run out of plywood so we decided to leave the house in God's hands. My neighbors were getting ready to leave also. I called a few friends who work in the traffic dept. and I asked how I could get to 45 north, they said no chance in hell!! Any freeway you land on is the freeway you're committed to is what they told me. So in a blink of an eye we were forced to go to plan b which was el paso. We left my house at 8pm and got on to I 10 west. traffic was ok up to the galleria area. That's when it gridlocked. I was fortunate enough to be forced on to the HOV lane which is like a carpool lane that they had opened. It moved pretty well until it to came to a stand still. This is where I am so happy I filled the tank in the morning. If I had not we would have been stranded. There was no gas anywhere in the city, stations that had gas had lines stretching miles long. We played stop and go for 11 hours, tail light to tail light. Our average speed was under 5 mph. Our top speed 40mph for about 5 mins. It took us 11 hrs to get from my house to san marcos TX, which is usually a 3 hour drive. So after being up for over 24hrs I pulled into a gas station that was off the main road and was not swarming with people. We filled up again and stopped at the next rest stop and I ordered everyone to sleep. After a 2 hour nap we hit the road again, we passed though San Antonio to Kerrville to fill up again because I knew it would be the last chance before reaching Ft. Stockton. The Shell station ran out of gas just as we got there, luckily there was another station up the road so I got there before it got swarmed. All this time I was thinking someone was goin to jack me up for the gas cans on top of the car but luckily no one tried. After that the road was normal, 24 hours later we pulled into El Paso. We were all tired cranky and hungry and oh yeah my cat was pissed that we took him form his home. We got to my moms house and I pretty much spent the rest of my stay entertaining my inlaws, and doing honey do's for my mom like some tree trimming and baking on top of the roof fixing the AC. I have to give props to jojo and his brother for doing most of that work. They are truly great friends. I took the picture on this page from my moms roof top. While 800 miles away the Hurricane was possibly washing away my home. Luckily nothing happened to my house. The dish for my satellite was still there so I figure we didn't get hit too bad. My inlaws lost a few shingles and that's it. We Really dodged a bullet but if another one comes this way I will assure I will run again. My wife's life and my life is more important to me that my TV or "things" you can replace.

Oh yeah we were a featured story on the local fox station. They interviewed us and everything. Huh Looks like Rita gave me my 15 mins of fame. The good news is we are back in our home safe and sound. Please excuse the bad writing and grammer, I am really worn out from the drive.