Well, now Oqidaun and I find ourselves refugees from Hurricane Rita. On Wednesday, we decided to leave as all predictions had the storm coming ashore around Galveston. With high winds and rains expected, we thought it would be better if we went someplace where there would be dryer weather.
On Wednesday, the university decided it would shut down. Of course, the students knew well in advance of the faculty! The official closing came at noon. We thought about going to see Oqi’s brother in Fort Worth, but since the hurricane would probably track north, I didn’t like that idea. Plus, everyone and their dog was going to Dallas, and I45 was a parking lot. I decided we should go to West Texas, up by Lubbock to Oqi’s folks house.
The university wanted us to backup our computers and unplug everything. So, it was nearly 3 by the time I got out of there. Then I spent about an hour driving around trying to find some gasoline. I went to about 6 places on the way home, but there were really long lines around those stores with gas. There were also many stations out of gas altogether. I got lucky and found a Diamond Shamrock with a short line, and gas. I only had to wait behind two other people, and gas was only 2.80 for premium!
Oqi had spent the day taking photos of our stuff, and securing the house. When I got home, I finished some e-mail, put a few things up high, and moved some research documents out of my office area. By 5:15 pm we were on the road.
The trip from our house to New Braunfels normally takes about 2 ½ to 3 hours depending on traffic, weather, and how many times I have to go to the bathroom. Traffic Wednesday, however, was backed up all the way to Columbus, about 90 miles from Houston. Some of this was normal rush hour traffic, but much of it was evacuees heading west toward San Antonio or Austin. It took us 4 hours to get to Columbus. After that, it was smooth sailing, just very busy. Our neighbor said it took her son 23 hours to get to New Braunfels, and he left a few hours after we did. But he lives in Clear Lake, and I’m sure much of that time was getting north on 45 to the beltway. It only took us 7 hours to make a 3 hour trip.
We stopped at my folks house for a little while, but I was pretty exhausted. We were on our way to West Texas, and that was another seven to 9 hours. We also had our three dogs, and cat. This was the first trip for the kitty in about 3 years, and cats normally don’t travel well. The dogs love to ride in the car, so they were no problem. The cat stayed in his travel crate for 16 hours without a break. He didn’t soil himself, which I would have done in his shoes, and he only expressed anger a couple of times. But really, we had no way of letting him out for a potty break.
In San Angelo, we ran into some folk from Corpus Christi. They left Wednesday night because at that time it still wasn’t clear if Rita would hit the Corpus or Galveston area. They were headed to Amarillo because that was the only place they could find a hotel that would take their 8 cats and four dogs. And we thought we had it bad! All along the way we passed by motels—normally empty—that were full due to people from all along the Texas Gulf Coast fleeing the hurricane. When we stopped for gas, convenience store employees told us about how busy they had been all day long.
We finally rolled into Oqi’s folks house at 9:30 am, 16 hours after we left home! We did spend an hour in New Braunfels, but that was one hell of a trip, and I slept much of Thursday.
Friday we went to Lubbock to Texas Tech. I saw a couple of old professors, and did some much needed research at the library and Southwest Collection. Then Oqi got bad news from her mom. The water well pump went out! So, we left Houston because of fear of water, and in West Texas ran out of water. Ironic.
Luckily, the pump was fixed Saturday morning, so we didn’t stay stinky long.
