We made it safely to Shannon's house in Dallas. It took about 9 1/2 hours, but we are very excited about that as it still beat our travel time to College Station for Rita. As a comparison, College Station is 112 miles (180) from our house and took us 13 hours (overnight!) to drive. Where we are in Dallas, we are 274 miles (440 km) from our house and it took us just over 9 hours. I'm with my friend Abby (who also evacuated) on this one, the most annoying line was the one at McDonalds for the bathroom.
Traffic in Houston was a little worse than a typical rush hour. The worst part was in Woodlands/Conroe area....we aren't quite sure how long we sat there, but I do know the first 60 miles took us 3 1/2 hours. The rest of the drive we would go a decent speed, but with slow downs quite often. The highlight in Conroe was watching the love bugs on the windshield.
Now we are just watching Ike, hoping it turns even a little more to the east for a better scenario for Houston. Our house is in the "Zone B," which is likely to get a storm surge in a Cat. 2 storm. Right now our area is expected to get hurricane force winds (80-110 mph or 128-177 km/h) for 10-12 hours. :(
Here is our house, all boarded up. (OK, pictures coming later as it froze my computer while downloading) We hope it is still standing and not flooded when we get back!
While yesterday I was very calm (or much calmer than Rita--more on that later) about leaving all our things, I couldn't help but laying awake last night thinking of all the "special" items that will be be sad to lose if our house is damaged. I know it is all stuff, and that's why we have insurance, but it still makes you sad to think about.
For now we are going to go make the best of a bad situation: shop, visit friends/family, and get away from the continuous "gloom and doom" coverage of Ike. (somehow you get sucked in and can't get away!) I will post again later with pictures...
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