we made it!

i'm posting from my in-laws' house, about 90 miles further inland from our casa. we got up at 5am, finished packing and loaded up. we left the house at 6:40 and pulled into the driveway here 2 hours later. i am so glad we waited.

all along the way, there were abandoned cars on the side of the road. there are a couple of major intersections in the rural part of our drive, and hundreds of vehicles lined the highway and were parked in the gas station parking lots, though no gas was to be found. some people were sleeping in the beds of their pick-ups, and some had laid blankets on the ground on the shoulder of the highway to catch some z's.

i feel like it's been a full day already and it's only 9am! the captain's parents were leaving for work as we pulled up. for them, it's been a completely different experience. the weather is warm and sunny. it's hard to believe there's a category 4 hurricane lurking right off the coast. this morning when we were loading up in the dark, we did feel cool breezes that were definitely not present yesterday.

as i said before, i'll keep posting as long as i can. i honestly don't think we're going to get the thrashing that was first predicted. the Big Man is watching out for us. my prayers go out to those on the "dirty" side of the storm and to all those people that are still stranded on the side of the road.

here are some trip times, as reported by friends. the numbers in parentheses are the "normal" drive times:

alvin to dallas: 18 (5) hours total, 2 hours used to nap
pearland to austin: 7 (3) hours, using the back roads and a gps system
alvin to north houston: 17 (45 minutes) hours
league city to north houston: 24 (1.25) hours
downtown houston to brenham: 24+ (1.5) hours

that's what you get when you listen to the "powers that be." thank God they're all safe.