A Long Story

As Rita hovered in the Gulf, they were saying that it would still be a Category 5, with sustained 140 mph winds and gusts up to 160 when it passed directly over Houston. So we decided to leave. Lilly has family in a town called Delray, TX, which is about 200 miles north/northeast of Houston, and normally a three hour drive. On Wednesday afternoon, Chamber Orchestra rehearsal was cancelled, as well as all activities at Rice from then until Monday, including the concert that was supposed to be Saturday night. After dinner, Lilly and Emily departed for Delray, while I stayed behind, preferring to get a full night's sleep before driving on Thursday. It turns out that I needed it.

When I awoke the next morning, I found out that it took the girls a total of 11 hours to reach our destination. On the way, just outside Houston in a town called Humble (don't pronounce the H, it sounds like Umble. I have no idea why), Lilly's car broke down. So Emily picked her up and they drove the rest of the way together, which ended up being good anyway, because they were both falling asleep from driving all night. They arrived in Delray at about 8 in the morning.

I left Houston at about 11:30, which was late, I realize now. I would have had (slightly) better luck leaving earlier, I think. As it was, I got on Route 59 and took it through downtown with no problems. I hit traffic for the first time just north of the city, and decided that I would take the next exit and try to get around the highway traffic on back roads. This also ended up being a mistake, because as I headed East from the highway I hit even more traffic coming up from the coast east of Houston (which is where the hurricane ended up hitting in the end). So I sat in bumper to bumper traffic for what had to be at least 8 hours. For most of this time I was in a hellish area known as Tarkington Bayou. Not only was it easily 100 degrees outside (somehow I was able to leave my AC on the whole trip, and didn't run out of gas), but there were bugs everywhere. I mean everywhere. These buggers were coating the outside of my car for a good couple of hours as I crawled through the bayou. They were some kind of flying, ant-like beasts, and they came in pairs, landing on my windows locked in a strange mating position, facing in opposite directions with their abdomens connected. It was completely bizarre, and I hope I never have to go back to that place.

The road I was on eventually intersected with 59 again, and all the traffic was getting on, so I once again took a back route, this time one recommended to me by Emily, since she had taken it before with much success. It was then that I dodged traffic for the first time in a long while. But it didn't last long. I hit another jam, this one worse, when I got onto a back road leading to the town called Point Blank. I would sit for about 45 minutes to 1 hour without moving, then move at about 5 miles per hour for 5 or 10 minutes, then sit again, then briefly move, and so on. For the entire night. Finally, around 2:30 am, I pulled close to the town of Point Blank. A 15-year-old boy then approached my window, and asked "D'you need fuel?" I answered no, and he told me to get in the left lane, that I would get around faster that way. I did as he said. There were a few of us in the left lane, which was basically the wrong side of the road, rolling by an endless line of cars in the right lane waiting for gas. There must have been a line 100 cars long for that one gas station.

Though I could have maybe used the gas, I was at about half a tank, I was glad not to have stopped there, because after I got through the town, the traffic was once again moving nicely, and stayed that way for the rest of my drive. When I got up near Lufkin, I stopped for gas at a station with much less demand. It was only another hour or so before I pulled into the driveway at Lilly's uncle's house at 6 in the morning. In total, I spent 18 hours on the road. I stopped twice, once for gas, and once early in the drive, near Tarkington, when I pulled off to the side of the road, opened both passenger side doors, squatted in between them, and urinated.

I slept for about four hourse before I was awakened by my next challenge. I found out then that Lilly, Emily and I were sharing the house with Lilly's Father's Cousin's Neighbor's Daughter Sarah and her 8-year-old son Thomas. Thomas woke me up at 10 on Friday, and didn't leave me alone for the next three days. In an effort to keep him entertained somehow, I showed him Back to the Future. He loved it, of course, since it's a wonderful film, and immediately wanted to see the next two movies. I thought his attention span wouldn't last, but over the three days that we were in the house, he watched all three movies in their entirety. I guess it's not that unexpected, though, an 8-year-old boy stuck in a house for three days is going to need something to do.

That night, we went to Lilly's Aunt Genevieve's house for dinner, where we had Chicken and Dumplings, sweet corn, cornbread, field peas (otherwise known as beans), salad, and macaroni and cheese, with a delicious pound cake and peaches for dessert. After dinner I learned to play dominoes, specifically a game called 42 which is played like Bridge, only with dominoes.

Saturday morning was when the storm began. Thomas woke me up at 9. It was raining hard all day, and there were periods of heavy wind, but no serious damage or flooding. By the time Rita got to us, she was a tropical storm. At night we went over to Genevieve's house for Chicken Pot Pie. After dinner we played dominoes.

Sunday was a beautiful day, and Lilly wanted to take advantage of it by going out on the lake fishing. Thomas woke me up at 9, and by 11 we were heading out. Lilly and I were taken out on the lake by her uncle Cary, and we were joined by her uncle Steve in his own boat. Lilly caught three fish, but I caught nothing but a bad sunburn. Still, it was fun and relaxing just to be on the lake. For dinner we went over to Lilly's uncle Richard's house (all these houses were on the same street, where Lilly's family, on her father's side, has lived for years), and after dinner we played dominoes and a card game called Phase 10. We decided we would head back to Houston early Monday morning.

The drive back was nothing like the drive up. We left Delray at 6:30 am and reached our house in Houston by about 9:30. We hit basically no traffic, not even the detour that we thought would divert us from 59 where a barge had hit a bridge. But that was cleared up, and it was a straight shot. Houston had missed the worst of the storm, the most damage I could see in the city were down branches in various places. It was good to get back, though I was exhausted from so much driving and from lack of sleep due to the early riser who kept waking me up for the past three days. All in all, I was happy to be back.

Things are just now getting back to normal, I'm starting to become quite busy, as I was before our little weekend vacation. Rita could have been a lot worse, but it was still good to get out of the area and have a little time off.