Getting Ready for Hurricane IKE

Hurricane Ike is expected to reach Houston 3 am Saturday. We are expected to get 100 mile an hour winds. All the schools have been closed today, so I have the day off. One of the reasons I fell in love with our house is the massive tree in our front yard. I am hoping that the winds don't blow it over, or better yet not onto our house.

When I came home from school yesterday, we took apart our trampoline and moved everything from the patio into the garage (doesn't Chris look happy?).
When asked if we are going to evacuate, it brings my memory back to 3 years ago. A couple of weeks after the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, there was Hurricane Rita. Rita was supposed to hit Houston, so everyone evacuated. What a nightmare!! I packed Taylan and our 2 dogs in my '93 Honda Accord and headed to Dallas. What usually takes me about 4-4 1/2 hours, it took me exactly 24 hours and 5 minutes to make it to my in-laws in Garland, TX. I stopped twice, both for 15 minutes. The rest of the time I was in bumper to bumper traffic. The things I saw!!! I saw pickup trucks filled with families, goats, pigs, dogs, everything. People were driving on the shoulders and medians. I remember hearing on the radio that emergency crews couldn't get to people who were having heat strokes and heart attacks on the sides of the rode. For about 12 hours the guy behind me had his feet sticking out of his window playing a guitar. All of the gas stations were out of gas. You couldn't run your air conditioner because it wasted too much gas, and there was none left. The last hour of my trip I started halucinating. I was talking to my sister on the phone at about 3 the next morning. and a cartoon character tree was running beside my car waving at me. It was crazy!! I had left my house at 4:30 am Wednesday morning and got to Dallas at 4:35 Thursday morning. Anytime I am stuck in traffic and frustrated, I remind myself that it could be way worse :)

We are expected to not have electricity for a few days maybe. So, I will blog when all is over. We have plenty of water, food, and supplies, so we will be just fine.