Treasured Objects

It was amazing to see what people were bringing with them as they evacuated the coastal regions of Galveston and Clear Lake.

One man driving a black pick-up truck had a leather recliner in the flatbed of his truck, along with a very large and new-looking barbeque grill, and a fairly new motorcycle. The driver had his dog in the passenger seat of his truck, and he sat there looking out at the cars around him.

Another family had a crate of chickens on top of the roof of their car. Still another had two bird-cages in the backseat of their vehicle, each cage holding a beautiful parakeet. The seat belts were fastened around the cages to keep them in place.

Another large pick-up towed a trailer with two horses, and there were two bales of hay tossed into the flat-bed of the truck.

Most of the cars had adults in the front seat and children and/or pets in the back seat. My own little Thunderbird was just big enough to hold AngelBoy's carrier and Mickey Kitty's carrier. My husband had ShadowBaby's carrier on the passenger seat of his car, and Gracie was in the back seat, next to Rusty in his carrier.

The only things I tossed into my suitcase were a few changes of clothing, my cosmetics and daily hair-stuff, and my telephone book with names and addresses of family and friends. I took the deed and the insurance papers for the house, and all of my good jewelry. I have lots of favorite things around the house, but I took nothing else. The most important thing on my mind was to get our "kids" and us away from what was said would be the third deadliest storm on record.

If we had to do this all over again, I would not take two cars. I would pile up all four cat carriers in the back seat, and I'd sit back there with them, giving Gracie more room in the passenger seat next to my husband. Taking the two cars was a big mistake... very stressful driving, having to follow my husband's car, especially after dark, when a lot of the back roads we took (to get away from the Gulf Freeway parking lot) were pitch-black. Motorists were very nice, though, when they knew that one car was following another--- no one tried to cut in, everyone was very gracious in letting drivers get where they needed to be.

We were all going so slowly on the Gulf Freeway that you got to "know" who was on either side of you, or behind you. For hours, the car behind me had two people in the front seat, and no one in the back seat. The driver was a very large-sized woman, and next to her was a smaller, but still large, version of herself. I guessed they were mother and daughter. For miles and miles, for hours on end, I was able to see them through my rear-view mirror. And for all of those miles, all they did was eat. They had tupperware bowls filled with foods. Sometimes they had plastic spoons, other times they had plastic forks. For most of the times, they just used their fingers. Eat and eat and eat and eat. I swear they were getting me hungry and I wasn't even really in the mood for food. I just munched on spoon-sized shredded wheat and drank bottled water as I drove.

I was happy to have the cell phone with me. I couldn't call my husband in his car ahead of me, since he doesn't have a cell phone. (I told him I'm buying him one as soon as we get through all of this.) I called my sister a bunch of times, especially late at night as I was getting tired-- she told me she'd stay awake till 3:00 in the morning.... and that really helped a lot with the late-night into early-morning driving.

I also called my dad, and my Aunt Dolly. They were happy to hear we were driving away from the coast, but sad that we had to leave the house. "The house is just a house." That's what I told both of them. The most important thing was to get away, and take our precious pets with us.

But as I said... if we had to do this again.... I'd get all of us into just one car. And as soon as I heard of an approaching hurricane, I'd make hotel arrangements somewhere north of Houston, but not as far away as Dallas. And I wouldn't wait till just two days before the storm hits to start driving out of Clear Lake. The time to leave would have been on Monday. That would've gotten us out of the coastal area without having to crawl along at two miles an hour on the Gulf Freeway.

And I wouldn't have taken the time to let my husband board up the windows. The house looked positively sad as we left it. Boarding up the windows does you no good if a 40-foot Live Oak falls on the roof. So what's the point of boarding up 20-year-old windows?

Magnolia is a country town. The house we're in sits on three acres of land. The house next door to this can't even be seen through the trees, but I can see their horses roaming around the pasture in the morning. Very pretty up here... feels like you're miles away from the city, and you truly are. On a normal day, getting to Magnolia from our house would be a two-hour drive. The fact that it took us 16 hours to get here still just boggles my mind. We still just can't believe it.

We're just grateful to be here. When I think of all the people who ran out of gas and couldn't find a station that had any left, and all of the people just driving north with no place to go... we are very lucky indeed.