The Meador family had the good fortune of being scared sh*tless about being stuck in a house for 24 hours with 80 mph howling with 2 screaming kids and being without power for possibly 5-10 days....so we left.

We left Kingwood at 3:45 am on Thursday and things were looking great. We zoomed on FM 1960 over to FM 529 (a backroad that heads west that I hoped not too many people noticed). Then, the fun started.

During one stretch when I was the only poor soul awake, we moved 3 miles in 3.5 hours. Finally I noticed a road on my GPS receiver that went down to I-10. So we went down it and hit US 90 at Brookshire. As we came into Brookshire (another 45 minutes after hitting hwy 90 2 miles from the downtown area) we all had to go to the bathroom. We came to a grocery store where tons of people had gathered. I took Claire and we went to the front door. They were freaking closed!! I had to go around the side and go there. Natalie and Claire went to a Jiffy Lube and used their bathroom.

We got back on the road and stayed on the I-10 feeder road for about 3 miles until we got to an entrance ramp. This took about another half hour. When we got on 10, everyone was treating it as a 3 lane road. They were using the outside shoulder as another lane. We plugged ahead, and finally made it to Sealy (about 10 miles away) in another hour and a half. Right outside Sealy, for some reason the freeway cleared out and we could fly. We decided to stop and eat lunch. By then it was about 11:30 am. It took us almost 8 hours to go less than 100 miles.

After Sealy we flew for a while. Then the traffic backed up horribly again. We did notice that the entrance ramps on the other side of the freeway were being closed. Then we started seeing planes going up and down 10. Finally, people started crossing the median and going on the other side of the freeway. This scared the **** out of me since there was no official signal that we could go over there. Eventually there were so many cars that I figured there was safety in numbers and I crossed over. For the most part from there to Seguin I drove 85-90 since I wanted to make up time and there were no cops in sight.

At Seguin we had to exit to the other side, but it never really backed up again. We got to San Antonio about 3:45 pm. So, 12 hours to get to San Antonio - usually a 3 hour trip. We found a mall on 1604 and stayed there 2 hours to let the kids play. They had an "Inflatable Wonderland" that Claire fell in love with. I have to admit it was quite cool.

Finally we left and cruised to Ozona...getting there about 9:30 pm. What a day!

So it's Saturday night. We've found out that although much of Kingwood is without power, our home is still powered. A large portion of our backyard fence was destroyed and some limbs were down. Other than that we've had no damage. We've also found out that the state doesn't want us to go home until Tuesday. I love Ozona and all but...

We kicked around the idea of going up to Crested Butte, CO for a few days and hanging out there. I told my boss not to expect me any earlier than Wednesday and maybe not even until Monday. We'll see what we do. I'd love to just go home tomorrow.

Anywho, let me know if anyone else had to deal with this. JoLynn, thanks for offering to let us stay at your home. That was very generous of you.

Talk to you all soon.

Doug

I was concerned about you, Doug, when I first heard where Rita was headed. I could not even imagine what you and your family went through during evacuation. I am so far in the desert an inch of rain is considered a monsoon.
I won't be able to make the Homecoming game or most of the gathering at the park on Saturday. Wade has a soccer game @ 9:00 10/22. We'll be headed that way after the game. We should get there around noon to 1:00. Anyway, love all of you and can't wait to see you. Keep me posted and let me know of anything I can do.
Courtney

They scared the crap out of us with the hurricane reports. We were told that by the time it got to the Dallas area, it would be a category 2 and stall over us for at least 24 hours. We were told to expect 20-30 inches of rain, and my property has a bridge that crosses a runoff creek between the house and the road. Turns out that we got no rain and wind gusts of about 5 mph. But then we got that cold front tonight and I am about to freeze. My son was born in November of last year and I have been on a health kick to be a good role model for him. I have lost 40 pounds and am back down to the size I was my senior year, but 40 pounds of fat was a good insulator. IT IS COLD!

Clay