I Don't Like Ike

The Scoot road trip continues; about 12 hours after returning from Orcas Island, I was back on the road today for a conference in Austin -- this is hopefully my last business trip for quite some time, and likely my second-to-last trip overall for the rest of the year. Boo on the timing; Meh worked today, so it was a bit of extra stress on her dealing with my company's backup care scheduling that I would've preferred to avoid (well, along with all of the travel to begin with).

The flight was uneventful and I arrived in Dallas/Fort Worth in time to meet up with friends M and K (friend S joined us for a bit) for a tour of their cozy home and a late lunch. (Random story: an entire large family walked in and sauntered to the table behind us. And I do mean sauntered -- the kids were all in powder blue cowboy jumpsuits and boots, complete with jangling spurs. Wow.) We then enjoyed some authentic Texas gelato at their favorite local market, where I picked up snacks for the drive down to Austin. Then I was, as they say, "on the road again..." (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Any whining I've done in the last few weeks about challenges dealing with Zachary in one-room hotels and cabins seems completely inappropriate and out of place now. The drive down didn't give much hint as to damage from Hurricane Ike, other than frequent digital freeway signs warning people not to drive to Houston, and a few seriously angled (but still intact) telephone poles along the side of the road outside of Waco. M and K reported that the previous day, when Ike had passed through Fort Worth, it had spun down to mainly rain and a bit of wind. And Austin itself seems to have fared pretty well too.

However, the story changed dramatically when I pulled the car into the hotel -- the lobby is crowded with families, children, and lots of dogs. (Thankfully, the hotel appears to be dog friendly -- there were even bowls of dog biscuits up at the check-in counters.) As I'm guessing is likely true throughout the city, the hotel is filled with folks fleeing the hurricane. It sounds like power won't be restored to some areas for a month or more, so they may be here with nowhere else to go.

After talking with members of my extended family (from a Houston suburb, and who ironically evacuated to a hotel I must have just driven past on my way into Austin), it perhaps doesn't sound like it's quite so dire for those who evacuated ahead of time. My cousins sound like they're faring pretty well, and we're going to try to meet up this week. But still, I can't even imagine such a life disruption. Everywhere I've lived there's some kind of natural disaster waiting to happen - tornados, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. But despite the fact that hurricanes at least provide some warning, they still seem the most terrifying -- Zachary's Mima and Papa are so brave to deal with these storms year after year!