additional details

john paul pointed out that i neglected to tell you our total travel time:

twenty hours, thirty minutes

additionally, he wanted me to balance out my story by sharing with you my own moment of breakdown.

we had been travelling almost 14 hours. when we reached the contra-flow cross-over, it seemed as though everyone was going on the contra-flow and no one was staying on the regular freeway. thus, the contra-flow lanes were backing up, where as the regular lanes were clear. if we had had any sleep and hadn't been driving so long, we would have thought this through and realized that the contra-flow lanes would eventually be the better place to be. the regular lanes would still be clogged up with all the people who had been on the road before the contra-lanes opened up, whereas the contra-lanes would be clear up ahead. but, we thought only in the moment and stayed on the regular road. after about 5 minutes of wonderful free driving, we hit the backlog. it was sooo frustrating! we saw a way to exit the freeway, u-turn, and get on the contra-flow lanes. at this point, i was totally exhausted, it was really hot, i was worried about running out of gas and still being stuck on the freeway when the hurricane hit two days later, i was desperately worried about the cats, and i hadn't been to the bathroom in 14 hours! i seriously had to wee. during our u-turn, we missed a restaurant that had a bathroom and got directly onto the contra-flow lanes. and as soon as we did, we hit more gridlock! i totally lost it. i started crying hysterically and said all kinds of crazy things. but, we soon passed a forested area, so i made john paul pull over so i could relieve myself. and a relief it was indeed. from then on, we were both able to roll with the situation and we did fine.

we stopped for gas in madisonville. we did have to wait in line for 35-40 minutes, but they had plenty of gas and it all worked out. i did think john paul might come to blows with a jerk who cut in front of me in the gas line, but he kept his head and it was fine.

we finally reached casa yabraian at about 8:45 and had a lovely, light dinner. the cats settled in great and don't seem to be suffering permanent damage. they are still a little nervous being in a new place, but they are sleeping and eating well. we slept a long sleep and have had a pretty good day today. as an added bonus, cindy and david (whom you might remember from the wedding- cindy was the maid of honor) are in dallas visiting cindy's brother, so we get to see them!!

my dad, however, is in tyler, texas (in from florida, where he weathered 3 hurricanes last year.) he has been staying in his concession trailer at some state fair, but he is looking for shelter. the winds and possible tornadoes in that area are quite worrying. so, here's hoping he finds a good place to wait out the storm and her aftershocks.