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From: Come see me after class.
Joined: May 2001
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From: Nowhere
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From: Come see me after class.
sup chaz! 
verhere: 
well, it was quite an experience, to say the least (mmmm cliches!)
we left thursday afternoon, with reports of Rita making a direct hit on Galveston as a category 5 (175mph) and going north. basically it was gonna follow I-45 north and that would put the eye directly over our house! so, obviously we evacuated to san antonio. normally the drive is 3.5hrs (in fact, i got home in less than 3! :burnout:) but it took us 9hrs! i guess we were lucky though cuz it took my dad 15hrs and other people didnt even get there, and they were on the road for 24hrs+. i think 1000+ cars broke down on side of the road due to running out of gas. put it this way, it took us 3hrs to drive 2mi in the worst parts.
the only reason i got there 6hrs before my dad is because i was driving the hummer, and he was driving the freighliner pulling the cars... if you didn't know, they enabled contraflow on outbuond freeways (both sides were going outbound), so we had the luxury of going west on the eastbound lanes! anyway, it took some MAJOR offroading to get on the other side. after seeing traffic moving at 70mph+ on the other side, i tried to get off the freeway - that took me 1hr. to make the u-turn on the feeder roads, it took another 1.5hrs. finally, i fuond a spot in construction where i could make the cross, though there was a 2ft drop! i made the drop unscathed but the idiots (or i guess very anxious!) people behind me tried to do the same. a dodge dually made it over, but a small minivan got stuck on the frame so needless to say, only the bigger trucks tried it after that.
anyway, once we got moving, we caught traffic maybe a dozen times, but no big deal - just cross the grass median to the other side! EVERYBODY was doing it. i must've crossed over a good 3 dozen times, not including the 2-3mi i drove through the grass! again, everybody was doing it. it reminded me of the Philippines, where nobody follows traffic laws. like the Philippines, if the car can fit, there was a lane there. effectively, I-10 was 12 lanes wide, when it was technically only 4 lanes wide!
anyway, back to our situation... we waited out the storm at my brother's apartment, and it was good news after good news (for our area at least). the storm veered eastward back towards louisiana and had lessened to a category 3 (125mph) before touching land. the next morning, we found out that our area only got gusts of 50mph which isnt bad at all... so, we left early early in the morning to beat the traffic, and we got home in record time - actually got home faster than usual. our house was intact and completely unscathed, except for a tree limb that snapped and was dangling from the tree. lucky for us, our neighbors stuck around (dummies, you live on a lake!) so they cleaned up most of the mess (twigs, trash, leaves) for us before we got home.
so, that was my weekend, how about you?
verhere: well, it was quite an experience, to say the least (mmmm cliches!)
we left thursday afternoon, with reports of Rita making a direct hit on Galveston as a category 5 (175mph) and going north. basically it was gonna follow I-45 north and that would put the eye directly over our house! so, obviously we evacuated to san antonio. normally the drive is 3.5hrs (in fact, i got home in less than 3! :burnout:) but it took us 9hrs! i guess we were lucky though cuz it took my dad 15hrs and other people didnt even get there, and they were on the road for 24hrs+. i think 1000+ cars broke down on side of the road due to running out of gas. put it this way, it took us 3hrs to drive 2mi in the worst parts.
the only reason i got there 6hrs before my dad is because i was driving the hummer, and he was driving the freighliner pulling the cars... if you didn't know, they enabled contraflow on outbuond freeways (both sides were going outbound), so we had the luxury of going west on the eastbound lanes! anyway, it took some MAJOR offroading to get on the other side. after seeing traffic moving at 70mph+ on the other side, i tried to get off the freeway - that took me 1hr. to make the u-turn on the feeder roads, it took another 1.5hrs. finally, i fuond a spot in construction where i could make the cross, though there was a 2ft drop! i made the drop unscathed but the idiots (or i guess very anxious!) people behind me tried to do the same. a dodge dually made it over, but a small minivan got stuck on the frame so needless to say, only the bigger trucks tried it after that.
anyway, once we got moving, we caught traffic maybe a dozen times, but no big deal - just cross the grass median to the other side! EVERYBODY was doing it. i must've crossed over a good 3 dozen times, not including the 2-3mi i drove through the grass! again, everybody was doing it. it reminded me of the Philippines, where nobody follows traffic laws. like the Philippines, if the car can fit, there was a lane there. effectively, I-10 was 12 lanes wide, when it was technically only 4 lanes wide!
anyway, back to our situation... we waited out the storm at my brother's apartment, and it was good news after good news (for our area at least). the storm veered eastward back towards louisiana and had lessened to a category 3 (125mph) before touching land. the next morning, we found out that our area only got gusts of 50mph which isnt bad at all... so, we left early early in the morning to beat the traffic, and we got home in record time - actually got home faster than usual. our house was intact and completely unscathed, except for a tree limb that snapped and was dangling from the tree. lucky for us, our neighbors stuck around (dummies, you live on a lake!) so they cleaned up most of the mess (twigs, trash, leaves) for us before we got home.
so, that was my weekend, how about you?
Joined: May 2001
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From: Nowhere
Originally Posted by alexf20c,Sep 26 2005, 08:41 AM
the only reason i got there 6hrs before my dad is because i was driving the hummer, and he was driving the freighliner pulling the cars...
Any pics!?!?!?
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From: Come see me after class.
Originally Posted by WestSideBilly,Sep 26 2005, 08:48 AM
I like your father's priorities
so it was my priority as well, but i was smart and drove the hummer! i wasn't about to drive the honda in bumper-to-bumper traffic for 9hrs... with no A/C!
sorry dave, we had more important things to do than take pics...