Road Trip

Our road trip was eerie. When we pulled away from the house, I really thought we'd be back in a couple of days. As we pulled out of our neighborhood subdivision onto the main road, there were cars backed up for over a mile waiting to get onto Interstate-10. We would have been there for over an hour. We definitely wanted to put some distance between us and the approaching storm quickly, so we took some back roads for about 8 miles and got on the interstate at the next exit.

Traffic was not to bad at first, but it slowed down to 15 mph on and off for the first 3 hours. The strangest part was seeing the "contraflow" in action. Both sides of the interstate were leading outbound. Watching cars all going the same direction on both sides of the interstate was like watching some Hollywood disaster movie, only worse, because I was in it.

That's when I really lost it. Tears started flowing silently down my face and it all became so real. This time those hyper media fanatics really meant what they said. I had two of my three kids in my car while hubby followed with the third. I didn't let them see me cry. They are such good kids. I just kept reasurring them that we were going to be perfectly safe because we were leaving just as we were told. I told them that if our house gets damaged, that we can fix it and that the important thing is that we are all safe and sound.

About 60 miles away, they funneled the contraflow back onto the right side of the interstate and the speed finally picked up to about 60-70 mph. Occasionally we had interruptions, but for the most part, everyone kept moving.

It seemed like every car we passed on the highway had a dog riding in it. The kids kept checking each car for a dog. This was definitely a new road trip game that we had never played before, and we have played them all. You see, I run a business on that very topic. Unfortunately this was not like any other road trip we have ever taken. There was no singing to the radio this time, since the only station we played was the news on the storm and evacuation info.

I tried to keep the mood light. We joked about calling the radio station with tips for evacuating with dogs. The kids wanted me to tell people to be sure to bring clothes-pins for your nose for when your dog starts farting in the car. Our dog Lulu was hitting us frequently with her SBD's (silent but deadly).

We stopped at a rest stop in Mississippi to make sandwiches and give the dogs a potty break. There must have been 20 other people walking their dogs at the rest stop. Another car pulled in behind us and I heard someone call my name. It was my friend Chris and her family. Her daughter is in my Brownie troop. They were headed to Tennessee as well.

The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. The kids were great little travelers as usual. We pulled in about 10 hours later, and I've never been so happy to see my sister.

Our crazy dogs didn't mind riding in the car either. Thank goodness I thought to bring the big kennel to keep them safe while we are here. My van now has enough dog hair in it to make another dog.