We've made it to Austin

We finally got everything packed up and ready to leave around 5:00 in the morning in Houston. I only had half an hour of sleep. Zelda had none. We figured that if I was going to do the driving, I needed to at least get some sleep. Anyways, we pulled out our map that we bought on our way to Crawford a few weeks ago and mapped out a different path thanks to my father-in-law. We decided that the backroads would be the best way to leave Houston since HALF the city has decided to leave.

Normally, a drive to Austin takes 2-3 hours depending on whether you drive the speed limit or a little over. Want to know how long that same drive took us? TWELVE FUCKING HOURS! My parents decided to ride out the storm. I tried my best to get them to leave with us, but they are very stubborn. My sisters stayed with them because they live with them anyways. Before we left, I gave my dad Zelda's 9mm with 240 extra rounds.

We actually were lucky. We had friends who took the main roads who left an hour before we did and took them 18 hours to get to Austin. The drive was horrible. Since we took the back roads, restrooms were in short supply. We had to let the girls use the restroom on the side of the road. Since we weren't moving, that was no problem. We saw car after car after car on the side of the road that either overheated or ran out of gas. You couldn't just walk to the closest gas station either. Most likely, those gas stations were already out of gasoline. I didn't find a single gas station with gas until we were 40 miles from Austin. We only started out with half a tank of gas, but I was smart enough to take my 5 gallon gas container that I reserve for the lawn mower. It was full. Good thing too because we never would've made it.

I've spoken to so many people who tried to leave but because of traffic congestion and lack of fuel, were forced to stay. Y'all please keep them and my family in your prayers. Unfortunately, Zelda's sister doesn't have internet connection so we had to find a cafe with free wireless internet. We're going to try to meet up with Trashman before we leave. Unfortunately, we lost his phone number. We did email him though so hopefully, we'll hear from him.

It's now Zelda's turn to use MY laptop so I'll turn it over to her now.