Preparing for Rita

We hit the road after final evacuation preparations today. Erin, her mom, and Addison left early, while Graham, Evan and I put up boards and prepared the house for Rita. The boys knocked themselves out boarding up windows and trying to place things so that the storm wouldn't blow them away. The process was surreal. While we tried to anticipate everything that could blow away or that could become a missle, there was this sense that the storm would still go somewhere else. We left the house unsure of whether anything would be there when we returned.

The trip to Monroe took quite a while. We first stopped in Crowley to drop off a few things, then headed north. Traffic was extremely heavy and all along the way the boys and I thought of things that we forgot to secure at home. Our biggest fear was a portable basketball goal that we left next to a large window at the side of the house. We figured that if the storm did hit Lake Charles we would find that goal somewhere inside the house.

We arrived in Monroe at Kelly's mom's house. The boys, Peter and I arrived late and spent much of the night watching television. It was starting to track a little closer to home. I told Peter that since we rushed into Galveston to board up the beach house, odds were that it would hit Lake Charles.