Are We There Yet?????

Yesterday, Eli and Mommy had a rough ride home! Houston and surrounding areas received tons of rain and roads were flooded everywhere. I had Math TAKS testing yesterday so our computers were off all day and I am not one to check the weather/news anyway. I picked up Eli from daycare at 5:40-ish and headed down 1488 to I-45. We were at I-45 and north of 242 around 5:50pm. Next thing I knew, we were stuck in some major traffic!

My drive from work to home is about 23 miles and takes about 30 minutes. Yesterday was different. It took us 4 hours!! yes-- 4 hours to get home. Water crept up onto I-45 yesterday at Spring Stuebner and some cars were flooded or flipped in the roadside. No one could use the feeder roads in that area-- and 3 of the 4 lanes were underwater. Eli and I sat in traffic waiting to get home and by 9:35pm last night we made it thru the half of a lane that the cops had everyone trailing thru. Imagine a major interstate full cars, trucks, and 18 wheelers.... there we were! Eli slept most of the time.. but woke up ticked off, HUNGRY, and screaming to get out of the car seat for about an hour and 10 minutes. It felt like the Hurricane Traffic from a couple years ago all over again!

I don't have any pics... Chelette asked me about it. But it would have made for one great blog post pic! In the daylight you would see cars for miles behind and in front of you...in the dark, it was red tail lights and white headlights. In the long hours of waiting, I spent some time catching up with some pals via the phone and texting. Chelette and her mom sent me some funny jokes via texts (thank you!) to kill time.

I wanted to take Eli out of the car seat but we would inch up every so often... if you didn't, people cut you off and took your spot... man was my temper roaring at that! I missed my "inch moment" once because I was talking to the trucker who was behind me... he came to my car to talk about blocking the service lane where people were flying up to cut ahead of everyone... so in the 1 minute, I missed my one car length inch up and 3 (YES 3) cars cut me off! Oh was I ticked! So for safety reasons, I kept him in the car seat strapped in... plus knowing my luck, I'd get a ticket! (even though we were not really moving!) I sat in front of the woodlands mall on 45 for at least 2 hours.... ugh!!

Well we are safe! We were home at 9:40-- our exit was one up from the water... Eli and I were tired and hungry. Daddy made me a special dinner (yummy to my tummy) and had Eli's waiting on the table as well. Eli barely ate and went to bed-- too adventure much for him! I followed soon after.

On my way to school this morning I heard about the man who was missing (but found this morning at 9am). His SUV was swept away in a drainage tunnel at the Beltway and I-10. A bystander tried holding onto the back of his bumper to hold his car back but it was swept away. The news said they saw skid marks on the roof of the culvert... I believe someone said the drainage pipe was 300ft long... I am thankful it wasn't us..... sitting on the road in one piece wasn't so bad after all. I sure feel sorry for the man and I can only imagine his last moments in the car being swept away in a big tunnel.

What a day... what an adventure for Eli! Thank you to those who kept me busy and chatted with me on the phone or were texting. We are safe and sound.