Our usual 9 hour trip only took 11 on the trip home today. We did have to go around Lufkin and Livingston, which had dead stop traffic, but overall we sailed down.

We got gas in Oklahoma, which was a good thing, because all the gas from the border to Porter was either gone or had 40 cars in each direction waiting for gas.

Here at home we had turned off the a/c, so we unloaded the car, turned on the a/c, and went out to dinner. Apparently some people here still don’t have power because there were folks who had no a/c that they could turn on in the restaurant.

Lots of Polk County was without electricity. (Two counties north.) And, I’ve been told, Liberty County is out too. (One county to the east.) So we were very blessed to only be without two days. And thankfully we weren’t here.

We are glad to be home.

You can tell folks were home this weekend, because most yards have seven to ten trashbags full of debris already on the driveway waiting for the garbage man tomorrow.

We’ve had one day of mail since Wed. I don’t know what day it was, but I’m guessing it was today.

We saw lots of downed trees, but the highway folks had gotten out and cut them off the roads by the time we came through. The tree cutting trucks were out in force.

One highway we came down had a tree down on the wires for every three telephone poles. I’m surprised they didn’t make the whole thing collapse.

I’m glad Rita wasn’t a Cat 5 when she hit and, though it seems wrong, I’m glad she didn’t hit Houston-Galveston full strength. We got no rain here, but enough wind to take out some trees. In our yard it was only a large pine branch.