Yikes, its Ike!

Need I say more . . . take a look at Ike . . .

I guess we should expect hurricanes in NOLA, but the thought of evacuating again is a bit depressing. I've already heard many NOLA residents on the news saying that they aren't going to evacuate again . . . which could spell big trouble for the city. The path could still shift around a lot . . . so lets hope and pray for the best!

Matt, Frankie and I returned last night from NC . . . about a 12 hr drive. The traffic was good until we reached NOLA. Frankie was bad until we drugged her again. At least we're getting practice with evacuating.

Not much damage here . . . lots of fallen limbs and debris, broken fences, and trash on the sides of the roads. No flooding, and we had power when we got home last night. Food is a different story . . . Matt had to go to 3 places before he found food for dinner. The only thing available at the place he went was "the box" . . . four pieces of (fried) chicken, french fries and a piece of butter soaked bread. Very healthy for sure! Oh well, at least we got to eat.

Pictures from the evacuation to my parents . . .

Frankie sitting on Matt's suitcase . . . ready to go back to NOLA I guess . . .

Matt had fun in Gastonia. He and my dad went to the shooting range on Monday, and then Matt returned the next day by himself . . . shoot em' up Matt (Notice his very daper 'shooting' attire . . . he was the only one dressed in Polo)

Here, Matt is showing that he can take out your bladder with his gun as well as with a scapel in OR!

In my parents' dining room . . .

Frankie loved my parents' screened-in porch . . . here she is rolling around on the porch

Frankie is trying to take a bath and her mother won't stop taking pictures of her . . .

Frankie is now sitting on Matt's clean clothes, which Matt was really happy about . . .

Matt, tell us how you really feel about driving 12 hrs back to NOLA . . .

Frankie was happy about it too . . .

Didn't Matt want to get in the picture with the back of my hair?

Family happiness in the car . . .

the Industrial Canal . . .

Frankie is so glad to be home . . . she sits with her paws crossed all the time . . .

Is she trying to wake me up?

the evacuation vacation

Yes, it appears Gustav did actually have the audacity to run itself into Louisiana! Matt and I evacuated to my parents' house in NC. We left Saturday afternoon around 3pm when Gustav upgraded itself to a Cat 4 with a predicted path to NOLA. We drugged poor miss Frankie with some benadryl and threw her in the car; she actually did very well in the car (although, sleep she did not!). We went through some painful traffic on I-10 east - we left before the contraflow started. Once we picked up I-65N in Mobile, Al, the traffic drastically improved . . . although, all the bad drivers from LA seemed to be following us. We arrived at 4:45 am on Sunday morning (and we were exhausted). We will wait out the storm here and see what happens . . . the earliest we would return to NOLA is on Wednesday . . . but maybe not until the weekend . . . keep us in your prayers!