Angelique and Tish / Roads of battles, paths of victory

Angelique and Tish, both of the social section, both recap their evacuation experiences. It's interesting, they both talk about getting back to town for Monday:

Angelique:

I finally got to Arlington last night after 20 hours on the road. I thought I was going to go insane. Luckily, we took a lot of sideroads which really helped things. It scares me to think how long the trip would have been otherwise. It was good to take the side roads as well, because the lines at the gas stations were much shorter. I never
expected the traffic to be so bad nor the gas to be so scarce. Now I dread the drive home. I hope they plan on making 45 all South come Sunday.

Tish:

I took Morgen Cuming up on her offer of housing in New Braunfels. I figured that New Braunfels would receive less of a rush than Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio. After spending way too much time Wednesday ensconced in songs of Dylan andPeter, Paul, and Mary with others at El Pueblito who will remain nameless, I headed back to my house and attempted to determine which items I could not live without. When all was done, I found my car filled with photo albums,my birth certificate, my care bear, a carved wooden panther from my grandparents' house, a weeks worth of underwear, a handful of New Yorkers,and my conversion certificate.

After waiting in line for an hour to get gas, I headed to I-10 and made it to the freeway around 6 pm. My plan was to get out of Houston proper and stop in Sealy for dinner. At 10:30 pm, I had not yet reached Katy. All in all, the travelers were pretty well behaved. I was surprised to find thatv ery few people were attempting to weave in and out of traffic. Around the fifth hour I realized that I was really in need of facilities and there was no exit in sight. I won't go into to details except to say that all rulesof formality and etiquette may be abandoned in times of crisis and howthankful I am that I'd somehow overlooked an empty Whataburger cup the last time I cleaned out my car. Around 12:30 am I reached Sealy only to find everything closed due to the en masse of people. I got back on the freeway and continued on. I took advantage of the gridlock by calling all of the friends whom Ihaven't had time to speak with since law school began.

Around 2 am I hit Columbus and the traffic started to ease up. For the first time since mytrip began I was able to travel above 10 miles an hour. Around 4 am I foundmyself in near delirium, but New Braunfels was just a few miles away. I called Morgen and she guided me through town as I was now to the point where I could no longer recognize street signs or landmarks. At one point sheasked me if I had crossed under 35 and it was only 10 minutes later that Irealized she was talking about I-35, the freeway that I accessed almostdaily during my twelve years in Austin.

I got in to New Braunfels just as Morgen's mother was getting up to go to work. Never in my life have I ever been so thankful for sleep or shelter. Although I planned to study during my days off I spent all of yesterday either sleeping or
eating. Today, Morgen and I decided we deserved somepampering and sought out a manicure and pedicure. My manicurist was niceenough to make me aware that I needed an eyebrow as well as an upper lipwax. Currently I'm at a coffee shop in New Braunfels and I still can'tforce myself to open a book. Tonight I may head to Austin to catch up withold friends. In the meantime, I've already started stressing about how Iwill get back home in time for class on Monday.