"Contra-...what?" "ContraFLOW"

Exciting times in Louisiana.

There are blessings to be found (really there are) in the midst of preparing for a potential hurricane. No, it's not the salamander (or maybe it’s a gecko?) that greeted Rebecca while doing laundry this morning (true story, see photo of his/her release below).

It's a new word I learned today: "contraflow" (when lanes of traffic are converted into the opposite direction--in our case to northbound traffic only--to aid in evacuation). Now, if one lane of traffic is still left open to continue traveling southbound, then it’s not *true* contraflow…*all* lanes of traffic have to be heading the same direction. Whew, I’m glad I was able to share this vital information.

The last 2 days have felt a little like the few days leading up to Christmas--people are excited/stressed, doing lot's of shopping, and there's lot's of traffic on the roads. Except in our current situation, instead of rushing to buy iPods, DVD's, and flat screen TV’s, folks are rushing Wal-Mart to buy bottled water and food, Lowe’s to buy generators and window unit A/C, and gas stations to top off the tank (most gas stations here are pretty much sold out).

It's a little surreal at times, for instance while driving home with the kids last night from Wal-Mart, as we drove south, the northbound lanes of our local highway were jammed with campers/trucks/cars heading north (evacuees from the south).

It reminds me of fond memories of the ice storm that Rebecca and I drove *through and to* when we were newlyweds shortly after moving to the D.C. area. Even though there were news reports of "a terrible ice storm...don't travel if you don't have to...", I was naive and thought, "Come on, what's a little ice storm to a guy that grew up in Utah snow storms." Well, we soon found out the answer to that question. It took us hours and hours to drive to Williamsburg--bumper to bumper traffic, moving at 0-5 mph at times, and weaving around multiple downed trees in the pitch-dark highway. It was surreal. We eventually arrived at Williamsburg Christmas Eve night to find that *all* electricity in the town was out. So we kept driving to neighboring cities until we found room in the inn. There’s nothing quite as memorable as spending Christmas Eve in a small hotel, the two of us watching Adam Sandler on the TV sing his Chanukah song. It was actually a fun adventure, one that I will always have fond memories of. I hope this hurricane will also prove to be “an adventure” that we can some day look back on and smile.