Gustav, again

Well, Change of plans again.

We had three choices here in New Orleans.

1)Ride out the storm at the 100 year old hotel in the heart of downtown where we were staying. The walls are 3 feet thick, the hotel is elevated on a raised lot, and it has it's on generator, all of which allowed it to remain open during Katrina.

2)Head to our alternate rooms in Lake Charles, LA or our secondary alternates in Houston.

3)Drive 11 hours back to Louisville, pick up additional personnel and supplies and return next Wednesday.

The hotel told me on check in today that they were shutting down on Sunday, staying open last time was a mistake, seems tourist decided to stay, but were not prepared mentally to be stranded for an extended period of time. That's OK, we had pretty much ruled out staying.

Lake Charles, now sits in the expected path of the storm and Houston, normally a 6 hour drive is estimated at taking 13 hours to reach due to evacuation traffic.

So, my collegue and I will be headed north, hopefully around 3 pm on Saturday, for what mapquest says is a 707 mile, 11 hr drive. Well, that doesn't factor in that we still have to deal with the exodus traffic leaving New Orleans. So, who knows when we'll get home.

Enough of my adventures, I'm getting ready to go jump on the treadmill and burn off a couple of miles. Gotta keep running, but definitely looks like no long run this weekend. Maybe Monday. Also looks like I want be running the Utica 5K, or making my kids' soccer games. Of course some of that will depend on what tropical storm Hanna does. She's making folks nervous since she changed course earlier today.

Maybe I'll post again on Monday. Have a good weekend.

James