Hurricane Update

So far, Mother Nature has been on our side. It looks like Hurricane Gustav is not going to be a serious threat for Pensacola. It rained for about 20 minutes today and there's been increased winds, but otherwise you'd never know there's anything going on in our neck of the woods. The predictions for tomorrow are lots of rain and wind, but we are only on the very outer fringes of the storm. The CNN map below labels Pensacola (underneath the inset), so you can see the brunt of the storm is farther west.


Now, the problem comes in in that NavyGuy and I are leaving for San Diego on Wednesday. He has to be there by Sunday for his survival training, and we had originally planned to simply take I-10 West until we hit ocean; unfortunately, Gustav is throwing a kink into the works, and we are in a holding pattern as to how far north we will have to go before turning left, in order to avoid the storm (and fleeing Louisianans). I had previously had visions of NavyGuy and I singing car songs, stopping at crazy roadside restaurants named after local heros (perhaps, Big Al's Pancake Barn?), and generally taking a leisurely stroll across the Southern United States; the new picture in my head involves flooded roads, insane gas prices, bribing bellhops for hotel rooms, and ending up on a news report for fighting with crowds of hurricane refugees for gallons of water. Hopefully, the trip will end up more like the former; if it ends up like the latter - don't you dare claim not to know me when you see me on the nightly news...