The Ongoing Autobiography of Frank Carrera (fcarrera3) wrote, @ 2006-09-25 07:57:00

The difference a year can make...
A year ago to this day, we were serving breakfast at my cousin Chris' house for about 40 Hurricane Rita refugees.

We were recovering from a 24 hour drive. Normally, it takes about 5 hours to drive from Houston to Dallas. But when you have over 3 million people trying leave at the same time, traffic can get a little backed up...

The day we left, I had to work. That morning we got the call to board up the store, get things secured and to go home. We spent the rest of the day getting my house secured. We packed up everything we felt was most important to us, boarded up the windows with what little lumber I was able to round up and got ready for the drive of a lifetime.

We decided to leave around midnight, thinking traffic would be a little less hectic (WRONG), but just as we were ready to leave, my mom got a call that my uncle ran into some problems.

He tried to make the drive to Dallas on his own, but panicked after being stuck in traffic for 4 hours. He just couldn't take it, turned around, and went home. His home was directly in the path of where Hurricane Rita was predicted to make landfall. Traffic was so bad, he'd rather weather a Category 3 hurricane then drive in that shit!

Mom was upset.
''Mijo, can he come with us?''

''Mom, we don't have much room.''

''He's my brother, Mijo. We can't just leave him there. Can we make room for him? Maybe your brother can drive his car there?''

''Let me talk to Nando...''

Fernando and I discussed it. He was frustrated though. He was ready to leave and felt we needed to leave NOW. The longer we waited, the longer we would be stuck in that traffic. News reports showed it getting worse and worse.

''I know, man. But he's our uncle...''

''Fuck...I know.''

''Mom won't be right the whole way up there if we leave him behind.''

''Yeah. Look, we ain't driving all the way over there. He's going to have to meet us or something. We wait an hour, after that, we gotta go,man.''

It took about 2 hours, but we waited anyways.

The next 24 hours were the longest 24 hours of my life.

By 6am, we'd barely made it across town.

I can't explain how many people were on the freeway at the same time. Going NOWHERE. There was one point when we were behind this guy in a little Nissan pickup truck. This guy was driving by himself and to save gas, he was PUSHING his truck up the freeway!

The crazy thing is, HE KEPT UP WITH TRAFFIC!

He stood outside the driver side, puffing on a cigarette. As the car in front of him inched forward, he gave his little truck a push. He must have done this for about 3 hours. It had to be the craziest thing I'd ever seen.

After stopping for gas (which was becoming scarce), Freddy decided to take the lead and try hitting some back roads. With my other brother Arthur in the middle and me bringing up the rear of our 3 vehicle caravan, we bulldogged our way through traffic.

Anytime we had to cut someone off to jump into a lane, I'd let them creep ahead a little. Then, I'd cut a car off (usually pissing them off) and would just wait there, letting the cars in front of me creep ahead. When there was enough room, Nando and Arthur would cut into the lane. We did this a million times, pissing off all kinds of people.

3 millon vehicles out on the roads and we never lost each other...

It was tough making phone calls, because most calls wouldn't go through, but text messages did.

So we'd text each other, to make sure no one was falling asleep.

I also text messaged a few coworkers who were also braving the highway, trying to make it to Dallas. Not all of them made it, either. We lost a few here and there all along I-45. They either ran out of funds, or couldn't find anyplace with gas. I wished them luck and kept moving.

Around 4pm that evening, we finally found a town with some food in it. Imagine, stopping off somewhere and there not being ANY food in the store. Or pulling up to a fastfood restaurant, only to find a sign that says "OUT OF FOOD".

Insane.

We found a Sonic that was still open and ate like we'd been on the road for 16 hours. We looked at the map before getting on the road and Dallas just looked so far away. I could see the worry in Arthur's face. He would later tell me, "Frank, I never would have made it if I hadn't been with ya'll. When I saw that map and saw how far Dallas was, I was scared, man. I was ready to give up, but you guys wouldn't. You guys knew we were going to make it and I had no choice but to stay with ya'll."

Those words always stuck with me.

I knew we still had a long way to go, but never doubted if we would make it or not. As crazy as it was and as tough as it was mentally, it was probably one of the proudest moments of my life.

4 brothers, sticking together, getting their families out of harms way.

When we finally arrived to my cousin Chris' house a little after 2am (just over 24 hours after we'd left), all we could do was hug each other.

We'd made it.

Exhausted, a little stinky, but we'd made it.

Ashley and Frankie had left with their mom to Laredo and made it as well. Everyone was safe.

Some of my other cousins were already there and a few more showed up the next day. In all, there was about 40 people staying at Chris'.

And we had a blast.

We made breakfast for all the kids, drank beer in Chris' garage and had the 1st ever Hurricane Rita All-Madden Tournament.

Somehow, we ended up with 4 Playstations at Chris' house. Everyone left something behind, but we'd be DAMNED if we were leaving the Playstation behind! We made a bracket sheet as well as a loser's bracket. We drew names to start the tournament off and everyone played throughout the day.

Freddy took home the gold, beating Nando.

Laura's birthday is today (9/25/06), we spent her 25th birthday at Chris'. It was a makeshift little party, but we were together.

This year, I am so glad we are in the new house. So she can have the party she really wanted and so richly deserves.

Happy birthday, babe.

I love you.