I had a bird's eye view of Houston traffic twice today, flying into IAH and back out again this afternoon. In a word, brutal, jams everywhere, but I also felt good about it. Getting out of harms way must be done. A guy sitting behind me on the plane going to Houston was flying down to drive his parents out. ...good son!

I didn't expect a few things that I encountered at the airport. My connecting flight had a scheduled hour and a half layover right at the noon hour, so I figured lunch would be easy. It didn't occur to me that the people who work at the airport restaurants would be evacuating just like everyone else in the area. All of the restaurants were closed. There were a couple popcorn stands on the concourse that were open. ....stood in line for 40 minutes for a box of popcorn and a soda (the drink cooler was about 80% empty by the time I got to the front of the line) and was happy to get that for lunch. My outbound plane had a pilot, co-pilot and one flight attendant when the plane was scheduled to leave. FAA rules require a minimum of three flight attendants on a 737-300. A hour after the scheduled departure, they had two attendants. I'd still be there, but the FAA relaxed the requirements to allow us to fly with just two attendants because of the impending hurricane. Continental had already canceled a number of flights and had quite a few planes parked for the duration on the tarmac.

I made it to Columbus, have a case of popcorn gas, but things could be much worse. I could be worrying about a home in Texas. Be safe everyone there!

...scheduled to fly back through Houston Monday. We'll see.

Bob