Observations

Austin is the first area we have seen on the trip that was not physically or socially impacted by hurricane Katrina in August 2005 or the more recent one Ike. The massive physical destruction we saw in New Orleans and the other parts of Louisiana was staggering and after nearly 3 and one-half years much of the damage remains very visible making it hard to imagine the conditions left at the time. In Texas, especially Houston, the social impact is obvious as more than 200,000 people left Louisiana with most coming west. These displaced people left behind very poor living conditions and were in no position to upgrade when they reached their safer new destination. The locals in New Orleans voiced no criticism of how the federal government handled Katrina, but they remain very vocal in their criticism of their state and local handling of preparation for the storm.
Today we will start heading south and then west and parts do not look overly scenic but we anticipate being exposed to very different lifestyles than we are accustomed to in California.
The hospitality given to us by Bob Plate will be hard to replicate and unfortunately (for us at least) we were not able to see Sarice as she had to head to the Bay Area for meetings this week. But we appreciate the time we were able to spend here getting a taste of true Texas living.