Austin to Round Top to Houston

Saturday, April 26  Day Five

Up and out of the Lucky Too, and none too soon!  We are headed to a town called Round Top, a small, lovely art community where John's sister Susan has had two quilts on display at the Copper Shade Tree Gallery.  It saves her a trip, and we are happy to see this part of the country, off the freeways.  It reminded me of Waterford, Va. where we spent many a wonderful day.

These are some of the outer historical buildings in the town.  I didn't have time to do it justice.

This is a beautiful rural area and we get our first glimpse of the famous Texas Longhorns!

And here are Susan's quilts!

Mother and Child

Nest

Susan has had several juried quilt pieces and is developing a style of her own.  She has a Bernina sewing machine, which is computerized, and way beyond anything I could imagine in terms of stitches, memory, capability.  She has a room in her house set up as a quilt room where she works on several projects at a time.  

John and I were still looking for some Texas BBQ, but Round Top's favorite restaurant, Royers, as our luck has been running, was full, and there was a wait list.  There was a sign saying, "if you're in a hurry, go to Houston."  It is famous for its pies, but little good it did us, as we trudged on down the road, and ended up making lunch in the camper at a gas station.

We arrive in Houston at Susan's.  Thank heaven for Google maps,  because we wouldn't have found Susan's house so easily.  Time to decompress a little.  We have plans to go to Susan and Jack Byrne's son's house for dinner.   Our nephew Michael and Divya got married last year in March, and spent their honeymoon coming to Chris's wedding at Semiahmoo.  They bought a house one week after they were married, which we are anxious to see,  and they made a special Mexican dinner for tonight.

As the afternoon wore on, the clouds started gathering, and by five o'clock the skies opened up.  Rain came down in torrents, and thunder and lightening was so loud, it hurt your eyes and ears!  We watched out the window as the water came pouring off the roof, and the water in the pool started to rise.

No, my hand wasn't shaking - that's how it looked!

Susan donned this "grim reaper" outfit and went out to turn on the pump to lower the water level in the pool.

We were all happy to watch her from the dryness of the living room!

The fake cobra they have in the hot tub area (to ward off birds) was jumping and leaping around in the water like it had just swallowed something a little too large.

And Jack Byrne pulled up the NOAA weather site to indicate the water levels in the Braeswood Bayou about six blocks from their house.  Note that this is at five pm.  In the meantime, Michael is checking weather sites on his computer and keeping us informed of the weather patterns.  It keeps showing heavier rain patterns going right over us. Jack is looking at the same thing.

After several telephone calls, we decide to take a chance on getting to their house. This is what the street already looked like as we pulled away! What are we thinking?

Are we really thinking we can get through?  Cars are stalling out in front of us.  Idiots are driving fast going in the other direction, throwing rooster tails of water our way and creating waves.   A guy is out in the middle of the street, up past his knees in water,  telling us to go back.

After turning down numerous streets, each one worse than the last, and seeing way too many cars abandoned, and sitting on "high ground" on median strips or in people front yards, we make our way back to the house.  

Still, we are unwilling to just give up.  Jack and Susan keep going to the front door to see if the water was going down.  Unfortunately, it wasn't.  A check of NOAA once again...

The water level had gone from 22.78 feet at 5 pm to 36.15 feet at 5:45 pm!

At long last, we threw in the towel, so to speak, and called Michael to tell him we just weren't going to chance it.  Susan put together some wonderful flat bread sandwiches and we ate a late dinner before going to bed, still hearing thunder and seeing flashes of lightening!

Our anticipation of a relaxed, peaceful evening with family on our first night in Houston had turned into quite an adventure!

(Later reports indicated that we had gotten about 8 inches of rain in our area.  The airport received

 1/4 "!)