Tracy's TR-Pretrip Part 4 Katrina changes our plans, but everyone is safe Updated 9/3 About This Page:

[Belle of Ohio]

This part of the trip report was supposed to describe my plans for our trip to Mississippi to visit my SIL, Kym and family. While Kym is in the northern part of Mississippi and was not hit as badly as others, we still had to postpone that part of our trip. Kym works in a hospital and she will be on call for the foreseable future. She still does not have power at her house, but all our family members are fine and safe. After much discussion we decided to postpone that part of our trip and go and visit them in the spring.
I have to decide whether to leave Ohio a day later and just keep our other plans or to leave the same time as planned and plan an extra day in Florida. We are going to have to plan a different driving route and plan for a hotel on the way down. Right now, my heart is not into it and I do not have much time as we leave in 9 days. I am sure I will get it done, but I feel so guilty planning fun when so many people are suffering.
To all those affected by Hurricane Katrina

[SharonK0527]

Tracy, I'm glad to hear that all of your family is safe after the destruction of Katrina.

to everyone affected by the hurricane.

[Belle of Ohio]

Travel Party:
Me (Tracy)
Jack (DH)

Resort: Radisson Parkway Resort
Date: 9/11

Resort: POR
Dates: 9/12 through 9/16


It has taken me a few days to get over the fact that we are not going to see Kym (SIL) and family in Mississippi. As I stated before they are in the northern part of Mississippi and were spared the worst of Hurricane Katrina and her aftermath. They have electricity and their homes are all fine. I am sad that we won’t be seeing them until the Spring, but it really is for the best.
Jack kept telling me that we had to adjust our plans, but I really wasn’t into it at the time. I debated whether or not we should even go to Disney. Everyone we talked to said we should go. We have already paid for it, and Jack hasn’t had a decent vacation in a couple of years, so we decide to go. I read other threads where people were debating whether or not to go and it seemed like most people were keeping their plans.
I spent all day Thursday thinking about fuel shortages and thinking about flying, but in the end decided to keep our plans to drive. Jack called a few co workers along the route and asked them about their gas situations. They all seem in pretty good shape and they said to call them if we ran into trouble. He knows someone in every single state we are traveling and those people could get us help if needed, so that does make me feel better.
I finally spent last night redoing our maps, since we will be going from Ohio straight to Florida now. We will be leaving on Saturday and will need to stay somewhere along the way. I decide to book a Holiday Inn Express in Statesville, NC. We will be leaving after a cross country meet in Wooster, Ohio. Statesville is about 7-8 hours away and we thought that would be about what we would want to drive. We will have about a 10 hour drive on Sunday. We needed to book somewhere to stay that night, and I remembered seeing a deal on AllEars.net. I go to the website and see I can book the Radisson Parkway Resort for $69. Sounds good to me and I go ahead and book it. We will now be able to check into POR on Monday much earlier than originally planned. We may add a day to our MYW tickets and spend an extra day at the parks. As of right now I am not even sure you can do that, but it is something we will look into.
Thanks for reading my ramble so far. I am a planner and don’t like change very much. Having to change our plans a week before we leave has been “out of my comfort zone”, but I think it will all work out. I am starting to look forward to our trip. We leave Saturday and I still have a ton of things to do!

[luvnwdwgal]

I'm so glad your family is OK! We have friends in Gulf Port and finally just heard from them 30 minutes ago. Their house completely flooded and they lost everything plus their cars floated away.

I hope you have a magical trip and look forward to reading all about it!

[Tara O'Hara]

Tracy thank goodness your family is okay! I hope you have a magical trip!

[DrDolphin]

I am glad to hear your family is ok -- and I hope you have a relaxing trip.

[Colexis Mom]

Have a great time Tracy

[ngaill]

Tracy, I am glad your Family is safe! I live about 45 minutes from Statesvill and I think that Holiday Inn is a good one and Statesville is a good stop lots of fast food resturnats and they just got a drive in Starbucks if you need it for the next day driving. It is country in Stateville but a good stop over. I hope you have a fun and relaxing time and if you stop in Winston Salem come get me and I will go to Disney w/ you guys!!!