The latest road show from Mischa and Cat

Hello! Once again, I'm broadcasting from the good ol' CST on the outskirts of Little Rock, AK.

Dragon*Con was bittersweet for me this year. I missed last year's convention, so I had been jonesing for exposure to thousands of members of my gaming/scifi/geekdom subculture. Katrina's effect on home was never far from my thoughts, though. Most notably, a Star Wars costuming organization collected thousands of dollars for the Red Cross- see photo. (More photos will be forthcoming.) These guys were awesome. I hung out with them with a sign reading "New
Orleans thanks you" to help. The support and well-wishes were much needed and very uplifting.



We spent Monday night with the amazing Rob and Monica in Murfreesboro, TN. (The Wikipedia tells me that the city gets its name from Hardy Murfree, a Revolutionary War colonel.) Between laundry, dinner, and Cranium, seeing Rob again was a great morale boost for me, fresh on the heels of Dragon*Con. They were very kind to donate a small cooler and a duffle bag to the cause, so we now have our perishable food out of Wal-Mart bags, plus room to hold the few extra clothes we purchased
at an outlet mall.

We drove alongside a convoy of Pennsylvania's Army National Guard for part of this leg of the journey. I'd guess we passed something like 30ish vehicles. It was hard to see what they had specifically, but many of the Humvees and deuce-and-a-halfs were towing generators. We saw one camouflaged tanker, warning us not to smoke withing fifty feet, so they were bringing fuel, too. Some of the vehicles had graffiti: "New Orleans or bust!" "Katrina, PA is coming!"

En route to Austin, we detoured around Memphis to drive to the casino-ridden town-slash-resort-destination of Tunica, Mississippi. We had lunch and some tears with my grandparents, who are alive and well, albeit shook up and holding together. Their home is in Lakeview, and their neighborhood got some 12-20 feet of water. The dogs are safely
boarded at a nearby (relatively speaking) kennel. I also used the power of the Interweb to help them get some phone numbers they needed.

Here in Little Rock, we were turned away by one hotel, full of evacuees. The hotel lobby was packed, and the counter was full of flyers from locals, advertising food, housing, supplies, and so forth. Many of the stories on NOLA.COM describe private businesses and individuals stepping up to donate what they can to help. The list of foreign countries offering aid is also a little stunning, but I don't want to talk about the politics surrounding the disaster or the relief efforts at this point in time. Maybe once I start a blog. [Ed. note: Will this prophecy come true?]

Tomorrow we have ten more hours to drive before we get to Austin.