AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 10, 2006 — Drove my dad to Katy today and installed us in a Comfort Inn for a couple of days of family visiting.

When I worked, my home office was in west Houston. I drove the following route uncountably many times: 45th Street to Airport; Airport to 183; 183 to 71; 71 to I10 and on to my office. I passed Katy on the outskirts of Houston every time. I'd visited my cousin there a couple of times, too. Mostly I just passed by, thinking that they lived quite close to the freeway.

I guess I hadn't made this trip in three years or more.

I drove because my dad said I 'knew the route.' He said he'd never driven between Austin and Houston. Just never had done it. He was at Bastrop during the war. He'd driven Houston to San Antonio and other places I think.

The route was so familiar. And yet there were some changes. The pecan stand has installed an electronic sign that soars scores of feet into the air. It blinked out ads for Pecans variously covered with chocolate, white and dark and other substances and for other treats like chocoloate covered strawberries. In the gray drizzle that followed along with us (when it wasn't actually raining) it seemed to be suspended in the sky with no visible means of support.

I pulled off at Weigel's for some coffee and some sausage rolls. I know the odd little pull off and pull on like the back of my hand. I know the way one uses the McDonald's sign as a landmark even though one never goes to the McD. I call the place the Bon Temp Texaco even though it's no longer the Bon Temp or a Texaco. Inside they'd moved things around. I had to ask where the coffee was and multiples of rolls are now prepackaged.

I was glad to stop short of going into Houston but amazed at the highway construction and the sprawl of Katy.

For some reason I have seen my share of rain storms, and bad ones, too, on this road but today was manageable. My relatives coming from Dallas weren't so lucky and their trip drug on for at least an extra hour and a half as they battled poor visibility. But they made it.