As lucky as the Gulf Coast might appear compared to what Katrina did three years ago, it was still bad.

As for me I’ve just had enough of the rain. But I came closer than I ever would want to a real live hurricane. I went to Jackson on Thursday for a reception for sister Carolyn’s (Shanks) new job with Entergy.

I was also looking forward to being wined and dined by them while visiting on Friday and then an easy drive on to Baton Rouge on Saturday morning.

The call from the SEC came just after noon Friday telling me the game’s been moved up from 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. Then I found out there were no rooms to be had from the coast through Jackson.

I sent a text to my Louisiana State Trooper friend asking about getting down there and when the “contra-flow” or all lanes headed out would start. I got a reply about an hour later simply saying, “come on, you’ll be fine. busy.”

I found out later he had moved up from third in line to the commander or Colonel of the State.

I was loading up my bag at sister’s house when she called from the Entergy War Room to tell me to use one of their reservations in Baton Rouge that was held for their New Orleans people.

They had to hold a lot of rooms in Baton Rouge but most would not be used until Saturday. So I made sure I was full of gas (my vehicle) and headed out listening to a Yankees’ game on XM. Traffic wasn’t too bad going south (duh!) but already looked pretty heavy on the northbound side.

We did most of the pre-game meeting that night until we quit at 11 and went to get some sleep. We had to finish the meeting at 6 a.m. and then leave the hotel at 7:45 a.m..

It was the earliest-ever game played at Tiger Stadium and probably the worst I have ever been in. Most of the seats were filled at the beginning but around the middle of the second quarter I noticed it had thinned out a lot after it was evident LSU had it in the bag.

After halftime, the place was real empty. Those people down there live for those night games and it just wasn’t much fun plowing under Appalachian State. Besides, with Gustav headed in, most weren’t thinking of football.

My only worry was getting out of town ASAP because I’d rather be in a hurricane than to have to sit still in traffic. That’s the main reason I always have a four-wheel drive vehicle – so I can make a bat-turn across the median.

Since it will be the same crew in Nashville on Thursday night, I told them to let me know what goes on in the post-game meeting because I was out of there. It really wasn’t too bad until I got back to the I-55 interchange and saw the northbound traffic at a standstill as far as I could see.

I went on east about halfway to Slidell and then headed north on two-lane highways. I finally got to I-55 at Brookhaven and even then the flow was around 60 miles per hour all the way through Jackson. I found out Sunday night that all but one of our crew who had flights out of either Baton Rouge or New Orleans ended up having to drive their rental cars home.

But I made it okay and once again I am so very thankful for living up here in the hills of beautiful up-state Mississippi. We’ll talk about tomorrow’s (as I write this) trip to Nashville for an ESPN Thursday Night game at the Coliseum.

At least there are no hurricanes up there – I checked.