The morning of August 27, 2005 I was awakened by a semi-panicked mother. I had no idea what was happening since I hadn\'t watched the news that entire week. She explained to me what was going on and told me we\'d be leaving as soon as my Dad was home from work. I then started the packing process. We left later that afternoon with our travel trailer and headed for Ville Platte, LA, about 5 hours away. There we stayed in the campground at Chicot State Park along with my neighbors and other friends from home. It was my mother, father, brother, grandmother, and myself staying in a 21 ft. camper with no slide outs. I had to share a bed a little larger than a twin with my grandmother; therefore I didn\'t really sleep that well at night. \r\n\r\n\r\n On a whole, the evacuation wasn\'t all that bad. I was in a beautiful place full of wildlife and nature trails. We had about six raccoons that we fed which came to us every night. I also adopted a stray cat for the 2 ½ weeks we were there. Almost every morning and afternoon we would see wild turkeys, deer, rabbits, raccoons, and squirrels eating out of the animal feeders near the playground. The lake, Lake Chicot, was also a wonderful place. It was very relaxing to sit out there amidst the cypress trees, especially around sunrise and sunset. There wasn\'t much in this town but it had everything we needed. There was a Wal-Mart for groceries and any other necessities, as well as a Win Dixie, a few fast food places, one family restaurant, and a place to do laundry. There was only one hotel, which was very helpful. They let us use their lobby everyday where we would watch the news and use the wireless internet. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n We returned back home in the middle of September, and honestly I wasn\'t looking forward to returning. I considered the evacuation as an extended camping trip, and wasn\'t ready to return home where nothing would be open. We were very fortunate. Our fence had blown down and we had quite a few shingles missing from the roof, but that was the extent of our damage. If only some of my family had been so lucky. My godmother and her family lived in Venice, LA and had about 40 ft. of water over their house. My grandparents lived in Lafitte, LA and went through Katrina perfectly fine, but then Rita came by and put about 4 ft. of water into their house. My family now knows to never underestimate hurricanes. \r\n