Jim, I am trying to get a tide and current map for the Tampa to Galveston run. I think if you bolt enough empty Brinks panel cans together (I haven't figured out how many just yet) and fill them with something like Great Stuff (tm) foam
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you'll have a barge that you may make it to Galveston in. Hopefully in time to take I-45 to Dallas to make it before the 26th. Find enough old Brinks yard signs to stick on the cans and you can use them all for little sails. If time gets tight you can stop off at NASA in Houston, a little up the road from Galveston just off I-45. Ask one of the female astronauts for a spare adult diaper or two. Convince her a cheating boyfriend is in Dallas and you'll get there with her in no time I bet. Tell her to drop you off at the church parking lot for the homeless and you'll be ready for your court date, having done it with a minimum of expense. When in court don't forget to tell Brinks that you brought their panels back to Texas for them, but ask the judge to make sure Brinks pay the mooring fees for the Brinks barge. Hopefully all the thieving alarm dealers in Texas won't have descended on the barge and stripped in to the bone, like the fish in Hemingway's 'Old Man and the Sea'.